In regard to the so-called social contract, I have often had occasion to protest that I haven’t even seen the contract, much less been asked to consent to it. A valid contract requires voluntary offer,...

There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things...

In the first place, it would efface from everybody’sconscience the distinction between justice and injustice.No society can exist unless the laws are respected to a cer-tain degree, but the safest way to make them respected...

The only idea they have ever manifested as to what is a government of consent, is this–that it is one to which everybody must consent, or be shot.

What is a price? It is a proposed point of agreement between a buyer and seller. The proposal is the key. It is not a marching order. Past prices represent deals done in history. Current...

The struggle for freedom is ultimately not resistance to autocrats or oligarchs but resistance to the despotism of public opinion.

The ones who are insane enough to think that they can rule the world are always the ones who do.

I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism.

Not only does the State do the work badly on a domain not its own, bunglingly, at greater cost, and with less fruit than spontaneous organizations, but, again, through the legal monopoly which it deems...

The most dangerous diminutions of freedom come from those who are convinced of their moral rectitude.

The lesson I have to teach is this: Leave all creative energies uninhibited. Merely organize society to act in harmony with this lesson. Let society’s legal apparatus remove all obstacles the best it can. Permit...

The very term ‘public utility’ … is an absurd one. Every good is useful ‘to the public,’ and almost every good … may be considered ‘necessary.’ Any designation of a few industries as ‘public utilities’...

(“A Free Market in Education: The Answer to Prayer, And Other Issues”)No matter where you are on the issue, there is no solution to it within a government school context, only perpetual conflict. The answer...

Using coercion to drive charity is like using kidnapping to create love.

She lifted me back into the seat with a wicked grin, and breathed, ‘Just don’t stop talking. Whatever you do, just don’t stop talking,’ and swallowed my manhood. I scrambled desperately through the darkened corners...

It’s not an endlessly expanding list of rights — the ‘right’ to education, the ‘right’ to health care, the ‘right’ to food and housing. That’s not freedom, that’s dependency. Those aren’t rights, those are the...

The sick in soul insist that it is humanity that is sick, and they are the surgeons to operate on it. They want to turn the world into a sickroom. And once they get humanity...

A free society cherishes nonconformity. It knows that from the non-conformist, from the eccentric, have come many of the great ideas of freedom. A free society fertilizes the soil in which non-conformity and dissent and...

The overwhelming tendency of markets is to bring people together, break down prejudices, persuade people of the need to cooperate regardless of class, race, religion, sex/gender, and physical ability. The same is obviously and especially...

It would be an instructive exercise for the skeptical reader to try to frame a definition of taxation which does not also include theft. Like the robber, the State demands money at the equivalent of...

Statism is an unnatural disaster.

The sense that just about anything goes with the collection of public revenues and the making of public expenditure has contributed mightily to the current malaise.

Politicians obfuscate. It gets them re-elected. If no-one can understand what is going on, then the perception is that we need someone to guide us through the fog. Many people want to be led. A...

Everything is temporary. Well, except government programs.

I didn’t know I was a slave until I found out I couldn’t do the things I wanted.

N’importe quel groupe de scélérats, pourvu qu’ils aient assez d’argent pour l’entreprendre, peuvent décider qu’ils sont un gouvernement; car, pourvu qu’ils aient de l’argent, ils peuvent engager des soldats, et utiliser ces soldats pour extorquer...

Libertarians make no exceptions to the golden rule and provide no moral loophole, no double standard, for government. That is, libertarians believe that murder is murder and does not become sanctified by reasons of state...

If any of the socialist chiefs had tried to earn his living by selling hot dogs, he would have learned something about the sovereignty of the consumers.

Ever wonder why the media never refers to 18 or 19 year old American soldiers as “armed teens”?

No state, no government exists. What does in fact exist is a man, or a few men, in power over many men.