Wisdom from the great thinkers of liberty throughout history
An exhaustive collection of the most powerful and inspiring quotes about liberty, government, economics, and individual rights from history's most influential thinkers.
A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money.
The W.C. Fields Quote Book, ed. Richard J. Anobile, p. 87, 1993
Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against.
Interview in Life Magazine, 1946
I am free of all prejudices. I hate everyone equally.
My Little Chickadee screenplay, 1940
Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer.
International House, 1933
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.
Fields for President, 1940
Never try to impress a woman, because if you do she'll expect you to keep up the standard for the rest of your life.
W.C. Fields: His Follies and Fortunes, 1949
Start every day off with a smile and get it over with.
Fields' Verbal & Visual Gems, 1968
A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
Everybody's Political What's What, p. 70, 1944
Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.
Man and Superman, 1903
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
Man and Superman: Maxims for Revolutionists, 1903
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
Groucho and Me, 1959
This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.
Weekly Articles, 1930
The difference between death and taxes is death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets.
Weekly Articles, 1932
Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.
Mark Twain's Notebook, ed. Albert Bigelow Paine, p. 279, 1935
It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.
Following the Equator, Vol. 1, p. 98, 1897
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
Attributed in various biographies, 1907
If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
Mark Twain's Notebook, 1894
Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
The Devil's Dictionary, p. 248, 1906
Patriotism, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name.
The Devil's Dictionary, p. 248, 1906
President, n. The leading figure in a small group of men of whom it is positively known that immense numbers of their countrymen did not want any of them for President.
The Devil's Dictionary, p. 265, 1906
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
A Little Book in C Major, p. 19, 1916
Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.
Baltimore Evening Sun, collected in A Carnival of Buncombe, p. 62, 1920/1956
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
In Defense of Women, p. 102, 1918
Of government, at least in democratic states, it may be said briefly that it is an agency engaged wholesale, and as a matter of solemn duty, in the performance of acts which all self-respecting individuals refrain from as a matter of common decency.
Prejudices: Fourth Series, p. 118, 1924
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.
The Divine Afflatus, 1917
The state—or, to make matters more concrete, the government—consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office.
Notes on Democracy, p. 121, 1926
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
House of Commons speech, 1945
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
Attributed, 1940s
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.
Perth, Scotland speech, 1948
Lady Astor: Sir, if you were my husband, I’d poison your tea. Churchill: Madam, if I were your husband, I’d drink it!
Exchange with Lady Astor, in Churchill: A Life by Martin Gilbert, p. 451, 1991
Churchill (allegedly, to a socialite): Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds? Socialite: My goodness, Mr. Churchill... I suppose... we would have to discuss terms...Churchill: Would you sleep with me for five pounds? Socialite: Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?! Churchill: Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we’re just haggling about the price.
Churchill: In His Own Words by Richard M. Langworth, p. 402, 2012
When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called "the People's Stick."
The Soul of Man Under Socialism, 1891
If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.
Paris Review interview, 1956
The United States was founded by the brightest people in the country — and we haven't seen them since.
The State of the Union, 1975
My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I'm right.
Pot-Shots, 1985
I may not be totally perfect, but parts of me are excellent.
Pot-Shots, 1985
The difference between being in a rut and in the groove is the depth.
Pot-Shots, 1985
By doing just a little every day, I can gradually let the task completely overwhelm me.
Pot-Shots, 1985
Please don't ask me what the score is. I'm not even sure what the game is.
Pot-Shots, 1985
To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.
Pot-Shots, 1985
I have abandoned my search for truth, and am now looking for a good fantasy.
Pot-Shots, 1985
The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
Speech in the Virginia Constitutional Convention, 1829
Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
Letter to W.T. Barry, 1822
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Letter to William S. Smith, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson Vol. 12, p. 356, 1787
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others?
First Inaugural Address, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson Vol. 3, p. 319, 1801
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Letter to Thomas Cooper, 1802
The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help.
Press Conference, Public Papers of the Presidents, p. 1044, 1986
Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
White House Conference on Small Business, 1986
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.
California Gubernatorial Inaugural Address, 1967
The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.
Thames TV interview, 1976
There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families.
Woman's Own magazine interview, 1987
Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.
The Spirit of Liberty speech, 1944
There is no such thing as an achieved liberty: like electricity, there can be no substantial storage and it must be generated as it is enjoyed, or the lights go out.
