There's a smokestack on the back of every government program.

A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.

If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.

Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.

You cannot be sure that you are right unless you understand the arguments against your views better than your opponents do.

The essential notion of a capitalist society ... is voluntary cooperation, voluntary exchange. The essential notion of a socialist society is force.

I am favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible.

The great advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science or literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.

You cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state.

The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.

The Vice-Presidency is sort of like the last cookie on the plate. Everybody insists he won't take it, but somebody always does.

The man who attempts to live for others is a dependent. He is a parasite in motive and makes parasites of those he serves.

Over the course of two terms, President Reagan revolutionized the Republican Party and changed the political atmosphere in a way still being felt today.

When people aren't having any fun, they seldom produce good work. Kill the grimness with laughter. Encourage exuberance. Get rid of sad dogs that spread gloom.

You can always land on your feet if you know where the ground is.

[On leaving the U.S. for Italy:] I ought to be accomplishing thrice as much as now, and feel that I am soul-bound and thought-bound in this land of dollars and cents.

Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down.

Let us have an education, that shall practically develop our thinking faculties and manhood; and then, and only then, shall we be able to vie with our oppressors, go where we may . . .

Most of your suffering comes from the lack of understanding of yourself and others.

If I want to be free from any other man's dictation, I must understand that I can have no other man under my control.