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Laissez Faire Quotes

“The valuations which result in determination of definite prices are different. Each party attaches a higher value to the good he receives than to that he gives away. The exchange ratio, the price, is not the product of equality of valuation, but on the contrary, the product of a discrepancy in valuation.”

FreedomLibertyTradeLibertarianFreePreferenceFree MarketSubjectiveVoluntaryismMarketsLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismAustrian School Of EconomicsNapAustrian Economics
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“The movement that I’m in favor of is a movement of libertarians who do not substitute whim for reason. Now some of them do, obviously, and I’m against that. I’m in favor of reason over whim. As far as I’m concerned, and I think the rest of the movement, too, we are anarcho-capitalists. In other words, we believe that capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism. Not only are they compatible, but you can’t really have one without the other. True anarchism will be capitalism, and true capitalism will be anarchism.”

PeaceFreedomLibertyTradeLibertarianCooperationAnarchyFreeFree MarketVoluntaryismLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismAustrian School Of EconomicsNap
Author:Murray N. Rothbard
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“The essence of the Industrial Revolution consists in the triumph of this principle over the medieval and mercantilist regulations. Modern economy first begins with the introduction of the principle of laissez-faire, and the idea of individual freedom first succeeds in establishing itself as the ideology of this economic liberalism. These connections do not, of course, prevent both the idea of labour and the idea of freedom from developing into independent ethical forces and from often being interpreted in a really idealistic sense. But to realize how small a part was played by idealism in the rise of economic liberalism, it is only necessary to recall that the demand for freedom of trade was directed, above all, against the skilled master, in order to take away from him the only advantage he had over 55 the mere contractor. Adam Smith himself was still far from claiming such idealistic motives for the justification of free competition; on the contrary, he saw in human selfishness and the pursuit of personal interests the best guarantee for the smooth functioning of the economic organism and the realization of the general weal. The whole optimism of the enlightenment was bound up with this belief in the selfregulating power of economic life and the automatic adjustment of conflicting interests; as soon as this began to disappear, it became more and more difficult to identify economic freedom with the interests of the general weal and to regard free competition as a universal blessing.”

EconomyIdeologyEthicalIndividualismIndustrial RevolutionLaissez FaireIndividual Freedom
Book:The Social History of Art Volume 3: Rococo, Classicism and Romanticism
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“I found most of my friends quite content to be used as tax-material, even though the sums of money taken from them were employed against their own beliefs and interests. They had lived so long under the system of using others, and then in their turn being used by them, that they were like hypnotized subjects, and looked on this subjecting and using of each other as a part of the necessary and even Providential order of things. The great machine had taken possession of their souls.”

GovernmentPoliticsIndividualFreedomLibertySocietySlaveryLibertarianAnarchyIndividualismTaxationFree MarketCoercionCattleStatismVoluntaryismLaissez FaireTax
Author:Auberon Herbert
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“In spite of its alluring name, the welfare state stands or falls by compulsion. It is compulsion imposed upon us with the state’s power to punish noncompliance. Once this is clear, it is equally clear that the welfare state is an evil the same as every restriction of freedom.”

FreedomLibertyCapitalismEconomicsCharityLibertarianSocialismCommunismWelfareFascismTaxationCoercionCollectivismFree TradeStatismLaissez FaireAustrian School Of EconomicsFree MarketsAustrian Economics
Author:Wilhelm Röpke
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“Commerce tends toward rewarding inclusion, broadness, and liberality. Tribal loyalties, ethnic and religious bigotries, and irrational prejudices are bad for business. The merchant class has been conventionally distrusted by tribalist leaders -- from the ancient to the modern world -- precisely because merchantcraft tends to break down barriers between groups.”

