Collected Thoughts and Quotes About The Constitution, Liberty, and the Proper Role of Government

• As government expands, liberty contracts. President Ronald Reagan
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• If the desire of your heart is to shackle your neighbor, or to take from him for your own gain, government is the surest way. But be warned, by the same chains you forge for him, you too will be bound until you both are enslaved and impoverished. There will always be someone ready and willing to shackle and plunder you with the very tools of bondage you yourself made to shackle your neighbor. (JB)
  
  
  • The chains with which we bind our neighbor will someday bind us. (JB)
    
    
  • Unchecked, the common good eventually becomes common bondage. (JB)
    
    
  • The fundamental role of government is to protect rights, not take them away. (JB)
    
    
  • The more you advance tyranny and bondage for some, the more you advance it for all, including yourself. (JB)
    
    
  • Elected officials can be either the great protectors or the great destructors of freedom. (JB)
    
    
  • For some people, freedom means free to choose their own destiny. For other people, freedom means free to choose the destiny of others. (JB)
    
    
  • You either believe in freedom or you don't. If you act to destroy it by taking it from another, you don't believe in it. (JB)
    
    
    
• "...nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." Fifth Amendment, US Constitution
  
  
• "In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property." The Communist Manifesto
  
  
• Marxism and Property Rights
  
  
• Taking from one to give to the whole is socialism, especially with no concern or just compensation for the one. (JB)
  
  
• When a people, city, or nation decides abuse the noble authority of democracy to rob the rights and freedom of the individual, then democracy itself becomes the tyrant and the oppressor. (JB)
  
  
• "We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force." Ayn Rand
  
  
• "The Founders never intended for Americans to trust their government. Our entire Constitution was predicated on the notion that government was a necessary evil, to be restrained and minimized as much as possible." Rand Paul
  
  
• There are two types of people in the world: Those who want to run their own lives, and those who want to run the lives of others. (JB)
  
  
• “Democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51% of the people may take away the rights of the other 49%.” (More on Mob Rule/Source)
  
  
• A democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. What the wolves want matters, but so does what the sheep wants. (Source)
  
  
• Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent value is the equal sharing of misery. (Winston Churchill)
  
  
• The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. (Winston Churchill)
  
  
• Democratic Socialism: Where everything is free...except you. (Random Meme on Facebook)
  
  
• It is easy being communist in a free country. Try being free in a communist country. (Random Meme on Facebook)
  
  
• 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 weakness, or that the failure of anyone else may be due to his own defects - his laziness, incompetence, improvidence, or stupidity. (Henry Hazlitt)
  
  
• Man shall be ruled by law not by other men....Let my people go! (Moses in the Movie The Ten Commandments)
  
  
• People who have never been the target of government overreach or abuse are much less likely to see the need to keep the role of government in check. It is tempting to want to grow the power of government if you've never been harmed by government having too much power. Before using the government to control or take from someone else, imagine yourself as being the one controlled or taken from. (JB)
  
  
• Some people view the government as a means to achieve legal theft of other people's stuff or rights. (JB)
  
  
• "When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know that your society is doomed." Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
  
  
• "Socialism = giving the government immense power to control almost every aspect of your life. While you may believe the current politician who is peddling this ridiculous notion is moral enough to handle that power with care, who is to say the next one will be, or the next one, or the next one. Politicians have agendas and agendas change. I realize that you feel you are being benevolent by voting for socialism, with the idea that you give the government enough power and they will take care of the poor, the hungry, and the needy, but that is simply not reality. Every single socialist government ever established has ended in bloodshed... every... single... one... As you may have heard, 'socialism is something you vote your way into but have to shoot your way out of...'" Brian Critchfield (See www.UnrighteousDominion.com and Wicked Kings.)
  
  
• Perhaps the amount of control the government should have over our lives should be limited to the level government is competent and moral. There are many public servants (both elected and staff) who are truly honest, decent, moral, competent, professional, and fully committed to serving the public, while not abusing their power. Sadly, all too often, public servants abuse their authority over our lives to advance their own self interest, deprive us of rightful liberties, or simply incompetently waste our resources, freedom, and opportunities by pointless regulation or excessive taxation. Thus, it is essential to limit government authority due to its limited ability to guarantee moral and competent governance. (JB)
  
  
• "You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves." (Rev. William John Henry Boetcker. Abbreviated.)
  
  
• “You will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make a good use of it.” John Adams
  
  
• “The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive.” Thomas Jefferson
  
  
• “Politicians don't solve your problems, they solve their own problems.” Thomas Sowell
  
  
• “I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.” Thomas Sowell
  
  
• “Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.” Thomas Sowell
  
  
• “Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.” Thomas Sowell
  
  
• “Socialism is a wonderful idea. It is only as a reality that it has been disastrous. Among people of every race, color, and creed, all around the world, socialism has led to hunger in countries that used to have surplus food to export.... Nevertheless, for many of those who deal primarily in ideas, socialism remains an attractive idea -- in fact, seductive. Its every failure is explained away as due to the inadequacies of particular leaders.” Thomas Sowell
  
  
• “Despite a voluminous and often fervent literature on "income distribution," the cold fact is that most income is not distributed: It is earned.” Thomas Sowell
  
  
• “Since this is an era when many people are concerned about 'fairness' and 'social justice,' what is your 'fair share' of what someone else has worked for?” Thomas Sowell
  
  
• “The fact that the market is not doing what we wish it would do is no reason to automatically assume that the government would do better.” Thomas Sowell
  
  
• “If politicians stopped meddling with things they don't understand, there would be a more drastic reduction in the size of government than anyone in either party advocates.” Thomas Sowell
  
  
• “The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy.” Thomas Sowell
  
  
• “Virtually no idea is too ridiculous to be accepted, even by very intelligent and highly educated people, if it provides a way for them to feel special and important. Some confuse that feeling with idealism.” Thomas Sowell
  
  

(JB) Quote by Jason Barney

Scriptural Warnings Against the Tyranny of Man

Quotes About Land Use Regulation (Zoning Law)

Quotes on Freedom by Eric Hoffer