Explore Freedom

Ludwig Lachmann

By reminding us that individuals are different and have different tastes and expectations, has reminded us not only to respect those differences in our everyday lives, but also to respect them in our scientific investigations. For it is only by acknowledging and referring to these differences that we will be able to understand how the market process ... [click for more]

Rose Wilder Lane

Nothing whatever but the constitutional law, the political structure, of these United States protects any American from arbitrary seizure of his property and his person, from the Gestapo and the Storm Troops, from the concentration camp, the torture chamber, the revolver at the back of his neck in a cellar. -- Rose Wilder Lane Rose Wilder Lane Biography Marshall University [click for more]

Richard Henry Lee

That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all alegiance to the British crown; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, a ought to be, totally dissolved. -- Richard Henry Lee, Resolution moved at the Continental Congress [click for more]

Robert E. Lee

What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world. -- Robert E. Lee Robert E. Lee (1807-1870) CivilWarHome.com [click for more]

Robert LeFevre

Government, when it is examined, turns out to be nothing more nor less than a group of fallible men with the political force to act as though they were infallible. -- Robert LeFevre, Aggression Is Wrong Robert LeFevre Short Bio Answers.com The Wisdom of LeFevre by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. Ludwig von Mises Institute Aggression Is Wrong by Robert LeFevre Voluntaryist [click for more]

John Lilburne

For where there is no law declared, there can be no transgression. Therefore it is very requisite that the parliament would declare their privileges to the whole commons of England, that so no man may through ignorance (by the parliament's default) run causelessly into the hazard of the loss of their lives, liberties, or estates. For here it is ... [click for more]

John Locke

Any single man must judge for himself whether circumstances warrant obedience or resistance to the commands of the civil magistrate; we are all qualified, entitled, and morally obliged to evaluate the conduct of our rulers. This political judgment, moreover, is not simply or primarily a right, but like self-preservation, a duty to God. As such it is a judgment ... [click for more]

Fritz Machlup

But you are asking me how did the Austrians distinguish their own economics from others in the 1920s and here is my list. One, methodological individualism. Two, methodological subjectivism. Three, marginalism. Four, individual tastes and preferences, that is, subjective valuations of goods and services determine the demand for these goods and services. Five, opportunity costs (Wieser's law). Six -- ... [click for more]

James Madison

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, ... [click for more]

Bernard de Mandeville

Thus every Part was full of Vice, Yet the whole Mass a Paradice; -- Bernard de Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees Bernard de Mandeville Biography History of Economic Thought The Grumbling Hive by Bernard de Mandeville Rutgers University De Mandeville Bibliography Rutgers University [click for more]

Clarence Manion

Government does not create liberty; on the contrary, government is the one persisting danger of human liberty.... This role of government as the enemy of liberty was well understood by the Founding Fathers of the Republic. They wished government to have sufficient power to 'restrain men from injuring one another.' But beyond that, they tied it down securely with ... [click for more]

John Marshall

The power to tax involves the power to destroy. -- John Marshall, McCulloch v. Maryland John Marshall Library of Virginia John Marshall Preservation Virginia John Marshall (1755-1835) From Revolution to Reconstruction Marbury v. Madison John Marshall Northern Virginia Community College Chief Justice John Marshall's Legacy LandmarkCases.org [click for more]

H.L. Mencken

Of government, at least in democratic states, it may be said briefly that it is an agency engaged wholesale, and as a matter of solemn duty, in the performance of acts which all self-respecting individuals refrain from as a matter of common decency. -- H.L. Mencken H.L. Mencken, Americas Wittiest Defender of Liberty by Jim Powell Foundation for Economic Education [click for more]

Carl Menger

Money is not an invention of the state. It is not the product of a legislative act. The sanction of political authority is not necessary for its existence. -- Carl Menger Carl Menger: The Founder of the Austrian School by Joseph T. Salerno Ludwig von Mises Institute Carl Menger: Ivory Tower Iconoclast by Thomas W. Hazlett Liberty Haven Book Review: Principles ... [click for more]

James Mill

A glut, as it is supposed in this doctrine, namely an excess of production in the aggregate, can take place only by a continued increase of production. Let us imagine that we have just come to the supposed point, when, the supply being full, any additional production will be so much of glut. The additional production takes place, and ... [click for more]

John Stuart Mill

... the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community against his will is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or to forbear because it will be better for him to do so, ... [click for more]

John Milton

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties. -- John Milton, Areopagitica John Milton Short Biography Pegasos John Milton (1608-1674) Acton Institute The Story of Milton 2020Site Paradise Lost by John Milton Online Library of Liberty Paradise Regained by John Milton Online Library of Liberty Areopagitica by John Milton Library ... [click for more]

Ludwig von Mises

The market economy is the social system of the division of labor under private ownership of the means of production. Everybody acts on his own behalf; but everybodys actions aim at the satisfaction of other people's needs as well as at the satisfaction of his own. Everybody in acting serves his fellow citizens. Everybody, on the other hand, is ... [click for more]

Gustave de Molinari

True economists are generally agreed, on the one hand, that the government should restrict itself to guaranteeing the security of its citizens, and on the other hand, that the freedom of labor and of trade should otherwise be whole and absolute. -- Gustave de Molinari, The Production of Security Gustave de Molinari, 1819-1912 History of Economic Thought Gustave ... [click for more]

Oskar Morgenstern

The great progress in every science came when, in the study of problems which were modest as compared with ultimate aims, methods were developed which could be extended further and further. -- John von Neumann & Oskar Morgenstern, Theory of Games and Economic Behavior Oskar Morgenstern, 1902-1976 History of Economic Thought Oskar Morgenstern, (1902-77) by William H. Peterson Foundation for ... [click for more]