GovernmentPeaceFreedomLibertyLibertarianTyrannySocialismAnarchyFree MarketCoercionCollectivismFree TradeStatismVoluntaryismLaissez FaireAnarcho CapitalismAustrian School Of Economics
Author:Jeffrey Tucker
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“The free market is not a system. It is not a policy dictated by anyone in particular. It is not something that Washington implements. It does not exist in any legislation, law, bill, regulation, or book. It is what you get when people act on their own, entirely without central direction, and with their own property, and within human associations of their own creation and in their own interest. It is the beauty that emerges in absence of control.”

FreedomLibertyCapitalismLibertarianCooperationAnarchyFree TradeVoluntaryismLaissez FaireAncapAnarcho Capitalism
Author:Jeffrey Tucker
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“Most of the major ills of the world have been caused by well-meaning people who ignored the principle of individual freedom, except as applied to themselves, and who were obsessed with fanatical zeal to improve the lot of mankind-in-the-mass through some pet formula of their own. The harm done by ordinary criminals, murderers, gangsters, and thieves is negligible in comparison with the agony inflicted upon human beings by the professional do-gooders who attempt to set themselves up as gods on earth and who would ruthlessly force their views on all others with the abiding assurance that the end justifies the means.”

GovernmentPoliticsFreedomLibertyDemocracyLibertarianVotingVotersAnarchyPoliticiansCoercionStateStatismVoluntaryismLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleStatists
Book:The Mainspring of Human Progress
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“Why should you desire to compel others; why should you seek to have power— that evil, bitter, mocking thing, which has been from of old, as it is today, the sorrow and curse of the world—over your fellow-men and fellow-women? Why should you desire to take from any man or woman their own will and intelligence, their free choice, their own self-guidance, their inalienable rights over themselves; why should you desire to make of them mere tools and instruments for your own advantage and interest; why should you desire to compel them to serve and follow your opinions instead of their own; why should you deny in them the soul—that suffers so deeply from all constraint—and treat them as a sheet of blank paper upon which you may write your own will and desires, of whatever kind they may happen to be? Who gave you the right, from where do you pretend to have received it, to degrade other men and women from their own true rank as human beings, taking from them their will, their conscience, and intelligence—in a word, all the best and highest part of their nature—turning them into mere empty worthless shells, mere shadows of the true man and women, mere counters in the game you are mad enough to play, and just because you are more numerous or stronger than they, to treat them as if they belonged not to themselves, but to you? Can you believe that good will ever come by morally and spiritually degrading your fellow-men? What happy and safe and permanent form of society can you hope to build on this pitiful plan of subjecting others, or being yourselves subjected by them?”

GovernmentPoliticsPeaceFreedomLibertyDemocracyLibertarianCoercionNatural LawStatismVoluntaryismIndividual RightsLaissez FaireNatural RightsNon Aggression PrincipleMinarchist
Author:Auberon Herbert
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“This is not necessarily true, however, of measures merely restricting the allowed methods of production, so long as these restrictions affect all potential producers equally and are not used as an indirect way of controlling prices and quantities. Though all such controls of the methods of production impose extra costs (i.e., make it necessary to use more resources to produce a given output), they may be well worth while. To prohibit the use of certain poisonous substances or to require special precautions in their use, to limit working hours or to require certain sanitary arrangements, is fully compatible with the preservation of competition. The only question here is whether in the particular instance the advantages gained are greater than the social costs which they impose. Nor is the preservation of competition incompatible with an extensive system of social services — so long as the organization of these services is not designed in such a way as to make competition ineffective over wide fields.”

PolicyCompetitionWelfare StateLaissez FaireSocial PolicyCost Benefit Analysis
Book:The Road to Serfdom
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“What is peculiar and novel to our age is that the principal goal of politics in every advanced society is not, strictly speaking, a political one, that is today, it is not concerned with human beings as persons and citizens, but with human bodies. ... In all technologically advanced countries today, whatever political label they give themselves, their policies have, essentially, the same goal: to guarantee to every member of society, as a psychophysical organism, the right to physical and mental health.”

