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Browse 177 quotes about Statism.

Statism Quotes

“On the opening day of law school at Yale, I always counsel my first-year students never to support a law they are not willing to kill to enforce. Usually they greet this advice with something between skepticism and puzzlement, until I remind them that the police go armed to enforce the will of the state, and if you resist, they might kill you.”

LawEvilFreedomLibertyViolenceLibertarianAnarchyAggressionCoercionCollectivismStateStatismVoluntaryismNon Aggression Principle
Author:Stephen L. Carter
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“Growing economies are built by billions of actors behaving according to their own interests, coordinated through institutions that no one in particular created. Realizing this requires humility, a trait that is in short supply among would-be dictators, politicians, and bureaucrats, which is precisely why these groups are the proven enemies of prosperity in all times and places.”

GovernmentEvilForceFreedomLibertyEconomicsLibertarianSocialismCommunismControlAnarchyTheftCoercionCollectivismStateStatismVoluntaryismLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismAustrian School Of EconomicsNapInitiation Of ForceAustrian
Author:Jeffrey Tucker
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“There is only a certain amount of wealth in the world, this thinking goes. Economics is a matter of acquiring and allocating, not creating. This was the view of the world’s smartest people, all top philosophers and not stupid people, for many thousands of years before the age of the enlightenment. It still is.”

GovernmentEvilPoliticsForceFreedomLibertyKnowledgeViolenceEconomicsLibertarianSocialismCommunismAnarchyDictatorshipTaxationTheftCoercionCollectivismStatismVoluntaryismLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismAustrian School Of EconomicsDictatorsNapInitiation Of ForceAustrian
Author:Jeffrey Tucker
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“The overwhelming tendency of markets is to bring people together, break down prejudices, persuade people of the need to cooperate regardless of class, race, religion, sex/gender, and physical ability. The same is obviously and especially true of sexual orientation. It is the market that rewards people who put aside their biases and seek gains through trade. This is why states devoted to racialist and hateful policies always resort to violence in control of the marketplace.”

GovernmentEvilFreedomLibertyRacismLibertarianToleranceSocialismAnarchyAssociationFree MarketCoercionLawsFree TradeStatismVoluntaryismMarketsLaissez FaireAncapAnarcho CapitalismAnti RacismAustrian School Of EconomicsRegulations
Author:Jeffrey Tucker
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“Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am -- not stuck in the middle, but hovering above the entire farcical spectrum, weeping as I behold my fellow man's devotion to political illusion and self-destruction.”

ReasonPhilosophyGovernmentTruthEvilPoliticsFreedomLibertyKnowledgeLibertarianSocialismVotingAnarchyIndividualismThievesSelf KnowledgeRationalityTaxationGangTheftMafiaCoercionCollectivismStatismVoluntaryismAncapMatrixAnarcho CapitalismUseful Idiots
Author:Robert Higgs
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“What ranks above all else for economic and political reconstruction is a radical change of ideologies. Economic prosperity is not so much a material problem; it is, first of all, an intellectual, spiritual, and moral problem.”

GovernmentEvilPoliticsFreedomLibertyMoralityEthicsCapitalismEconomicsTradeLibertarianSocialismAnarchyMoralsFreeFree MarketCoercionCollectivismImmoralityStatismVoluntaryismLaissez FaireAncapAnarcho CapitalismAustrian School Of Economics
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“Every dictator is a mystic, and every mystic is a potential dictator. A mystic craves obedience from men, not their agreement. He wants them to surrender their consciousness to his assertions, his edicts, his wishes, his whims—as his consciousness is surrendered to theirs. He wants to deal with men by means of faith and force—he finds no satisfaction in their consent if he must earn it by means of facts and reason. Reason is the enemy he dreads and, simultaneously, considers precarious; reason, to him, is a means of deception; he feels that men possess some power more potent than reason—and only their causeless belief or their forced obedience can give him a sense of security, a proof that he has gained control of the mystic endowment he lacked. His lust is to command, not to convince: conviction requires an act of independence and rests on the absolute of an objective reality. What he seeks is power over reality and over men’s means of perceiving it, their mind, the power to interpose his will between existence and consciousness, as if, by agreeing to fake the reality he orders them to fake, men would, in fact, create it.”

