Quotes

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

"And so yesterday’s argument from absurdity becomes today’s compromise and tomorrow’s legislation. "

Paul Jacob

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

Thomas Jefferson

"No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session."

Judge Gideon J. Tucker

"The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare."

Daniel P. Moynihan

"The power to tax is the power to destroy. A government which lays taxes on
the people not required by urgent public necessity and sound public policy
is not a protector of liberty, but an instrument of tyranny."
--Calvin Coolidge

We have an army of bureaucrats laboring feverishly to convince us of the importance of government. There are few who work to convince us otherwise. The bureaucrats are paid for their work. No one is paid to point out the waste, graft, and corruption that is government.

Tom Gleinser

"When the government's boot is on your throat, whether it is a left boot or a right boot is of no consequence."

Gary Lloyd

"I weep for the liberty of my country when I see at this early day of its “successful experiment” that corruption has been imputed to many members of the House of Representatives, and the rights of the people have been bartered for promises of office."

Andrew Jackson, February 10, 1825

"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence."

John Adams

The amount of donations a candidate receives is a direct indication of his level of corruption.

The most corruptible candidates receive the most money.

Tom Gleinser

"Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them." Ronald Reagan

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

C.S. Lewis

"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." - Thomas Paine

There’s a huge difference between Vegas and Washington. See, in Las Vegas, people gamble with their own money."

Jay Leno

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.
- John Adams

"It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that
power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by
other things than power."

David Brin

"Politics is the art of stopping people from minding their own business."

Paul Valery

“I've had a tough time learning how to act like a congressman. Today I accidentally spent some of my own money.”

Joseph P. Kennedy

"Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you give it to others."

William Allen White

"For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program. "

Main's Law

"The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments."

William H. Borah

"Everyone wants to live at the expense of the State. They forget that the State wants to live at the expense of everyone."

Fredrick Bastiat

"The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it."

John Stuart Mill

There is no better way to provide for the "common good" that through the preservation of individual liberty.

Tom Gleinser

"We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."

Sir Winston Churchill

"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."

Tacitus

The world is a dangerous place to live... not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. - Albert Einstein

"There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him."

Robert Heinlein

"Even a dumb free market is far more intelligent then a smart bureaucracy."

Joe Balyeat, in response to the "smart growth" psuedonym used by government regulators

“If you would not confront your neighbor and demand his money at the point of a gun to solve every new
problem that may appear in your life, then you should not ask the government to do it for you."

Once the government becomes the supplier of people's needs, there is no limit to the needs that will be claimed as a basic right."

Lawrence Auster

"The government deficit is the difference between the amount of money the government spends and the amount it has the nerve to collect."

Sam Ewing

Any alleged 'right' of one man, which necessitates the violation of the rights of another, is not and cannot be a right.
-- Ayn Rand

Politicians and diapers need to be regularly changed for the same reason.

Unknown

Only Libertarians obey the Constitution rather than changing it to suit the desires of the special interests they owe.

When governments fear the people there is liberty.
When the people fear the government there is tyranny.

-Thomas Jefferson

"If a government were put in charge of the Sahara Desert, within five years, they'd have a shortage of sand." - Milton Friedman

Now those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth, and let me remind you they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyranny."

Barry Goldwater

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