Explore Freedom

Felix Morley

The advocate of an aggressive foreign policy is therefore likely to be an advocate of centralization. For he cannot consistently urge that the Administration be untrammeled in its conduct of foreign relations yet subject to strict Constitutional checks and balances in its control over domestic activities. Conversely, the advocate of a limited foreign policy cannot consistently urge that the ... [click for more]

Robert Morris

I confess I never lost hopes of reconciliation untill I saw this Answer which in my opinion breaths nothing but Death & Destruction. Every body see it in the same light and it will bring us all to one way of thinking, so that you may soon expect to hear of New Governments in every Colony and in Conclusion ... [click for more]

John Mosby

Lieutenant Prentiss, awakened by shouts that there were dispatches outside for General Stoughton, was foolish enough to open the door to the raiders. Six men strode in, but it was the smallest of them, the wiry one with the plume in his hat, who stuck a revolver in the lieutenant's ribs while he stood in the entranceway in his ... [click for more]

Robert Nozick

The illegitimate use of a state by economic interests for their own ends is based upon a preexisting illegitimate power of the state to enrich some persons at the expense of others. Eliminate that illegitimate power of giving differential economic benefits and you eliminate or drastically restrict the motive for wanting political influence. -- Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and ... [click for more]

Edmund A. Opitz

No one can read our Constitution without concluding that the people who wrote it wanted their government severely limited; the words 'no' and 'not' employed in restraint of government power occur 24 times in the first seven articles of the Constitution and 22 more times in the Bill of Rights. -- Edmund A. Opitz A Tribute to Edmund A. ... [click for more]

Thomas Paine

It has been thought a considerable advance towards establishing the principles of Freedom, to say, that government is a compact between those who govern and those that are governed: but this cannot be true, because it is putting the effect before the cause; for as man must have existed before governments existed, there necessarily was a time when governments ... [click for more]

Isabel Paterson

The philanthropist, the politician, and the pimp are inevitably found in alliance because they have the same motives, they seek the same ends, to exist for, through, and by others. And the good people cannot be exonerated for supporting them. Neither can it be believed that the good people are wholly unaware of what actually happens. But when the ... [click for more]

Ron Paul

The most important element of a free society, where individual rights are held in the highest esteem, is the rejection of the initiation of violence. All initiation of force is a violation of someone else's rights, whether initiated by an individual or the state, for the benefit of an individual or group of individuals, even if it's supposed to ... [click for more]

Paul L. Poirot

In the United States, at least, the Federal welfare state is primarily a development of the twentieth century. Governmental welfare measures, if any, before World War I were handled largely at the local level; there had been no substantial use of Federal funds to buy votes, no reason for states to modify their voting laws and practices to gain ... [click for more]

Francois Quesnay

Laissez faire, laissez passer (Let it be, let it pass). -- Franois Quesnay, Familiar Quotations Franois Quesnay, 1694-1774 History of Economic Thought Franois Quesnay Short Bio School of Cooperative Individualism Franois Quesnay (1694-1774) Library of Economics and Liberty Franois Quesnay's Tableau conomique McMaster University Quesnay Bibliography McMaster University [click for more]

Ayn Rand

Rights are conditions of existence required by man's nature for his proper survival. If man is to live on earth, it is right for him to use his mind, it is right to act on his own free judgment, it is right to work for his values and to keep the product of his work. If life on earth ... [click for more]

David Ricardo

To produce the wine in Portugal, might require only the labour of 80 men for one year, and to produce the cloth in the same country, might require the labour of 90 men for the same time. It would therefore be advantageous for her to export wine in exchange for cloth. This exchange might even take place, notwithstanding that ... [click for more]

Lionel C. Robbins

Economics is the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses -- Lionel C. Robbins Lord Lionel C. Robbins, 1898-1984 History of Economic Thought Lord Robbins London School of Economics Lionel Robbins (1898-1984) Library of Economics and Liberty Remarks Upon Certain Aspects of the Theory of Costs by Lionel Robbins Library of ... [click for more]

Wilhelm Ropke

While the last resort of the competitive economy is the bailiff, the ultimate sanction of the planned economy is the hangman. -- Wilhelm Rpke Wilhelm Rpke (1899-1966): Humane Economist by Shawn Ritenour Ludwig von Mises Institute Wilhelm Roepke's Wisdom The Greco Report Book Review: Wilhelm Rpke: Swiss Localist, Global Economist, by John Zmirak by Richard M. Ebeling Future of Freedom Foundation [click for more]

Murray N. Rothbard

If liberty should be the highest political end, then what is the grounding for that goal? It should be clear . . . that, first and foremost, liberty is a moral principle, grounded in the nature of man. In particular, it is a principle of justice, of the abolition of aggressive violence in the affairs of men. Hence, to ... [click for more]

Jacques Rueff

It is institutions established by men and wanted by them that immobilize prices, salaries, and rates of interest. It is the same institutions that lend their protection, without which the oligopolies or monopolies in their quasi-totality could never exist. -- Jacques Rueff Jacques Rueff: Political Economist for the 21st Century? by John D. Mueller Ethics and Public Policy Center The ... [click for more]

Jean-Baptiste Say

It is worth while to remark, that a product is no sooner created, than it, from that instant, affords a market for other products to the full extent of its own value. When the producer has put the finishing hand to his product, he is most anxious to sell it immediately, lest its value should diminish in his hands. ... [click for more]

Hans & Sophie Scholl

Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as allowing itself to be governed without opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct. It is certain that today every honest German is ashamed of his government. Who among us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that will befall us and our children when one ... [click for more]

Joseph Alois Schumpeter

There is little reason to believe that this socialism will mean the advent of the civilization of which orthodox socialists dream. It is much more likely to present fascist features. That would be a strange answer to Marxs prayer. But history sometimes indulges in jokes of questionable taste. -- Joseph Alois Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy Joseph A. ... [click for more]

Alfred Schutz

Man in his daily life is only partially and we dare say exceptionally interested in the clarity of his knowledge, i.e., in all insight into the relations between the elements of his world and the general principles ruling those relations. He is satisfied that a well-functioning telephone service is available to him and, normally, does not ask how the ... [click for more]