GovernmentReligionEvilFreedomLibertyVirtueMoralityEthicsLibertarianSocialismCommunismAnarchyAggressionRationalityCoercionSuperstitionCollectivismStateStatismVoluntaryismIrrationalityObjectivismNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismNap
Author:Ayn Rand
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“Price controls almost invariably produce black markets, where prices are not only higher than the legally permitted prices, but also higher than they would be in a free market, since the legal risks must also be compensated. While small-scale black markets may function in secrecy, large-scale black markets usually require bribes to officials to look the other way.”

GovernmentEvilFreedomLibertyCapitalismSocialismAnarchyFree MarketCoercionStatismVoluntaryismAncapAnarcho CapitalismAustrian School Of EconomicsRegulationsAustrian Economics
Author:Thomas Sowell
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“The proposal to quit voting is basically revolutionary; it amounts to a shifting of power from one group to another, which is the essence of revolution. As soon as the nonvoting movement got up steam, the politicians would most assuredly start a counterrevolution. Measures to enforce voting would be instituted; fines would be imposed for violations, and prison sentences would be meted out to repeaters.”

GovernmentEvilFreedomLibertyDemocracyVoteLibertarianAnarchyCoercionStatismVoluntaryismThugs
Author:Frank Chodorov
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“The idea that the government has services or goods that they can pass on is a complete farce. Governments have nothing. They can’t create anything, they never have. All they can do is steal from one group and give it to another at the destruction of the principles of freedom, and we ought to challenge that concept.”

EvilFreedomLibertyLibertarianSocialismAnarchyTheftCoercionStatismVoluntaryismNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAustrian School Of EconomicsNap
Author:Ron Paul
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“I don't remember what class I was in with this girl, but she was just going on and on about raised minimum wage and socialized medicine and the entire time I was just wondering where in the Bible Jesus said to go to your neighbor at gunpoint to take his wages and to give it to someone else. I call it the "Gospel of Violent Jesus" . because this is the Jesus Christ radicalized by both radical conservatives and progressives, in which everything Jesus said is used to justify state sponsored violence and coercion, This govermment tied gospel is used to advocate for socialized medicine, like what Republican John Kasich tried to pull when he labeled himself a "compassionate conservative" and said Medicaid expansion was biblical. The progressive left is hateful towards Christians but yells and screams and brings up the Bible selectively to advocate for open borders and socialized everything.”

ChristianityBibleLibertarianismStatismEisegesis
Author:Remso Martinez
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“Experience teaches effectually, but brutally. It makes us acquainted with all the effects of an action, by causing us to feel them; and we cannot fail to finish by knowing that fire burns, if we have burned ourselves. For this rough teacher, I should like, if possible, to substitute a more gentle one. I mean Foresight. For this purpose I shall examine the consequences of certain economical phenomena, by placing in opposition to each other those which are seen, and those which are not seen.”

ReasonGovernmentPoliticsFreedomLibertyEconomicsLogicLibertarianAnarchySelf KnowledgeUnseenTaxationTheftFallacyCollectivismStatismVoluntaryismAncapAustrian School Of EconomicsKeynesian
Author:Frédéric Bastiat
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“A man goes to a foreign country and kills somebody who's not aggressing against him; in a Hawaiian shirt he's a criminal, in a green costume he's a hero who gets a parade and a pension. So that, as a culture, we remain in a state of moral insanity. To point out these contradictions to people in society is to be labeled insane. This is how insane society remains, that anybody who points out logical opposites in the most essential human topic of ethics, is considered to be insane.”

ValuesFreedomLibertyVirtueIntegrityLogicDelusionMoralsRationalityCritical ThinkingStatism
Author:Stefan Molyneux
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“Nine out of ten eugenicists in the 20th Century were also Progressives or Socialists, as central to the eugenic creed is the desire to engineer and centrally plan human reproduction and heredity. These were not people that believed in individual liberty. They certainly didn't believe the individual had the right to chose their own mate freely. They were statists, They were totalitarians at heart.”

