All Robert Higgs Quotes
- Since the end of the nineteenth century, if not earlier, presidents have misled the public about their motives and their intentions in going to war. Century
- ...History shows that ... (people) can be deflected from their natural tendencies by artful propaganda, bogus crises, or other political trickery. Artful
- When American presidents prepare for foreign wars, they lie. American
- 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… Absence
- It is a sound interpretive rule...that anything that cannot be accomplished except with the aid of threats or the actual exercise of violence against unoffending… Accomplished
- Voting, the be all and end all of modern democratic politicians, has become a farce, if indeed it was ever anything else. By voting, the… Accomplices
- In U.S. history, war has served as an important diversionary tactic, causing the people at large to shift their attention away from the state's own… Abroad
- True counselors of despair are those who hope against hope—and historical experience—that the government can and will act constructively. Act
- Nothing has done more to render modern economic theory a sterile and irrelevant exercise in autoeroticism than its practitioners’ obsession with mathematical, general-equilibrium models. Autoeroticism
- Without popular fear, no government would endure more than twenty-four hours. Endure
- The state is the most destructive institution human beings have ever devised - a fire that, at best, can be controlled for only a short… Beings
- H. L. Mencken famously said that 'every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.' By now, however, I am no longer ashamed,… Ashamed
- If anarchists are idealists, they may simply be likened to someone who finds himself swimming in a cesspool and, rather than paddling about looking for… Amount
- To continue on the road we Americans have traveled for the past century is ultimately to deliver ourselves completely into the hands of an unlimited… Americans
- By adopting programs to distribute substantial amounts of income, a nation guarantees that its government will become more powerful and invasive in other ways. Adopting
- In debates between anarchists and statists, the burden of proof clearly should rest on those who place their trust in the state. Anarchy's mayhem is… Anarchist
- The beginning of political wisdom is the realization that despite everything you’ve always been taught, the government is not really on your side; indeed, it… Been
- No doubt, anarchy, once established, might not last forever. But if your house is on fire, the sensible course of action is to put out… Action
- Of course, political leaders are much more ambitious than gangsters. The latter are content to take your money, whereas the former, besides taking far more… Ambitious
- Any society that entails the strengthening of the state apparatus by giving it unchecked control over the economy, and re-unites the polity and the economy,… Any
- Income inequality has no necessary connection with poverty, the lack of material resources for a decent life, such as adequate food, shelter, and clothing. A… Adequate
- Many anti-energy groups display little appreciation of the extent to which modern economies depend pervasively on the use of fossil fuels and petrochemical products. Anti