FreedomResponsibilityLibertyRightsDoctorsMedicineLibertarianSocialismHealth CareTaxationPsychiatryViolationCoercionSystemCollectivismStatismLaissez FaireSocialized MedicineFree MarketsNanny State
Author:W.H. Auden
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“Nowadays the job of the judge is not to do justice. The judge is more of a functionary . He's like a civil servant whose job is to interpret words written down by another branch of the government, whether those words are just or not.”

LawOrderProcessFreedomLibertyEthicsCapitalismLibertarianAnarchyRulesCoercionRule Of LawNatural LawStatismVoluntaryismLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismAustrian School Of EconomicsSelf OwnershipUniversal Ethics
Author:Stephan Kinsella
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“Government as we now know it in the USA and other economically advanced countries is so manifestly horrifying, so corrupt, counterproductive, and outright vicious, that one might well wonder how it continues to enjoy so much popular legitimacy and to be perceived so widely as not only tolerable but indispensable. The answer, in overwhelming part, may be reduced to a two-part formula: bribes and bamboozlement (classically "bread and circuses"). Under the former rubric falls the vast array of government "benefits" and goodies of all sorts, from corporate subsidies and privileges to professional grants and contracts to welfare payments and health care for low-income people and other members of the lumpenproletariat. Under the latter rubric fall such measures as the government schools, the government's lapdog news media, and the government's collaboration with the producers of professional sporting events and Hollywood films. Seen as a semi-integrated whole, these measures give current governments a strong hold on the public's allegiance and instill in the masses and the elites alike a deep fear of anything that seriously threatens the status quo.”

PoliticsBeliefPeaceFreedomLibertyDemocracyCapitalismSlaveryTradeProsperityLibertarianSocialismAnarchyIrrationalFreeTaxationTheftTotalitarianismCoercionSuperstitionCollectivismStatismVoluntaryismMarketsLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleEmpireSubjugationAustrian School Of EconomicsFree MarketsSelf OwnershipVoluntaryistUseful IdiotsCommuni
Author:Robert Higgs
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“Beautiful, seamless upgrade from Twitter today, making functionality smoother and cooler. We didn't have to lobby, didn't have to beg, didn't have to elect a new leader, didn't have to push or protest. Progress is built in to the structure of the mechanism itself: this company exists to please you and me. This is a far better system than any political system on earth.”

FreedomAnarchyFree MarketVoluntaryismLaissez FaireLaissez Faire Capitalism
Author:Jeffrey Tucker
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“It is easy to see, however,―as has been indicated more than once by anarchist writers, and lately by the French professor, V. Basch, in an interesting work, Anarchist Individualism: Max Stirner (1904, in French)―that this sort of individualism, aiming as it does at the "full development," not of all members of society, but of those only who would be considered as the most gifted ones, without caring for the right of full development for all―is merely a disguised return towards the now-existing education-monopoly of the few. It simply means a "right to their full development" for the privileged minorities. But, as such monopolies cannot be maintained otherwise than under the protection of a monopolist legislation and an organized coercion by the State, the claims of these individualists necessarily end in a return to the state idea and to that same coercion which they so fiercely attack themselves. Their position is thus the same as that of Spencer, and of all so-called "Manchester school" of economists, who also begin by a severe criticism of the State and end in its full recognition in order to maintain the property monopolies, of which the State is the necessary stronghold.”

LibertarianLibertarianismLaissez FaireAnarcho CapitalismLaissez Faire CapitalismLibertarian Capitalism
Book:Anarchism: A Collection of Revolutionary Writings
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“If there is much to be said for the virtues of the free market, for its role in encouraging hard work, innovation, and economic growth--and argument that seems nearly beyond dispute at this point--then it must also be acknowledged as equally indisputable that organizing an economic system around self-interest and competition tends to produce a multitude of so-called neighborhood effects. No one has yet to solve the conundrum of the ecological costs associated with economic growth without conceiving of some role of state intervention. Thus far, the notion that unrestrained capitalism can make the United States fabulously wealthy and save the planet too remains little more than a pipe dream.”

