The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all.
Democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.
The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
Yeah, I'm not crazy about paying taxes, but I do like having sewers.
Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him had better take a closer look at the American Indian.
The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos.
There is no period in human history in which the ordinary man - the ordinary man - had as great an improvement in his lot in life as in the nineteenth century in the United States, when the government was of trivial importance.
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.