Wendell Phillips Quotes

The less government we have, the better—the fewer laws, and the less confided power.

The more reason, the less government.

That government is best which governs least.

We must introduce a new balance in the relationship between the individual and the government--a balance that favors greater individual freedom and self-reliance.

There are some libertarians who are really anarchists, but others are more concerned about the distant relationship between themselves and power. They mistakenly think they want to get rid of government when instead they might just want to have greater access to power.

My political philosophy as a libertarian says that government has no business intervening in any consensual private behavior. My professional ethic as a thinker and writer, however, says that self-knowledge is our ultimate responsibility

My claim is that we should focus on the values of liberty... If there is not government to insist on those values, then who? ... The single unifying force should be that we govern ourselves.

The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom...

If the individual has a right to govern himself, all external government is tyranny. Hence the necessity of abolishing the State.

I wrote about why I didn't think libertarians are really doing this kind of thing so that they can have sex with dogs. I discussed some of the reasons that a person might want to live out of the control of our federal, state, local, and every other form of government. Actually, I don't think I even called myself a libertarian. I think Tom Shroder identified me as one.

I don't see myself as conservative, but I'm not ultra-leftist. You build a philosophy of your own. I like the libertarian view, which is to leave everyone alone. Even as a kid, I was annoyed by people who wanted to tell everyone how to live.

I know of no better name than Anarchism.

Anarchists are simply unterrified Jeffersonian Democrats.

I love my government not least for the extent to which it leaves me alone.

Government is to point you in the right direction, and not to do everything for you.

People are probably going to realize they can live with a lot less government than what they thought they needed.

It's the libertarians who want to reclaim decision-making for themselves. It's the small government folks who see government as a great Leviathan gobbling up more and more of their treasure and freedoms.

I believe in small government and people taking care of themselves.

I actually don't believe in big government, and half the time I'm never quite sure I believe in government, generally.

You came out of your mother’s belly without government. You have lived so far without the help of government …. How many people in this world live without government, yet do well enough, and are well looked upon?

What government is best? That which teaches us to govern ourselves.

I want a government that does nothing.

We can restore liberty by taking government out of our bedrooms, our bloodstreams, our bladders, our brains, our businesses and our back-pockets.

Liberty has never come from government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of government. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of government power, not the increase of it.

That government is best which makes itself unnecessary.