EnvironmentalismLaissez FaireNeoliberalismLaissez Faire CapitalismEcology And CapitalismState InterventionUnrestrained Capitalism
Book:Down to Earth: Nature's Role in American History
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“Actually, in its essence, democracy is a totalitarian ideology, though not as extreme as Nazism, fascism or communism. In principle, no freedom is safe in a democracy, every aspect of the individual's life is potentially subject to government control. At the end of the day, the minority is completely at the mercy of the whims of the majority. Even if a democracy has a constitution limiting the powers of the government, this constitution too can be amended by the majority. The only fundamental right you have in a democracy, besides running for office, is the right to vote for a political party. With that solitary vote you hand over your independence and your freedom to the will of the majority.”

WarGovernmentPoliticsFreedomLibertyViolenceSocietyLibertarianSocialismCommunismAnarchyMafiaCoercionFree SocietyVoluntaryismLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleAncapMob RuleThugs
Book:Beyond Democracy: Why democracy does not lead to solidarity, prosperity and liberty but to social conflict, runaway spending and a tyrannical government
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“Even the richest person, provided the riches comes from mutually beneficial exchange, does not need to give anything "back" to the community, because this person took nothing out of the community. Indeed, the reverse is true: Enterprises give to the community. Their owners take huge risks, and front the money for investment, precisely with the goal of serving others. Their riches are signs that they have achieved their aims.”

GovernmentPoliticsFreedomBusinessCompanyLibertyViolenceCommunicationCapitalismEntrepreneurLibertarianSocialismEntrepreneurshipAnarchyTaxationFree MarketTheftMafiaCoercionCollectivismStatismParasitesVoluntaryismLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismThugs
Author:Jeffrey Tucker
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“Copyright: a system of monopoly privilege over the expression of ideas that enables government to stop consumer-friendly economic development and reward uncompetitive and legally privileged elites to fleece the public through surreptitious use of coercion.”

GovernmentPoliticsForceFreedomLibertyViolenceCapitalismTradeLibertarianSocialismAggressionFreeLaw EnforcementFree MarketCoercionStateLawsStatismVoluntaryismMarketsLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleAustrian School Of EconomicsInitiation Of Force
Author:Jeffrey Tucker
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“But the principles of laissez-faire have had other allies besides economic textbooks. It must be admitted that they have been confirmed in the minds of sound thinkers and the reasonable public by the poor quality of the opponent proposals - protectionism on one hand, and Marxian socialism on the other. Yet these doctrines are both characterised, not only or chiefly by their infringing the general presumption in favour of laissez-faire, but by mere logical fallacy. Both are examples of poor thinking, of inability to analyse a process and follow it out to its conclusion. The arguments against them, though reinforced by the principle of laissez-faire, do not strictly require it. Of the two, protectionism is at least plausible, and the forces making for its popularity are nothing to wonder at. But Marxian socialism must always remain a portent to the historians of opinion - how a doctrine so illogical and so dull can have exercised so powerful and enduring an influence over the minds of men and, through them, the events of history. At any rate, the obvious scientific deficiencies of these two schools greatly contributed to the prestige and authority of nineteenth-century laissez-faire.”

SocialismMarxismLaissez FaireProtectionismMarxian SocialismKeynesism
Book:End of Laissez Faire
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“As long as government has the power to regulate business, business will control government by funding the candidate that legislates in their favor. A free-market thwarts lobbying by taking the power that corporations seek away from government! The only sure way to prevent the rich from buying unfair government influence is to stop allowing government to use physical force against peaceful people. Whenever government is allowed to favor one group over another, the rich will always win, since they can "buy" more favors, overtly or covertly, than the poor.”

