Adam Smith Quotes

Luxury and Extravagance are in my opinion totally destructive to those virtues which are necessary for the Preservation of the Liberty and Happiness of the People.

It is true that liberty is not free, nor is it easy. But tyranny - even varying degrees of it - is much more difficult, and much more expensive. The time has come to rein in the federal government, put it on a crash diet, and let the people keep their money and their liberty.

We stand up and proudly proclaim that Washington is not our caretaker and we reject a state, in Margaret Thatcher's words, a state that takes too much from us to do too much for us.

Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success.

Coolidge believed that government officials who tell themselves that spending benefits the economy delude themselves and the citizens. Government budgets promote human freedom.

Opposing the free flow of goods or people is a bad idea.

This is a free country but the upkeep is killing us.

In 200 years when the United States will get all that it can from protectionism, it too will adopt free trade.

Back home in Maine people tend to think that there should be a balance between money coming in and money going out in their own lives, in their businesses and the Federal government.

A national debt is the price of liberty.

If a foreign country can make a good cheaper than we can better buy it from them.

I personally do not believe in protection mechanisms. It’s like a false friend. It makes you believe that you can compete, but you can’t compete and as the protection mechanisms fall away—the world is going for this—then you are in trouble.

Americans can and do vote with their feet against high levels of government spending and high income, property and sales taxes by moving from one state to another. But no one should have to leave the United States to find greater economic and personal liberty.

Every time you go for more competition, some people don’t like it, but that’s the way it is. We believe it is better for the people.

Every dollar the government doesn't spend, tax, or borrow is a dollar that businesses and families can spend or invest themselves.

People understand that they can spend their money better than the government can.

As the party that believes in economic freedom and low taxes, it is scandalous that we have presided over the tax burden rising for hardworking families and businesses.

The American people aren't overtaxed. The government in Washington is overfed. The main difference between ourselves and the other side is: we see an America where every day is the Fourth of July. They see an America where every day is April 15.

It is the highest impertinence and presumption, therefore, in kings and ministers to pretend to watch over the economy of private people, and to restrain their expense. They are themselves, always, and without any exception, the greatest spendthrifts in the society.

Are you entitled to the fruits of your own labor or does government have some presumptive right to spend and spend and spend?

What does it mean when Republicans and Democrats alike warn us about the 'pain' involved in cutting government spending - in their spending less of our money? For the average citizen, what pain is there in his keeping more of his money to invest it the way he wants? Taxes cost people. Tax cuts do not cost government.

To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.

When taxes are too high, people go hungry. When the government is too intrusive, people lose their spirit. Act for the people's benefit. Trust them; leave them alone.

It is impossible to grasp the meaning of the idea of sound money if one does not realize that it was devised as an instrument for the protection of civil liberties against despotic inroads on the part of governments.

Capitalism has given people both the liberty and the incentive to create, produce, and trade, thereby generating prosperity.