quotes

Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is a force, like fire: a dangerous servant and a terrible master.

Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.

Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that don't have brain enough to be honest.

I should say it means the acknowledgment in practical life of the truth that men are best governed who govern themselves; that the general sense of mankind, if left alone, will make for righteousness; that artificial privileges and restraints upon freedom, so far as they are not required in the interests of the community, are hurtful; and that the laws, while, of course, they cannot equalise conditions, can at least avoid aggravating inequalities, and ought to have for their object the securing to every man the best chance he can have of a good and useful life.

In the long run, the aggregate of decisions of individual businessmen, exercising individual judgment in a free economy, even if often mistaken, is less likely to do harm than the centralised decisions of a government, and certainly the harm is likely to be counteracted faster.

Dette er spørsmålet i dette valget. Om vi tror på vår egen evne til selvstyre, eller om vi oppgir den amerikanske revolusjon og bekjenner at en liten intellektuell elite, i et fjern hovedstad kan planlegge våre liv for oss, bedre enn vi kan planlegge det selv.

Hvordan kan du tiltro mennesket makten over andre, når du ikke kan tiltro mennesket makten over seg selv?

Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enought to take everything you have.

Statskassen brukes som «partikasse» i norske politikeres konkurranse om å være «helligere» og mer godhjertet enn andre... Kritisk sans tas som tegn på manglende empati... Man ønsker seg ... en spesiell type «kritisk debatt» - en uten kritikere.

"But there is an added technique for weakening a nation at its very roots ... The method is simple. It is first, a dissemination of discord. A group - not too large - a group that may be sectional or racial or political - is encouraged to exploit its prejudices through false slogans and emotional appeals. The aim of those who deliberately egg on these groups is to create confusion of counsel, public indecision, political paralysis and, eventually, a state of panic. Sound national policies come to be viewed with a new and unreasoning skepticism ... As a result of these techniques, armament programs may be dangerously delayed. Singleness of national purpose may be undermined. . . . The unity of the state can be so sapped that its strength is destroyed. All this is no idle dream. It has happened time after time, in nation after nation, during the last two years."

Å ale opp en tiger er å åpne for katastrofe.

Den sikre vei til forlik med en tiger er å la seg bli fortært.

"Jeg er dypt uenig i det du sier, men vil til min død forsvare din rett til å si det.

The true danger is when Liberty is nibbled away, for expedients.

Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation.

Et sentralt kjennetegn på et fritt samfunn, er at det er trygt å være upopulær.