Quotes on liberty and other related topics (note: not all people in here are Libertarians):
"The only good tax is a
dead tax."
"By definition, law-breakers don't obey laws." - Harry Browne
"Politicians never accuse you of 'greed' for wanting other people's money --- only for wanting to keep your own money." - Joseph Sobran
"In general the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other." - Voltaire
"The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics." - Thomas Sowell
"That government is best which governs least." - Henry David Thoreau
"The Ten Commandments contain 297 words. The Bill of Rights is stated in 463 words. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address contains 266 words. A recent federal directive to regulate the price of cabbage contains 26,911 words." -- The Atlanta Journal
"Madam Speaker, the Lord's prayer is 66 words; the 10 Commandments, 179 words; the Gettysburg Address, 286 words; the Declaration of Independence, 1,322 words; the United States Tax Code, 2 million 8 hundred thousand plus words. It is out of control. In America, if a dog urinates in a parking lot, the EPA deems it a wetland. What is even worse, the IRS slaps on a hazardous waste tax. Beam me up here." - Rep. James Traficant (D-OH)
"To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." - Thomas Jefferson (Virginia Declaration of Religious Liberty)
"Nothing is more permanent as a temporary government program." - Milton Friedman
“I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution ... or have failed their purpose ... or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is ‘needed’ before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should be attacked for neglecting my constituents’ ‘interests,’ I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty, and in that cause I am doing the very best I can.” - former US Senator Barry Goldwater
"Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have." - Barry Goldwater
"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." - Barry Goldwater
''It's always dangerous to read legislation you're about to pass.'' - Senator John Breaux (D-LA)
"The power to tax is the power to destroy." - John Marshall
"The United States is a nation of laws, badly written and randomly enforced." - Frank Zappa
"Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt." - Herbert Hoover
"The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it." - H.L. Mencken
"The Tax Code was written by Congress, although, of course, no member of Congress has ever actually read it. Congress has more important things to do, such as adding new regulations to the Tax Code. Nobody has ever read all the way through the Tax Code. The last attempt to do so was made in 1987 by a squad of courageous volunteer certified public accountants, accompanied by Sherpa guides. The last survivor made it is far as Section 2038-1239-0293.423.49.112.6 (b) (m), `Guidelines Concerning the Fiduciary Depreciation of the Pituitary Exemption for Certain Elk Parts.' According to the coroner, what was left of his brain `looked like rancid mayonnaise.'" - syndicated humorist (and libertarian) Dave Barry.
"The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work, and then they get elected and prove it." - P.J. O'Rourke