Freedom Thinkers

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Nassau Senior

The principle of free trade is non-interference. It is to suffer every man to employ his industry in the manner which he thinks most advantageous, without a pretense on the part of the legislator to control or direct his operations. -- Nassau Senior Nassau William Senior, 1790-1864 History of Economic Thought Nassau William Senior 1790-1864 Thoemmes Continuum Three Lectures ...

Julian Simon

Not understanding the process of a spontaneously-ordered economy goes hand-in-hand with not understanding the creation of resources and wealth. And when a person does not understand the creation of resources and wealth, the only intellectual alternative is to believe that increasing wealth must be at the cost of someone else. This belief that our good fortune must be an ...

Adam Smith

All systems either of preference or of restraint, therefore, being thus completely taken away, the obvious and simple system of natural liberty establishes itself of its own accord. Every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way, and to bring both his industry ...

Herbert Spencer

If men use their liberty in such a way as to surrender their liberty, are they thereafter any the less slaves? If people by a plebiscite elect a man despot over them, do they remain free because the despotism was of their own making? -- Herbert Spencer, The New Toryism Herbert Spencer Biography Victorian Web Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) Internet ...

Lysander Spooner

For more than six hundred years -- that is, since Magna Carta, in 1215 -- there has been no clearer principle of English or American constitutional law, than that, in criminal cases, it is not only the right and duty of juries to judge what are the facts, what is the law, and what was the moral intent of ...

William Graham Sumner

We throw all our attention on the utterly idle question whether A has done as well as B, when the only question is whether A has done as well as he could. -- William Graham Sumner Sumner Short Bio by David M. Roth Connecticut's Heritage Gateway Sumner's Forgotten Classic by Christopher Mayer Ludwig von Mises Institute The Forgotten Man by William Graham ...

George Sutherland

Character to be good must be ... so firmly fixed in the conscience, and indeed in the body itself, as to insure unhesitating rejection of an impulse to do wrong. -- George Sutherland, upon receiving an honorary degree at his alma mater Brigham Young University in 1942. George Sutherland Biography Congress.gov George Sutherland SpartacusSchoolNet A Utahn, George Sutherland, Served ...

Frank W. Taussig

The extreme protective system which had been at the first a temporary expedient for aiding in the struggle for the Union, adopted hastily and without any thought of deliberation, gradually became accepted as a permanent institution. From this it was a short step, in order to explain and justify the existing state of things, to set up high protection ...

Alexis de Tocqueville

I have always thought that servitude of the regular, quiet and gentle kind which I have just described might be combined more easily than is commonly believed with some of the outward forms of freedom, and that it might even establish itself under the wing of the sovereignty of the people. -- Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

J.R.R. Tolkien

No! With that power I should have power too great and terrible. And over me the Ring would gain a power still greater and more deadly! Do not tempt me! For I do not wish to become like the Dark Lord himself. Yet the way of the Ring to my heart is by pity, pity for weakness and the ...

Benjamin Tucker

To force a man to pay for the violation of his own liberty is indeed an addition of insult to injury. But that is exactly what the State is doing. Read the "Congressional Record"; follow the proceedings of the State legislatures; examine our statute-books; test each act separately by the law of equal liberty, you will find that a ...

Anne Robert Jacques Turgot

They are the hope of this world. They may become its model. -- Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Letter to Dr. Richard Price Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, 1727-1781 History of Economic Thought Biography of A.R.J. TURGOT (1727-1781) by Murray N. Rothbard Ludwig von Mises Institute Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune Wikipedia Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Who ...

Marie-Esprit Leon Walras

are demanded because of the land-services, labour and capital-services they render, or better, because of the rent, wages and interest which these services yield. -- Marie-sprit Lon Walras, Elements of Pure Economics Marie-sprit Lon Walras, 1834-1910 by Joseph R. Stromberg History of Economic Thought Leon Walras (1834-1910) Library of Economics and Liberty Walras Law and Macroeconomics by Robert ...

Booker T. Washington

You can't hold a man down without staying down with him. -- Booker T. Washington, attributed Booker T. Washington Short Biography Spartacus Educational Booker t. Washington (1856-1915) University of Virginia Booker T. Washington: Apostle of Freedom by Robert A. Peterson Foundation for Economic Education Liberation through Commerce by Gary Galles Ludwig von Mises Institute Up from Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T. ...

George Washington

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in extending our commercial relations to have as little political connection as possible... Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalships, interest, humor, or caprice?... It is our true policy ...

V. Orval Watts

Without other human beings, we cannot be born, cannot be reared, cannot prosper; and to have the cooperation of other humans - to avoid the conflicts which would be suicidal for humans - we must follow the "Golden Rule." When we apply it in practice, we find it is the unifying principle of those commandments that refer to the ...