Leonard Read

Once an activity has been socialized, it is impossible to point out, by concrete example, how men in a free market could…

— Leonard Read

There is no moral distinction between petty thievery and 'from each according to ability, to each according to need.'

— Leonard Read

Whenever government assumed responsibility for the security, welfare, and prosperity of citizens, the costs of government rise beyond the point where it…

— Leonard Read

The solution to this problem [welfare-statism] must take a positive form: the restoration of a faith in what free men can accomplish.

— Leonard Read

The libertarian can have no truck with 'left' or 'right' because he regrets any form of authoritarianism - the use of police…

— Leonard Read

Is it not obvious that the more complex an economy, the more certainly will governmental control of productive effort exert a retarding…

— Leonard Read

In market terms, one is entitled to what others will offer in willing exchange. That is all!

— Leonard Read

Socialism takes and redistributes wealth, but it is utterly incapable of creating wealth.

— Leonard Read

What precisely is this disease that causes inflation and all these other troubles? It has many popular names, such as socialism, communism,…

— Leonard Read

The right way is the greatest gratifier of human wishes ever come upon - when allowed to operate. It is as morally…

— Leonard Read

[S]tatism is but socialized dishonesty; it is feathering the nests of some with feathers coercively plucked from others - on the grand…

— Leonard Read

There is really nothing that can be done except by an individual. Only individuals can learn. Only individuals can think creatively. Only…

— Leonard Read

Governments resort to inflation with popular support because the people apparently are naïve enough to believe that they can have their cake…

— Leonard Read

Assume that a surgeon has discovered how to do brain surgery, that he can do only one a month, that 1,000 persons…

— Leonard Read

Such terms as communism, socialism, Fabianism, the welfare state, Nazism, fascism, state interventionism, egalitarianism, the planned economy, the New Deal, the Fair…

— Leonard Read

There could be no greater error than to conclude that statism caused prosperity.

— Leonard Read

I would have government defend the life and property of all citizens equally; protect all willing exchange; suppress and penalize all fraud,…

— Leonard Read

The American people are becoming more and more afraid of, and are running away from, their own revolution.

— Leonard Read

We need only take our heads out of the sand to see clearly that interventionism not only has failed to provide the…

— Leonard Read

The more complex our economy, the more we should rely on the miraculous, self-adapting processes of men acting freely. No mind of…

— Leonard Read

Statism, which forces all of us within its orbit, is nothing but a political system of organized plunder, managed by every conceivable…

— Leonard Read

Were it necessary to bring a majority into a comprehension of the libertarian philosophy, the cause of liberty would be utterly hopeless.…

— Leonard Read

The free market opens the way for men to operate at their moral best, and all observation confirms that the poor fare…

— Leonard Read

...the greatest political problem facing the world today is...how to curb the oppressive power of government, how to keep it within reasonable…

— Leonard Read

True, the free market ignores the poor precisely as it does not recognize the wealthy - it is 'no respecter of persons'

— Leonard Read