Leonard Read Quotes

Socialism takes and redistributes wealth, but it is utterly incapable of creating wealth.

...the greatest political problem facing the world today is...how to curb the oppressive power of government, how to keep it within reasonable bounds.

In market terms, one is entitled to what others will offer in willing exchange. That is all!

What precisely is this disease that causes inflation and all these other troubles? It has many popular names, such as socialism, communism, state interventionism, and welfare statism.

The American people are becoming more and more afraid of, and are running away from, their own revolution.

There is no moral distinction between the act of a pickpocket and the progressive income tax.

There is no moral distinction between petty thievery and 'from each according to ability, to each according to need.'

There could be no greater error than to conclude that statism caused prosperity.

Statism, which forces all of us within its orbit, is nothing but a political system of organized plunder, managed by every conceivable type of pressure group.

The advancement of freedom is not a matter of who wields political power over creative actions; rather, it depends upon the disassembling of such power.

The proper and limited use of government is to invoke a common justice and keep the peace - and that is all.

The libertarian can have no truck with 'left' or 'right' because he regrets any form of authoritarianism - the use of police force to control the creative life of man.

Is it not obvious that the more complex an economy, the more certainly will governmental control of productive effort exert a retarding influence?

Socialistic practices are now so ingrained in our thinking, so customary, so much a part of our mores, that we take them for granted.

Under both the welfare state and communism, the responsibility for the welfare, security, and prosperity of the people is presumed to rest with the central government.

There is no greater dishonesty than man effecting his own private gains at the expense of others.

True, the free market ignores the poor precisely as it does not recognize the wealthy - it is 'no respecter of persons'

Governments resort to inflation with popular support because the people apparently are naïve enough to believe that they can have their cake and eat it, too.

No one has more than scratched the surface when it comes to understanding and explaining the miracle of the market.

The system of plunder derives much of its support from individuals who do not subscribe to socialism but who say, 'We're paying for it, so we might as well get our share'

If we remove the hope of profit as a means to alleviate misfortune - poverty, illness, misery, disaster - we shall increase our misfortunes and make them permanent.

The solution to this problem [welfare-statism] must take a positive form: the restoration of a faith in what free men can accomplish.