Henry Hazlitt Quotes

The maxim, that governments ought to train the people in the way in which they should go, sounds well. But is there any reason for believing that a government is more likely to lead the people in the right way than the people to fall into the right way of themselves?

This administration in Washington that's in power now clearly believes that government is not only the answer to every need, but it's the most qualified to make the most central decisions for every American in every area.

Vain hope to make people happy by politics!

Governments never lead; they follow progress

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it

No matter how deeply wedded one may be to the free enterprise system (and I, for one, am wedded for life), one has to accept the need for positive government; one has to consider government action on a sizable scale as desirable rather than as a necessary evil.

It is very hard now to shock people into thinking about government regulation and the extent of government involvement in life.

Conservatives say the government can't end poverty by force, but they believe it can use force to make people moral. Liberals say government can't make people be moral, but they believe it can end poverty. Neither group attempts to explain why government is so clumsy and destructive in one area but a paragon of efficiency and benevolence in the other.

So we [Americans] have a history a taking care of each other. Now, for some strange reason starting sort of in the 20's with Woodrow Wilson, the government started getting involved in everything.

There is simply no other choice than this: either to abstain from interference in the free play of the market, or to delegate the entire management of production and distribution to the government. Either capitalism or socialism: there exists no middle way.

I have more government than I want, more government than I need, more government than I can afford.

There have been waves of reform in the past. I see no reason why they wouldn't happen again.

I'm not afraid to shake up the system, and government needs more shaking up than any other system I know.

Change doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington

I am against market fundamentalism. I think this propaganda that government involvement is always bad has been very successful - but also very harmful to our society.

It is not the policy of the government in America to give aid to works of any kind. They let things take their natural course without help or impediment, which is generally the best policy.

I fear that, as conditions worsen, many will react to the failures of too much government by calling for even more government. Then there will be more and more lifeboats launched because fewer and fewer citizens know how to swim. Unlike some pendulums, political pendulums to not swing back automatically; they must be pushed. History is full of instances when people have waited in vain for pendulums to swing back.

It's time for the government to scale back, not for people of faith to scale back!

If you surrender everything to the government and give it total power to plan the whole economy, this will not guarantee your economic security, but it will guarantee the descent of the entire nation to a level of miserable poverty--as the practical results of every totalitarian economy, communist or fascist, have demonstrated.

Government is not capable of caring. Government gets things done through coercion. They fine, they penalize, they tax, they confiscate, they jail, they bully to get what they want.

What is politically defined as economic planning is the forcible superseding of other people's plans by Government officials.

You need a government that believes in government. It also believes in markets and wants to give markets the best, the greatest opportunity, but is trying to govern well.

Everything you heard about me is true. . . . I am not a free marketer. . . . I believe in the heavy hand of government.

If government could create jobs and raise children, socialism would have worked.

Americans are sick of the idea of the government taking over everything and trying to run it. We don't know how to run a bank, a car company.