The Tempting of America, 1990
Socialism is the abolition of rational choice.
Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis, trans. J. Kahane, 1936
Government interference always means either violent action or the threat of such action.
Human Action, 1949
The worst evils which mankind has ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments.
Omnipotent Government, 1944
The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.
The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism, p. 76, 1988
The more the state "plans" the more difficult planning becomes for the individual.
The Road to Serfdom, 1944
Emergencies have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded.
Law, Legislation and Liberty, 1979
Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.
Tyranny of the Status Quo (with Rose D. Friedman), p. 115, 1984
History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom.
Capitalism and Freedom, p. 10, 1962
One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.
Interview with Richard Heffner, 1975
What is history but the story of how politicians have squandered the blood and treasure of the human race?
Barbarians Inside the Gates, 1999
The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.
Is Reality Optional?, 1993
Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.
The Fountainhead, p. 606, 1943
We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission.
The Nature of Government, The Virtue of Selfishness, p. 112, 1964
I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University.
Rumbles Left and Right, p. 140, 1963
Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.
The Conscience of a Conservative, p. 15, 1960
Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
Republican National Convention acceptance speech, 1964
Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
Parliament of Whores, p. 23, 1991
There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please.
Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut, p. 122, 1995
The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it.
Parliament of Whores, 1991
The State is that organization in society which attempts to maintain a monopoly of the use of force and violence in a given territorial area.
For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, p. 25, 1973
It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, but it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.
Making Economic Sense, p. 3, 1995
If "we are the government," then anything a government does to an individual is not only just and untyrannical but also "voluntary" on the part of the individual concerned.
Power and Market: Government and the Economy, p. 56, 1970
The great non sequitur committed by defenders of the State, is to leap from the necessity of society to the necessity of the State.
The Ethics of Liberty, 1982
The socialist society would have to forbid capitalist acts between consenting adults.
Anarchy, State, and Utopia, p. 163, 1974
A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.
No Treason. No. VI. The Constitution of No Authority, 1870
That no government, so called, can reasonably be trusted, or reasonably be supposed to have honest purposes in view, any longer than it depends wholly upon voluntary support.
No Treason, 1867
Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
The State, Journal des Débats, 1848
Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.
The Law, trans. Dean Russell, p. 6, 1850
When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.
Economic Sophisms, trans. Arthur Goddard, p. 144, 1964
The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.
Selected Essays on Political Economy, 1848
The State claims and exercises the monopoly of crime... It forbids private murder, but itself organizes murder on a colossal scale. It punishes private theft, but itself lays unscrupulous hands on anything it wants.
Our Enemy, the State, p. 59, 1935
Taking the State wherever found, striking into its history at any point, one sees no way to differentiate the activities of its founders, administrators and beneficiaries from those of a professional-criminal class.
Our Enemy, the State, p. 57, 1935
The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart.
The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956, trans. Thomas P. Whitney, p. 168, 1974
A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.
The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956, trans. Thomas P. Whitney, p. 313, 1974
It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.
You Are All Diseased (HBO special), 1999
There's a reason education sucks, and it's the same reason that it will never, ever, ever be fixed. Because the owners of this country don't want that.
Jammin' in New York (HBO special), 1992
The state is a group of people who have managed to acquire a virtual monopoly on the use of force. With its monopoly on force, the state can arrange things so that it, and those who control it, are enriched at the expense of the rest of the population.
Meltdown, p. 154, 2009
The state is a criminal organization... All states, not just the obviously totalitarian ones.
Against the State: An Anarcho-Capitalist Manifesto, 2014
The State is engaged in a perennial war on two fronts: against its own people and against other states.
The Rise and Fall of Society, p. 102, 1959
Surely there can be no doubt that if we would live according to the laws of nature and the dictates of reason, we should be naturally obedient to our parents, subjects to reason, and slaves to nobody.
The Politics of Obedience, trans. Harry Kurz, p. 53, 1975
Liberty is not granted by government, but recognized and protected by institutions emerging from the spontaneous order of the market.
A Primer on Modern Themes in Free Market Economics, 2009
Allodial property is the foundation of all genuine liberty. Without absolute ownership, we are merely tenants of the state.
Allodialism as Economic Policy, 2001
The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos.
Christian Theology of Public Policy, 2006
Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, Historical Essays and Studies, p. 504, 1887
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Attributed, 1770
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