Voices of Liberty

Advancing individual liberty through the words of its greatest defenders 🗽 More: @MiltonFriedmanW, @DailySowell. Follow VoL on Substack for analysis & essays!

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Roger Scruton recalls the exact moment he became a conservative during the 1968 Paris riots:

“When I looked down the street and saw all these rowdy students throwing stones at policemen, I just said to myself, ‘Whatever they believe, I believe the opposite.’”

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“From the fact that people are very different it follows that, if we treat them equally, the result must be inequality in their actual position, and that the only way to place them in an equal position would be to treat them differently.”

— F. A. Hayek

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Henry Hazlitt delivers a devastating critique of Marxism:

“The whole gospel of Karl Marx can be summed up in a single sentence: Hate the man who is better off than you are.

Never under any circumstances admit that his success may be due to his own efforts, to the productive contribution he has made to the whole community.

Always attribute his success to the exploita­tion, the cheating, the more or less open robbery of others.

Never under any circumstances admit that your own failure may be owing to your own weaknesses, or that the failure of anyone else may be due to his own defects—his laziness, incompetence, im­providence, or stupidity.”

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“A society dies when it cares more about exhibiting infinite tolerance and empathy than invoking its survival instinct.”

— Gad Saad

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“Politicians gain power by expanding the state at the expense of citizens’ freedom. For politicians, sacrificing the future for the present will always be profitable.”

— Javier Milei

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“If you think tough men are dangerous, wait until you see what weak men are capable of.”

— Jordan Peterson

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“To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead.”

— Thomas Paine

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“The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem and very often makes the problem worse.”

— Milton Friedman

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“New ideas develop when you can talk about them with other people. If you can’t discuss ideas freely because there is a ‘correct’ view, you soon cease to have new ideas.”

— Margaret Thatcher

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“Everyone is in favour of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people’s idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage.”

— Winston Churchill

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“Government cannot make us equal; it can only recognize, respect, and protect us as equal before the law.”

— Justice Clarence Thomas

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“Give a man a fish and he will ask for tartar sauce and French fries. Moreover, some politician who wants his vote will declare all these things to be among his ‘basic rights.’”

— Thomas Sowell

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“The ruler is the boat; the people are the water. Water can carry the boat, but it can also overturn it.”

— Xunzi

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“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.”

— H. L. Mencken

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“In the fascist states a socialist is often regarded as a potential recruit, while the liberal of the old school is recognized as the arch-enemy.”

— F. A. Hayek

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Roger Scruton on why so many intellectuals are drawn to the left & what it means to be an intellectual conservative:

“If you start thinking about politics in an intellectual way, you are likely to be on the left, because that provides a systematic solution, an answer to the questions, puts it all in a system, and also gives you a rather dignified and self-congratulatory place in the system.

But if you think a bit harder and longer about it, you’ll move back to what you would have been if you had never thought at all. That’s my view of what an intellectual conservative is: it’s someone who articulates the real reasons for not having reasons.”

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“If you suppress the individual, you diminish not only the wealth but the spirit on which the community depends.”

— Margaret Thatcher

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“Economic planning is nothing more than the forcible superseding of other people’s plans by the powerful elite backed up by the brute force of government.”

— Walter Williams

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“Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.”

— Calvin Coolidge