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Statism Quotes

Browse 177 quotes about Statism.

Statism Quotes

“What makes anyone think that government officials are even trying to protect us? A government is not analogous to a hired security guard. Governments do not come into existence as social service organizations or as private firms seeking to please consumers in a competitive market. Instead, they are born in conquest and nourished by plunder. They are, in short, well-armed gangs intent on organized crime. Yes, rulers have sometimes come to recognize the prudence of protecting the herd they are milking and even of improving its ‘infrastructure’ until the day they decide to slaughter the young bulls, but the idea that government officials seek to promote my interests or yours is little more than propaganda—unless, of course, you happen to belong to the class of privileged tax eaters who give significant support to the government and therefore receive in return a share of the loot.”

GovernmentFreedomLibertyLibertarianSocialismCommunismAnarchyFascismAggressionTheftMafiaCoercionStatismVoluntaryismNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismAustrian School Of EconomicsNap
Author:Robert Higgs
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“While liberals are in favor of any sexual activity engaged in by two consenting adults, when these consenting adults engage in trade or exchange, the liberals step in to harass, cripple, restrict, or prohibit that trade. And yet both the consenting sexual activity and the trade are similar expressions of liberty in action.”

GovernmentForceFreedomLibertyViolenceLibertarianSocialismLiberalismAnarchyFree MarketTheftCoercionFree TradeStatismVoluntaryismLaissez FaireInitiationNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismAustrian School Of EconomicsNapAustrian Economics
Author:Murray N. Rothbard
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“Not only is democracy mystical nonsense, it is also immoral. If one man has no right to impose his wishes on another, then ten million men have no right to impose their wishes on the one, since the initiation of force is wrong (and the assent of even the most overwhelming majority can never make it morally permissible). Opinions—even majority opinions—neither create truth nor alter facts. A lynch mob is democracy in action. So much for mob rule.”

GovernmentForceFreedomLibertyViolenceVoteLibertarianVotingAnarchyFree MarketCoercionCollectivismStatismIndividual RightsLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleLive And Let LiveNapInitiation Of Force
Book:The Market for Liberty
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“People are more willing to support the exercise of authority over themselves when they believe it to be an objective, neutral feature of the natural world. This was the idea behind the concept of the divine right of kings. By making the king appear to be an integral part of God's plan for the world rather than an ordinary human being dominating his fellows by brute force, the public could be more easily persuaded to bow to his authority. However, when the doctrine of divine right became discredited, a replacement was needed to ensure that the public did not view political authority as merely the exercise of naked power. That replacement is the concept of the rule of law.”

GovernmentPoliticsFreedomLibertyHistoryLibertarianSocialismAnarchyCoercionStatismVoluntaryismNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismSubjugationNapNarionalism
Author:john hasnas
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“When I argue with devout statists, sometimes other voluntaryists tell me that I'm wasting my time, opining that a particular statist is never going to "get it." I often respond by saying that that's rarely my intention. Most of the time, when I argue with statists, the goal is for ME to learn more about the mentality and psychology of authoritarian indoctrination, and to hopefully help any SPECTATORS--whether statist or anarchist--learn something from the exchange. (Both of those goals can be achieved even if the statist continues to be a lunk-headed dupe.) Earlier today, a funny but possibly profound analogy came to mind about this: When I argue with "true believer" devout statists, I'm not being a doctor trying to heal an ailing patient; I'm being a coroner, doing an AUTOPSY on a patient who is already beyond any hope of saving, in the hopes that I, and anyone observing, may learn more about the "disease" of statism, in order to better understand the nature of it, and possibly prevent others from experiencing a similar fate.”

GovernmentReligionFreedomLibertyLibertarianAnarchyCoercionSuperstitionStatismVoluntaryismIrrationalityNon Aggression PrincipleAncapNap
Author:Larken Rose
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“The instant that any government obtains a monetary printing press, it becomes a deeply dishonest government, empowered to rob people by stealth. A government with the power to print money knows no limits.”

GovernmentPoliticsFreedomLibertyViolenceSlaveryLibertarianSocialismAnarchyThievesTaxationFree MarketGangTheftMafiaCollectivismStatismVoluntaryismLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismSubjugationAustrian School Of EconomicsNapAustrian Economics
Author:Jeffrey Tucker
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“The very term ‘public utility’ … is an absurd one. Every good is useful ‘to the public,’ and almost every good … may be considered ‘necessary.’ Any designation of a few industries as ‘public utilities’ is completely arbitrary and unjustified.”

