“I see no other conceivable strategy for the achievement of liberty than political action. Religious or philosophical conversion of each man and woman is simply not going to work; that strategy ignores the problem of power, the fact that millions of people have a vested interest in statism and are not likely to give it up.... Education in liberty is of course vital, but it is not enough; action must also be taken to roll back the State.” PeopleMenGivingStatesEnoughFactsProblemActionPoliticalCoursesInterestReligiousLibertyMillionsTakenAchievementMen And WomenPhilosophicalStrategyConversionGoing To WorkVested InterestsPolitical Action Author:Murray Rothbard
“In fact, the libertarian would reason that the fact that human nature is a mixture of both good and evil provides its own particular argument in his favor. For if man is such a mixture, then the best societal framework is surely one in which evil is discouraged and the good encouraged. The libertarian maintains that the existence of the State apparatus provides a ready, swift channel for the exercise of evil, since the rulers of the State are thereby legitimated and can wield compulsion in ways that no one else is permitted to do.” IfsMenWayHumansStatesReasonFactsEvilExistenceHuman NatureParticularReadyExerciseArgumentLibertarianFavorsGood And EvilRulersMixturesDiscouragedFrameworkCompulsion Author:Murray Rothbard
“The modern welfare state, highly touted as soaking the rich to subsidize the poor, does no such thing. In fact, soaking the rich would have disastrous effects, not just for the rich but for the poor and middle classes themselves. For it is the rich who provide a proportionately greater amount of saving, investment capital, entrepreneurial foresight, and financing of technological innovation that has brought the Unites States to by far the highest standard of living - for the mass of the people - of any country in history.” PeopleDoeCountryStatesFactsPoorClassRichGreaterModernMiddleEffectsAmountHighestMassStandardsInnovationInvestmentSavingWelfareMiddle ClassTechnologicalEntrepreneurialForesightStandards Of LivingWelfare StateFinancingSoaking Author:Murray Rothbard
“The individual man, in introspecting the fact of his own consciousness, also discovers the primordial natural fact of his freedom: his freedom to choose, his freedom to use or not use his reason about any given subject. In short, the natural fact of his "free will." He also discovers the natural fact of his mind's command over his body and its actions: that is, of his natural ownership over his self.” MenMindSelfReasonFactsUseBodyActionIndividualGivenNaturalFreedomConsciousnessSubjectsCommandFree WillOwnershipFreedom To Choose Book:The Ethics of Liberty Source: The Ethics of Liberty
“It is particularly odd that economists who profess to be champions of a free-market economy, should go to such twists and turns to avoid facing the plain fact: that gold, that scarce and valuable market-produced metal, has always been, and will continue to be, by far the best money for human society.” ShouldHumansFactsTurnsEconomyEconomicsGoldValuableOddChampionMetalsEconomistTwistsFree MarketScarceHuman SocietyMarket EconomyBest MoneyTwists And Turns Author:Murray Rothbard
“[Professional politicians] don't mind if price controls cause shortages of health care. In fact, they welcome the prospect, because then they can impose rationing; they can impose priorities, and tell everyone how much of what kind of medical care they can have. And besides, ... there's that deeply satisfying rush of power.” IfsMindKindFactsCarePoliticalCausesPoliticianMedicalPrioritiesWelcomeHealth CareSatisfyingShortageMedical Care Author:Murray Rothbard
“Essentially, I mean the almost self-evident fact that individuals, ethnic groups, and races differ among themselves in intelligence and in many other traits, and that intelligence, as well as less controversial traits of temperament, are in large part hereditary.” WellsMeanSelfFactsIndividualRaceGroupsTraitsEvidentTemperamentControversialHereditaryEthnic Groups Author:Murray Rothbard
“Human life is not some sort of race or game in which each person should start from an identical mark. It is an attempt by each man to be as happy as possible. And each person could not begin from the same point, for the world has not just come into being; it is diverse and infinitely varied in its parts. The mere fact that one individual is necessarily born in a different place from someone else immediately insures that his inherited opportunity cannot be the same as his neighbor's.” MenWorldShouldHumansPersonsDifferentFactsLife IsOpportunityGamesIndividualBornRaceMarkMereEqualityNeighborHuman LifeDiverseIdenticalDifferent PlaceEgalitarianism Author:Murray Rothbard
“We must, therefore, emphasize that 'we' are not the government; the government is not 'us.' The government does not in any accurate sense 'represent' the majority of the people. But, even if it did, even if 70 percent of the people decided to murder the remaining 30 percent, this would still be murder and would not be voluntary suicide on the part of the slaughtered minority. No organicist metaphor, no irrelevant bromide that 'we are all part of one another,' must be permitted to obscure this basic fact.” PeopleIfsDoeStillsFactsGovernmentPercentDecidedMurderSuicideMajorityMetaphorMinoritiesAccurateObscureIrrelevant Author:Murray Rothbard
“After the Volcker Fund collapsed, I got another grant from the Lilly Endowment to do a history of the U.S., which I worked on from 1962-66. The original idea was to take the regular facts and put a libertarian assessment on everything.” IdeasFactsOriginalsLibertarianFundGrantsAssessmentEndowmentOriginal Ideas Author:Murray Rothbard