PoliticsPeaceFreedomLibertySocietyEconomicsProsperityLibertarianIndividualismCoercionCollectivismStatismVoluntaryismIndividual RightsLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleAncapFree MarketsRegulationsCrony Capitalism
Author:Mary J. Ruwart
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“Neoliberalism is essentially an intentionally imprecise stand-in term for free market economics, for economic sciences in general, for conservatism, for libertarians and anarchists, for authoritarianism and militarism, for advocates of the practice of commodification, for center-left or market-oriented progressivism, for globalism and welfare state social democracies, for being in favor of or against increased immigration, for favoring trade and globalization or opposing the same, or for really any set of political beliefs that happen to be disliked by the person(s) using the term.”

PoliticsCapitalismEconomicsLibertarianFree MarketLaissez FaireNeoliberalismAnarcho CapitalismFree Market EconomicsConservative Economics
Author:Phillip W. Magness
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“Property taxes' rank right up there with 'income taxes' in terms of immorality and destructiveness. Where 'income taxes' are simply slavery using different words, 'property taxes' are just a Mafia turf racket using different words. For the former, if you earn a living on the gang's turf, they extort you. For the latter, if you own property in their territory, they extort you. The fact that most people still imagine both to be legitimate and acceptable shows just how powerful authoritarian indoctrination is. Meanwhile, even a brief objective examination of the concepts should make anyone see the lunacy of it. 'Wait, so every time I produce anything or trade with anyone, I have to give a cut to the local crime lord??' 'Wait, so I have to keep paying every year, for the privilege of keeping the property I already finished paying for??' And not only do most people not make such obvious observations, but if they hear someone else pointing out such things, the well-trained Stockholm Syndrome slaves usually make arguments condoning their own victimization. Thus is the power of the mind control that comes from repeated exposure to BS political mythology and propaganda.”

GovernmentSchoolEvilPoliticsForcePeaceFreedomLibertyViolenceMediaSlaveryTradeLibertarianSocialismCommunismPropagandaAnarchyFreeTaxationFree MarketTheftMafiaCoercionSchoolingCollectivismIndoctrinationStatismPublic EducationPublicBrainwashingVoluntaryismLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleAncapInitiation Of Force
Author:Larken Rose
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“Think what it implies when you say that a country needs leaders. In your day-to-day life, you interact with all sorts of other individuals. And that's all society is: the collective name for lots of INDIVIDUALS. But for some inexplicable reason, we're taught to believe that one huge, arbitrarily chosen assortment of individuals (the "citizens" of one human livestock farm--I mean, "country") need some control freaks acting as intermediaries in order to interact with a different arbitrarily chosen assortment of individuals (the "citizens" of some other human livestock farm--I mean, "country"). Because gee, how could I and some random person in the middle of China possibly leave each other alone if we didn't each have a gang of narcissistic sociopaths claiming to "represent" us? Oh, wait a minute. That's exactly how and why pretty much ALL wars happen: because different gangs of power-happy psychos pit their pawns against each other in violent conflict, while claiming to "represent" subsets of humanity. One more example of how "government" is a problem posing as its own solution.”

WarGovernmentPoliticsPeaceFreedomLibertyLibertarianAnarchyCoercionStatismVoluntaryismLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleAncapFree Markets
Author:Larken Rose
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“Radicals want to advance from the jungle of laissez-faire capitalism to a world worthy of the name of human civilization. They hope for a future where the means of economic production will be owned by all of the people instead of just a comparative handful. They feel that this minority control of production facilities is injurious to the large masses of people not only because of economic monopolies but because the political power inherent in this form of centralized economy does not augur well for an ever expanding democratic way of life. Radicals want to see the established political rights or political freedom of the common man augmented by economic freedom. They believe that Lincoln’s statement that a nation cannot exist half-free and half-slave is applicable to the entire world and includes economic as well as political freedom. In short, radicals are convinced that the marriage of political rights to economic rights will produce a social morality in which the Golden Rule will replace the gold standard. Possessed of this sketch of a world to be, radicals find themselves adrift in the stormy sea of capitalism.”