SocialismSocialistAutonomyTotalitarianismCivil LibertiesEugenicsStatismIndividual LibertyProgressivismProgressivesReproductive RightsTotalitarianSocialized MedicineScientific RacismUtopian SocialismCentral PlannersRace HygieneStatistPlanned SocietyFabian SocialismEugenicistsCivil Libertarian
Author:A.E. Samaan
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“I'm not scared of the Maos and the Stalins and the Hitlers. I'm scared of the thousands of millions of people that hallucinate them to be "authority", and so do their bidding, and pay for their empires, and carry out their orders. I don't care if there's one looney with a stupid moustache. He's not a threat if the people do not believe in "authority".”

GovernmentFreedomLibertyLibertarianDelusionAnarchySuperstitionStatismVoluntaryismAncap
Author:Larken Rose
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“But who would build the roads if there were no government? You mean to tell me that 300 million people in this country and 7 billion people on the planet would just sit around in their houses and think “Gee, I’d like to go visit Fred, but I can't because there isn’t a flat thing outside for me to drive on, and I don’t know how to build it and the other 300 million or 7 billion people can’t possibly do it because there aren’t any politicians and tax collectors. If they were here then we could do it. If they were here to boss us around and steal our money and really inefficiently build the flat places, then we would be set. Then I would be comfortable and confident that I could get places. But I can’t go to Fred’s house or the market because we can’t possibly build a flat space from A to B. We can make these really small devices that enable us to contact people from all over the word that fits in our pockets; we can make machines that we drive around in, but no, we can’t possibly build a flat space.”

GovernmentFreedomLibertyTechnologySlaveryLibertarianSocialismAnarchyBureaucracyTaxationTheftUtopiaCoercionStatismVoluntaryismLaissez FaireRoadsAustrian School Of Economics
Author:Larken Rose
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“If you personally advocate that I be caged if I don't pay for whatever "government" things YOU want, please don't pretend to be tolerant, or non-violent, or enlightened, or compassionate. Don't pretend you believe in "live and let live," and don't pretend you want peace, freedom or harmony. It's a simple truism that the only people in the world who are willing to "live and let live" are voluntaryists. So you can either PRETEND to care about and respect your fellow man while continuing to advocate widespread authoritarian violence, or you can embrace the concepts of self-ownership and peaceful coexistence, and become an anarchist.”

FreedomLibertyCapitalismLibertarianSocialismCommunismAnarchyTaxationTheftCoercionCollectivismStatismVoluntaryismNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismNap
Author:Larken Rose
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“If the bulk of the public were really convinced of the illegitimacy of the State, if it were convinced that the State is nothing more nor less than a bandit gang writ large, then the State would soon collapse to take on no more status or breadth of existence than another Mafia gang.”

FreedomLibertyViolenceLibertarianSocialismAnarchyTaxationGangTheftMafiaCoercionCollectivismStatismVoluntaryismCriminalNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismNap
Book:The Ethics of Liberty
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“In particular, the State has arrogated to itself a compulsory monopoly over police and military services, the provision of law, judicial decision-making, the mint and the power to create money, unused land ("the public domain"), streets and highways, rivers and coastal waters, and the means of delivering mail...the State relies on control of the levers of propaganda to persuade its subjects to obey or even exalt their rulers.”

GovernmentForceFreedomLibertyViolenceLibertarianSocialismAnarchyTaxationFree MarketGangMonopolyTheftMafiaCollectivismStatismVoluntaryismLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismAustrian School Of EconomicsNapAustrian Economics
Book:The Ethics of Liberty
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“Dear Anarcho-Communist, If you and I ever find ourselves in a stateless society, have no fear. Just mention that you are a communist, and I promise I will never try to "oppress" and "exploit" you by offering to trade with you, or by offering to pay you to do work. Sincerely, Larken Rose”

FreedomLibertySocietyLibertarianSocialismCommunismAnarchyCoercionSuperstitionCollectivismStatismVoluntaryismLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismAncomLibertopia
Author:Larken Rose
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“The government enforces a monopoly over the production and distribution of its alleged 'services' and brings violence to bear against would-be competitors. In so doing, it reveals the fraud at the heart of its impudent claims and gives sufficient proof that it is not a genuine protector, but a mere protection racket.”

