Andrew Bernstein Quotes

Now I call myself a bleeding heart libertarian. Because I do believe in the principles of Libertarianism as an ideal - because I'm an idealist.

Libertarian principles are very simple, but you can't violate any of them and still call yourself Libertarian.

The foundations of liberty are private property and the rule of law; this system guarantees the fewest possible forms of injustice, produces the greatest material and cultural progress, most effectively stems violence and provides the greatest respect for human rights. According to this concept of liberalism, freedom is a single, unified concept. Political and economic liberties are as inseparable as the two sides of a medal.

The idea is that the state doesn't have rights to limit individuals' wants and passions. I disagree with that.

I would consider myself a rather staunch libertarian.

I'm as radical as libertarians come.

A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation.

We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.

I do not expect any help for a libertarian revolution from any Government in the world…

We did not become libertarians because we are altruists.

The great thing about libertarianism is it really is the American dream: It's the ability of everybody to live their life and build their life according to what they want, so long as they don't hurt anybody else.

Libertarianism is on its way!

I am more of a constitutionalist libertarian.

Libertarianism is 'cultish,' say the sophisticates. Of course, there's nothing cultish at all about allegiance to the state, with its flags, its songs, its mass murders, its little children saluting and paying homage to pictures of their dear leaders on the wall, etc.

To work for libertarianism - to oppose the growth of government and aid the liberation of the individual - used to be an idealistic choice taken for purely idealistic reasons. Now it is an act of intelligent and almost desperate self-defense.

And when you look at the twentieth-century experiment with collectivism-that Ayn Rand, more than anybody else, did such a good job of articulating the pitfalls of statism and collectivism-you can't find another thinker or writer who did a better job of describing and laying out the moral case for capitalism than Ayn Rand.

Capitalism is the only economic system compatible with free individuals

At first the relevance of chattel slavery to libertarian ideals was noted only in individual passages of isolated pamphlets.

Laissez-faire capitalism is the only social system based on the recognition of individual rights and, therefore, the only system that bans force from social relationships.

I do not share the general view that market forces are the basis of personal liberty.

The very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism.

Our economic freedom is founded on individual property rights; government should never be permitted to take those away.

You have to be careful as a libertarian because you can sound very Republican.

Government has a legitimate function, but the private sector has one too, and it is superior. In other words, people are better than institutions.