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Quote by Robert Higgs

“It is a sound interpretive rule...that anything that cannot be accomplished except with the aid of threats or the actual exercise of violence against unoffending persons cannot be beneficial to one and all.”

Quote by Robert Higgs

Author

Robert Higgs is an American economist renowned for his research on the relationship between government intervention and economic growth. His work focuses on the fields of economic liberalism and public choice theory, making significant contributions to understanding the impact of government policies on the market. more

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“Voting, the be all and end all of modern democratic politicians, has become a farce, if indeed it was ever anything else. By voting, the people decide only which of the oligarchs preselected for them as viable candidates will wield the whip used to flog them and will command the legion of willing accomplices and anointed lickspittles who perpetrate the countless violations of the people's natural rights. Meanwhile, the masters soothe the masses by assuring them night and day that they - the plundered and bullied multitudes who compose the electorate - are themselves the government.”

“In U.S. history, war has served as an important diversionary tactic, causing the people at large to shift their attention away from the state's own criminality and toward real or fictitious devils abroad. Wars have therefore proved to be extremely useful in propping up the political class and preserving it from the public resistance and rebellion that might otherwise have arisen.”

People Important War Real States Might Political Attention Class Devil Resistance Rebellion Tactics Criminality

Author:Robert Higgs

“True counselors of despair are those who hope against hope—and historical experience—that the government can and will act constructively.”

Government Despair Historical Counselor

Author:Robert Higgs

“Nothing has done more to render modern economic theory a sterile and irrelevant exercise in autoeroticism than its practitioners’ obsession with mathematical, general-equilibrium models.”

Done Economic Modern Theory Exercise Models Obsession Mathematical Irrelevant Equilibrium Economic Theory

Author:Robert Higgs

“Without popular fear, no government would endure more than twenty-four hours.”

Government Hours Four Twenties Endure

Book:Neither Liberty Nor Safety: Fear, Ideology, and the Growth of Government

Source: Neither Liberty Nor Safety: Fear, Ideology, and the Growth of Government

“The state is the most destructive institution human beings have ever devised - a fire that, at best, can be controlled for only a short time before it o'erleaps it's improvised confinements and spreads its flames far and wide.”

Humans States Human Beings Fire Institutions Spread Wide Flames Destructive Controlled Short Time Confinement

Author:Robert Higgs

“H. L. Mencken famously said that 'every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.' By now, however, I am no longer ashamed, because I do not identify with the government under which I live. Rather, I view it as a criminal organization that without provocation has chosen to make war on my just rights-not only mine, of course, but everyone's. Although this vile enterprise is my problem, because it robs and bullies me relentlessly and without mercy, it is not my responsibility: the nail is not the hammer.”

Source: Neither Liberty Nor Safety: Fear, Ideology, and the Growth of Government

“If anarchists are idealists, they may simply be likened to someone who finds himself swimming in a cesspool and, rather than paddling about looking for the area with the least amount of floating faeces, seeks to climb out of the pool completely.”

Ifs May Amount Areas Climbs Swimming Pool Floating Anarchist Idealist Paddling

Author:Robert Higgs

“To continue on the road we Americans have traveled for the past century is ultimately to deliver ourselves completely into the hands of an unlimited government. We can have a free society or a welfare state. We cannot have both.”

States Hands Government Past Century Welfare Traveled Unlimited Free Society Limited Government Welfare State

Author:Robert Higgs

“By adopting programs to distribute substantial amounts of income, a nation guarantees that its government will become more powerful and invasive in other ways.”

Way Government Nations Powerful Amount Program Income Guarantees Guarantees That Adopting

Author:Robert Higgs