ForceFreedomLibertyLibertarianSocialismAnarchyFree MarketCoercionCollectivismStateFree TradeStatismPublicVoluntaryismLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismAustrian School Of EconomicsNap
Author:Robert Higgs
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“If I ever wondered why so many people are so hostile to the tangible visible incarnations of the permeating invisible features of postmodern society, I need to look no further: according to populist narratives perpetuated by the media convergence, technology is the domain of experts who, having the wisdom of mini-deities invested with all the power of the corporate state, are not - cannot - be human.”

TechnologySocietyMediaTotalitarianismAuthoritarianismStatismCorporatismCyborg
Book:Cyborg: Digital Destiny and Human Possibility in the Age of the Wearable Computer
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“Epic art is founded on action, and the model of a society in which action could play out in greatest freedom was that of the heroic Greek period; so said Hegel, and he demonstrated it with The Iliad: even though Agamemnon was the prime king, other kings and princes chose freely to join him and, like Achilles, they were free to withdraw from the battle. Similarly the people joined with their princes of their own free will; there was no law that could force them; behavior was determined only by personal motives, the sense of honor, respect, humility before a more powerful figure, fascination with a hero's courage, and so on. The freedom to participate in the struggle and the freedom to desert it guaranteed every man his independence. In this way did action retain a personal quality and thus its poetic form. Against this archaic world, the cradle of the epic, Hegel contrasts the society of his own period: organized into the state, equipped with a constitution, laws, a justice system, an omnipotent administration, ministries, a police force, and so on. The society imposes its moral principles on the individual, whose behavior is thus determined by far more anonymous wishes coming from the outside than by his own personality. And it is in such a world that the novel was born.”

ActionAncientBureaucracyGreeceStatismDoingHegelIliadHomerClassical
Book:The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts
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“La plus importante réforme monétaire que l’on puisse espérer serait l’abolition de toutes les banques centrales et un retour à une situation qu’ont vécu les humains de tous temps où l’argent est une commodité d’échange qui ne peut être produite qu’à un coût élevé, tel qu’en or ou en argent, par le marché. À nouveau, pas de monopole dans la production monétaire mais bien une compétition de cette production monétaire afin de ne pas pouvoir la créer à partir de rien.”

FreedomMoneyCapitalismLibertarianAssociationFree MarketFrenchFederal ReserveStatismVoluntaryismLaissez FaireCitationAnarcho CapitalismLibertéLibreCapitalismeVoluntaryistAnarchieéTatismeMarchéAnarnchyLibertés IndividuellesLibre éChange
Author:Hans-Hermann Hoppe
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“As I explain in 'What It Means to be an Anarcho-Capitalist', to be an anarchist simply means you oppose aggression, and you realize the state necessarily commits aggression. If you are not an anarchist, it means you either condone aggression, or think the state does not necessarily commit aggression. As you say you are not an anarchist, can you please tell us which one describes you? Are you in favor of aggression (like socialists and criminals are)? Or, do you think the state does not commit aggression (like children brainwashed by government schools think)?”

FreedomLibertyLibertarianAnarchyStatismNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismNap
Author:N. Stephan Kinsella
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“So what? Why should an a priori proof of the libertarian property theory make any difference? Why not engage in aggression anyway?” Why indeed?! But then, why should the proof that 1+1=2 make any difference? One certainly can still act on the belief that 1+1=3. The obvious answer is “because a propositional justification exists for doing one thing, but not for doing another.” But why should we be reasonable, is the next come-back. Again, the answer is obvious. For one, because it would be impossible to argue against it; and further, because the proponent raising this question would already affirm the use of reason in his act of questioning it. This still might not suffice and everyone knows that it would not, for even if the libertarian ethic and argumentative reasoning must be regarded as ultimately justified, this still does not preclude that people will act on the basis of unjustified beliefs either because they don’t know, they don’t care, or they prefer not to know. I fail to see why this should be surprising or make the proof somehow defective.”

PhilosophyFreedomLibertyLibertarianAnarchyRationalityCritical ThinkingStatismVoluntaryismNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismNap
Book:The Economics and Ethics of Private Property: Studies in Political Economy and Philosophy
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