Government Quotes by Murray Rothbard

Government is a gang of thieves writ large.

— Murray Rothbard

All government wars are unjust.

— Murray Rothbard

All government operation is wasteful, inefficient, and serves the bureaucrat rather than the consumer.

— Murray Rothbard

The natural tendency of government, once in charge of money, is to inflate and to destroy the value of the currency.

— Murray Rothbard

Unlike every other person and institution in society, government obtains its revenue from coercion, from taxation.

— Murray Rothbard

What...can the government do to help the poor? The only answer is the libertarian answer: Get out of the way.

— Murray Rothbard

Ultimately, there is no entity called 'government'; there are only people forming themselves into groups called 'governments' and acting in a 'governmental'…

— Murray Rothbard

The more the government intervenes to delay the market's adjustment, the longer and more grueling the depression will be, and the more…

— Murray Rothbard

If government wishes to see a depression ended as quickly as possible and the economy returned to normal prosperity, what course should…

— Murray Rothbard

There is no need for government to intervene in money and prices because of changing population or for any other reason. The…

— Murray Rothbard

It is human nature that when you see something work well, you do more of it. If, in its ceaseless quest for…

— Murray Rothbard

Governmental subsidy systems promote inefficiency in production and efficiency in coercion and subservience, while penalizing efficiency in production and inefficiency in predation.

— Murray Rothbard

The man who puts all the guns and all the decision-making power into the hands of the central government and then says,…

— Murray Rothbard

The costs of government are bound to be much higher than those of the free market. . .The State cannot calculate well…

— Murray Rothbard

In order to continue in office, any government (not simply a 'democratic' government) must have the support of the majority of its…

— Murray Rothbard

Leading the boom of 1838 were state governments, who, finding themselves with the unexpected windfall of a distributed surplus from the federal…

— Murray Rothbard

The Jacksonians were libertarians, plain and simple. Their program and ideology were libertarian; they strongly favored free enterprise and free markets, but…

— Murray Rothbard

The politician and the government expert receive their revenues, not from service voluntarily purchased on the market, but from a compulsory levy…

— Murray Rothbard

If we look around, then, at the crucial problem areas of our society - the areas of crisis and failure - we…

— Murray Rothbard

Throughout history governments have been chronically short of revenue. The reason should be clear: unlike you and me, governments do not produce…

— Murray Rothbard

The libertarian creed...offers the fulfillment of the best of the American past along with the promise of a far better future. Libertarians…

— Murray Rothbard

If government manages to establish paper tickets or bank credit as money, as equivalent to gold grams or ounces, then the government,…

— Murray Rothbard

We must, therefore, emphasize that 'we' are not the government; the government is not 'us.' The government does not in any accurate…

— Murray Rothbard

[T]he crucial question is not, as so many believe, whether property rights should be private or governmental, but rather whether the necessarily…

— Murray Rothbard

If taxes and government spending are both slashed, then the salutary result will be to lower the parasitic burden of government taxes…

— Murray Rothbard

Only individuals can desire and act. The existence of an institution such as government becomes meaningful only through influencing the actions of…

— Murray Rothbard

Apart from medieval China, which invented both paper and printing centuries before the West, the world had never seen government paper money…

— Murray Rothbard

It is important to realize that gold and silver are international commodities and that, therefore, when not prohibited by government decree, foreign…

— Murray Rothbard

Gold was not selected arbitrarily by governments to be the monetary standard. Gold had developed for many centuries on the free market…

— Murray Rothbard

If we look at the black record of mass murder, exploitation, and tyranny levied on society by governments over the ages, we…

— Murray Rothbard

Governments have persistently tried their best to promote, encourage, and expand the circulation of bank and government paper, and to discourage the…

— Murray Rothbard

In the market, the fittest are those most able to serve the consumers; in government, the fittest are those most adept at…

— Murray Rothbard

Investment bankers do much of their business underwriting government bonds, in the United States and abroad. Therefore, they have a vested interest…

— Murray Rothbard

All interstate wars intensify aggression – maximize it … some wars are even more unjust than others. In other words, all government…

— Murray Rothbard

The majority must be persuaded by ideology that their government is good, wise and, at least, inevitable, and certainly better than other…

— Murray Rothbard

Gold and silver are always in demand, regardless of clime, century, or government in power. But public confidence in and, hence, demand…

— Murray Rothbard

The threat of gold redeemability imposes a constant check and limit on inflationary issues of government paper. If the government can remove…

— Murray Rothbard

Now judicial review, beloved by conservatives, can, of course, fulfill the excellent function of declaring government interventions and tyrannies unconstitutional. But it…

— Murray Rothbard

We have gotten to the point where everything the government does is counterproductive; the conclusion, of course, is that the government should…

— Murray Rothbard

Who wants good people in government? Good people should be in the private sector. Helping us out, helping themselves out in the…

— Murray Rothbard