Hans F. Sennholz Quotes
A government debt is a government claim against personal income and private property - an unpaid tax bill.
A 'social justice' society is a conflict which locks beneficiaries and victims alike in a struggle without end. It becomes a society torn apart by resentment over the wealth of capitalists.
No other commodity enjoys as much universal acceptability and marketability as gold.
Unfortunately, it is not in the power of government to make everyone more prosperous. Government can only raise the income of one person by taking from another.
War cannot be driven out by war, for the use of evil breeds more evil, hostility more hostility, and the use of force more force.
Political power intoxicates the best hearts. No man is wise enough, nor good enough, to be trusted with much political power.
The government transfers income and wealth according to the rules of politics, which make politicians the primary beneficiaries of the system, and the poor and needy the primary victims.
Instead of safeguarding truth and honesty, the state then tends to become a major source of insincerity and mendacity.
The gold standard sooner or later will return with the force and inevitability of natural law, for it is the money of freedom and honesty.
The gold standard, in one form or another, will prevail long after the present rash of national fiats is forgotten or remembered only in currency museums.
Government is rather ill-suited and poorly equipped to alleviate the plight of the poor. It lacks moral rules or standards, and is devoid of basic principles in economic and social matters.
...there seems to be a correlation between the intensity of the official attacks on gold and the severity of monetary crises.
The transfer society is forever testing the bounds of patience of taxpayers. Having reached the limit and still facing loud demands for more benefits, it resorts to deficit financing.
An ounce of gold is an ounce of gold, whether it consists of guineas, sovereigns or eagles.
Freedom is the quality of being free from the control of regulators and tax collectors. If I want to be free their control, I must not impose controls on others.
The history of fiat money is little more than a register of monetary follies and inflations. Our present age merely affords another entry in this dismal register.
Envy is more irreconcilable than hate. It is the most corroding of all political vices and also a great power in our land. The friends of freedom are content to be envied, but envy not.
The popular notion that an increase in the stock of money is socially and economically beneficial and desirable is one of the great fallacies of our time.
Inflationism is a dreadful cancer that is gnawing at the backbone of the civilized order.
A monetary order created and managed by politicians and officials is bound to disappoint.
There is no escape from the vast imbalances in international trade and finance. They will be corrected, sooner or later, by the inexorable principles that govern human action.
Since there is no orderly way to liquidate the federal debt, we must brace for a payment crisis.