PowerDemocracyCapitalismActivismLaissez FaireEconomic FreedomActivistsRadicalsLaissez Faire CapitalismMeans Of Production
Book:Reveille for Radicals
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“Education in democracy must be carried on within the Party so that members can understand the meaning of democratic life, the meaning of the relationship between democracy and centralism, and the way in which democratic centralism should be put into practice. Only in this way can we really extend democracy within the Party and at the same time avoid ultra-democracy and the laissez-faire that destroys discipline.”

WayShouldPartyPracticeDemocracyDisciplineMembersDemocraticLaissez FaireUltras
Author:Mao Zedong
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“There is nothing in the basic principles of liberalism to make it a stationary creed; there are no hard-and-fast rules fixed once and for all. ... Probably nothing has done so much harm to the liberal cause as the wooden insistence of some liberals on certain rules of thumb, above all the principle of laissez faire.”

HardDoneCertainCausesPrinciplesHarmFixedLiberalismCreedsThumbsInsistenceLaissez FaireBasic PrinciplesStationary
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
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“Radicals, on the other hand, want to advance from the jungle of laissez-faire capitalism to a world worthy of the name of human civilization. They hope for a future where the means of economic production will be owned by all of the people instead of just a comparative handful. They feel that this minority control of production facilities is injurious to the large masses of people not only because of economic monopolies but because the political power inherent in this form of centralized economy does not augur for an ever expanding democratic way of life.”

PeopleWorldWayWantFeelsHumansMeanDoeHandsFormPoliticalPoliticsNamesEconomyEconomicCivilizationMassCapitalismDemocraticProductionsWorthyRadicalLiberalismMinoritiesInherentExpandingJungleMonopolyHandfulFacilityPolitical PowerLaissez FaireHuman CivilizationLaissez Faire Capitalism
Author:Saul Alinsky
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“Adam Smith's was a real universalism in intent. Laissez Faire was intended to establish a world community as well as a natural harmony of interests within each nation... But the "children of darkness" were able to make good use of his creed. A dogma which was intended to guarantee the economic freedom of the individual became the "ideology" of vast corporate structures of a later period of capitalism, used by them, and still used, to prevent a proper political control of their power.”

WorldWellsChildrenStillsRealUseAblePoliticalUsedPoliticsIndividualNationsInterestCommunityNaturalDarknessEconomyEconomicPeriodsCapitalismHarmonyStructureIdeologyCorporateLiberalismGuaranteesAdamCreedsDogmaLaissez FaireEconomic FreedomUniversalismLaissez Faire Capitalism
Author:Reinhold Niebuhr
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“There was nothing natural about laissez-faire; free markets could never have come into being merely by allowing things to take their course. Just as cotton manufactures were created by the help of protective tariffs, export bounties, and indirect wage subsidies, laissez-faire was enforced by the state.”

StatesHelpingCoursesNaturalAllowingFree MarketProtectiveBeing MeCottonIndirectBountySubsidiesLaissez FaireTariffs
Book:The Great Transformation
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“I believe, unlike people that are totally free-market, laissez-faire fundamentalists, that there is an important role that the government can play - one, in providing public goods, whether it's education, health care, or other things, and two, supervising countercyclical policy - stimulus, whether it's monetary, fiscal, or otherwise.”

PeopleBelieveTwoImportantPlayGovernmentCareI BelieveRolesPolicyHealth CareGoodsProvidingFree MarketStimulusMonetaryLaissez Faire
Author:Nouriel Roubini
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“Fascism entirely agrees with Mr. Maynard Keynes, despite the latter's prominent position as a Liberal. In fact, Mr. Keynes' excellent little book, The End of Laissez-Faire (1926) might, so far as it goes, serve as a useful introduction to fascist economics. There is scarcely anything to object to in it and there is much to applaud.”

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Author:Benito Mussolini
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