liberty

All of the services commonly thought to require the State—from the coining of money to police protection to the development of law in defense of the rights of person and property—can be and have been supplied far more efficiently and certainly more morally by private persons. The State is in no sense required by the nature of man; quite the contrary.

The recently ended twentieth century was characterized by a level of human rights violations unparalleled in all of human history. In his book Death by Government, Rudolph Rummel estimates some 170 million government-caused deaths in the twentieth century. The historical evidence appears to indicate that, rather than protecting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness of their citizens, governments must be considered the greatest threat to human security.

Try to imagine a system of labor imposed by force that is not a violation of liberty; a transfer of wealth imposed by force that is not a violation of property rights. If you cannot do so, then you must agree that the law cannot organize labor and industry without organizing injustice.

Here is the Golden Rule of sound citizenship, the first and greatest lesson in the study of politics: you get the same order of criminality from any State to which you give power to exercise it; and whatever power you give the State to do things for you carries with it the equivalent power to do things to you. A citizenry which has learned that one short lesson has but little more left to learn.

Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither liberty nor safety

Take note, ye honestly ambitious: we sing happily the praises of the righteous honest in our religious texts, but don't think we really believe that kind of "goodness" pays. The muses of the merry, happy "gooder" ones who rule us, George Washington, Abe Lincoln and Patrick Hamilton harmonize the tune we know speaks true truth. Liberty, freedom and independence are to be found by keeping the notes they grace us with -- the one, five and ten dollar bills -- close by the side. Disregard their song at your own pecuniary peril.

We hold these truths to be self evident, that all (people) are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life ,liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Liberty is not collective, it is personal. All liberty is individual liberty.

The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.

Fearful people are more dependent, more easily manipulated and controlled, more susceptible to deceptively simple, strong, tough measures and hard-line postures. ... They may accept and even welcome repression if it promises to relieve their insecurities.