The history of government is the history of violence, of the strong plundering the weak. Wicked tyrants engage in orgies of violence; being rulers they could give free rein to all their desires. —Murray Rothbard
Tag: Murray Rothbard
The man who seizes another’s property is living in basic contradiction to his own nature as a man. For man can only live and prosper by his own production and exchange of products. The aggressor, on the other hand, is not a producer at all but a predator; he lives parasitically off the labor and product of others. Parasites must have non-parasites to feed upon. The parasite depends completely on the production of the host body. Any increase in coercive exploitation (parasitism) decreases the quantity and the output of the producers, until finally, if the producers die out, the parasites will quickly follow suit. Thus, parasitism cannot be a universal ethic. —Murray Rothbard
We libertarians are not the spokesmen for any ethnic or economic class;
we are the spokesmen for all classes, for all of the public;
we strive to see all of these groups united, hand-in-hand, in opposition to the plundering and privileged minority that constitutes the rulers of the State. —Murray Rothbard
The government is the only institution in society with the power to counterfeit—to create new money. So long as it continues to use that power, we will continue to suffer from inflation. —Murray Rothbard
I grew up a right-winger… I got out of the Right-wing not because I ceased believing in liberty, but because being a libertarian above all, I came to see that the Right-wing specialized in cloaking its authoritarian and neo-fascist policies in the honeyed words of libertarian rhetoric. —Murray Rothbard
The abolitionist is a “button pusher” who would blister his thumb pushing a button that would abolish the State immediately if such a button existed. But the abolitionist also knows that alas, such a button does not exist and that he will take a bit of the loaf if necessary — while always preferring the whole loaf if he can achieve it. —Murray Rothbard
The business cycle is brought about, not by any mysterious failings of the free market economy, but quite the opposite: By systematic intervention by government in the market process. Government intervention brings about bank expansion and inflation, and, when the inflation comes to an end, the subsequent depression-adjustment comes into play. —Murray Rothbard
Liberty is a profoundly revolutionary concept and it can only be achieved through the liquidation of the oppressor State. —Murray Rothbard
Taxation is theft, purely and simply, even though it is theft on a grand and colossal scale which no acknowledged criminals could hope to match. It is a compulsory seizure of the property of the State’s inhabitants, or subjects.— Murray Rothbard
It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society. —Murray Rothbard