GovernmentForceFreedomLibertyViolenceLibertarianSocialismAnarchyAggressionTaxationTheftMafiaCoercionStateStatismVoluntaryismNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismAustrian School Of EconomicsNapSocialized
Author:Murray N. Rothbard
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“Ethnicity and tribe began, by definition, where sovereignty and taxes ended. The ethnic zone was feared and stigmatized by state rhetoric precisely because it was beyond its grasp and therefore an example of defiance and an ever-present temptation to those who might wish to evade the state.”

TaxesCivil DisobedienceEthnicityStatismTribalismShatter Belt
Book:The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia
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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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“The current demonization of Russia will be used, and is indeed being used"..."to justify unjust wars that destroy the lives of poor people abroad; to sacrifice the lives of our poor, who are largely recruited into the armed force for economic reasons; to deplete this country's rich resources on the continental build-up of our over-bloated military to the detriment of much-needed infrastructure and social spending; and to greatly increase our carbon foot print.”

PoliticsCapitalismPatriotismNationalismFascismPoliticiansStatismOligarchyMilitary BudgetClass War
Book:The Plot to Scapegoat Russia: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Russia
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“Once you understand the economics of the Austrian School and the philosophy of liberty in the tradition of Rothbard, you never look at anything – not the state, the media, the central bank, the political class, nothing – the same way again.”

GovernmentPoliticsFreedomLibertyCapitalismEconomicsLibertarianAnarchyFreeFree MarketCoercionFree TradeStatismVoluntaryismMarketsNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismAustrian School Of Economics
Author:Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.
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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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“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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“The Unknown Citizen by W. H. Auden (To JS/07 M 378 This Marble Monument Is Erected by the State) He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be One against whom there was no official complaint, And all the reports on his conduct agree That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint, For in everything he did he served the Greater Community. Except for the War till the day he retired He worked in a factory and never got fired, But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc. Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views, For his Union reports that he paid his dues, (Our report on his Union shows it was sound) And our Social Psychology workers found That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink. The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way. Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured, And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured. Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan And had everything necessary to the Modern Man, A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire. Our researchers into Public Opinion are content That he held the proper opinions for the time of year; When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went. He was married and added five children to the population, Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation. And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education. Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.”

StatisticsStatismGovernment Programs
Author:W.H. Auden
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“Anarchists did not try to carry out genocide against the Armenians in Turkey; they did not deliberately starve millions of Ukrainians; they did not create a system of death camps to kill Jews, gypsies, and Slavs in Europe; they did not fire-bomb scores of large German and Japanese cities and drop nuclear bombs on two of them; they did not carry out a ‘Great Leap Forward’ that killed scores of millions of Chinese; they did not attempt to kill everybody with any appreciable education in Cambodia; they did not launch one aggressive war after another; they did not implement trade sanctions that killed perhaps 500,000 Iraqi children. In debates between anarchists and statists, the burden of proof clearly should rest on those who place their trust in the state. Anarchy’s mayhem is wholly conjectural; the state’s mayhem is undeniably, factually horrendous.”

GovernmentChaosKillingAnarchyGenocideAnarchismStateStatismMayhem
Author:Robert Higgs
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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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“A libertarian is somebody who believes, of course, in personal liberty. And liberty is a personal thing; it is not collective. You don’t gain liberty because you belong to a group. So we don’t talk about women’s rights or gay rights or anything else. Everybody has an absolute equal right as an individual, and it comes to them naturally.”

PhilosophyGovernmentFreedomLibertyLibertarianAnarchyIndividualismCoercionNatural LawCollectivismStatismVoluntaryismIndividual RightsNatural RightsAncapVoluntaryist
Author:Ron Paul
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“L'endoctrinement de la jeunesse dans les écoles était l'un des principaux piliers de ces États esclavagistes. En vérité, la principale différence entre les horreurs du XXème siècle et les despotismes plus anciens est que ces tyrannies modernes ont dû reposer sur un soutien des masses plus direct, et que par conséquent l'alphabétisation obligatoire et l'endoctrinement ont joué un rôle crucial.”

FreedomLibertyLibertarianSchoolingFrenchCollectivismIndoctrinationStatismVoluntaryismNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismLibertéAustrian School Of EconomicsGuerrePaixAnarchieLibertarienState SchoolséTatismePrincipe De Non AggressionEducation Nationale
Author:Murray N. Rothbard
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“There is a very dangerous myth that #Hitler was solely fueled by racism. His desire to engineer society was pervasive. Racism alone cannot explain what happened in The Holocaust without also addressing Hitler's statist policies.”

LibertyRacismLibertarianHolocaustLibertarianismWhite SupremacyTotalitarianismWwiiStatismSocial EngineeringHolocaust HistoryTotalitarianWwii HistoryScientific RacismUtopian SocialismRace HygieneRacial SuperiorityPlanned SocietyCentrally Planned SocietiesRacialist
Author:A.E. Samaan
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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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