Quotes from Ron Paul

A libertarian is somebody who believes, of course, in personal liberty. And liberty is a personal thing; it is not collective. You don't gain liberty because you belong to a group. So we don't talk about women's rights or gay rights or anything else. Everybody has an absolute equal right as an individual, and it comes to them naturally.

The idea that the government has services or goods that they can pass on is a complete farce. Governments have nothing. They can't create anything, they never have. All they can do is steal from one group and give it to another at the destruction of the principles of freedom, and we ought to challenge that concept.

Must there always be "wars and rumors of war"? Accepting the inevitability of war is one thing, but glorifying war in the name of God and claiming that it reflects strong character and patriotism is quite another.

government interventions create unintended consequences that lead to calls for further intervention, and so on into a destructive spiral of more and more government control.

1913 wasn't a very good year. 1913 gave us the income tax, the 16th amendment and the IRS.

Peaceful civil disobedience to unjust laws, which I support with every fiber of my being, can sometimes be necessary at any level of government. It falls upon the people, in the last resort, to stand against injustice no matter where it occurs.

Our goals can only be achieved with a society that respects and equally protects the rights of every human being, old and young, rich and poor, regardless of gender, color, race, or creed. We must reject the initiation of violence by individuals or government as morally repugnant.

Freedom means not only that our economic activity ought to be free and voluntary, but that government should stay out of our personal affairs as well.

Government does not create resources when it taxes people and prints money; it merely redistributes the wealth.

I always support secession, and I think that the founders made a mistake by not having that in the Constitution…

People tolerate taxes for a while because they have previously accumulated wealth. As the tax burden grows and productivity falls, tax revenue falls and the only answer seems to be higher taxes. If the people can no longer tolerate higher taxes, government merely borrows and creates new money, and then the inflation tax is paid with higher prices. The whole process destabilizes the political system and eventually becomes a threat to civilized progress.

Ideas are very important for the shaping of society. In fact, they are far more powerful than bombs or armies or guns. And this is because ideas are capable of spreading without limit. They are behind all the choices we make. They can transform the world in a way that governments and armies cannot. Fighting for liberty with ideas makes much more sense to me than fighting with guns or politics or political power. With ideas, we ca make real change that lasts.

But propaganda, fear, and threats of being accused of being unpatriotic and treasonous are powerful means of controlling the young soldiers who are told their fighting is crucial for the country's survival. It's the young soldiers who must risk and even lose their lives. It's the typical politicians, who have been around for thousands of years, who have continued the carnage with their humanitarian lies and demands for wars.

Liberty built civilization. It can rebuild civilization. And when the tides turn and the culture again celebrates what it means to be free, our battle will be won. It could happen in our time. It might happen after we are gone from this earth. But it will happen. Our job in this generation is to prepare the way.

Thanks to Edward Snowden and others, the great threat from the NSA surveillance is now more clearly understood. Current attacks on our liberties very greatly infringe the freedoms meant to be protected by the First and Fourth Amendments. If a whistle-blower reveals the truth about wrongful government actions, calls arise to charge him with treason for hating America. Allies become enemies when it becomes known that we spy on them as well, as it has now been revealed.

One thing for sure, Muhammad Ali stood his ground and refused to go thousands of miles from home to kill people who never did him any harm—a heroic stand. For this stand, he, like others, was arrested and faced imprisonment. What the government wants is efficient, sterile killers in immoral wars who can be awarded medals and paraded before cheering audiences as great patriotic defenders of our liberty.

Refuting the false promises requires philosophic understanding of economic interventionism, central banking, and the deeply flawed foreign policy of meddling in the affairs of other nations.

Critics become criminals since truth is anathema to an empire or any authoritarian government that depends on lies for its existence. The informant who provides the people with the truth cannot be protected by whistle-blower laws or the Constitution. It is the truth-tellers who are sent to prison or are killed while those who undermine our Constitution are promoted. This lasts until the corrupt government is dismantled.

For the same reason a disease cannot be cured by more of the germ that caused it, the inflation and debt accumulation of the Obama years will not inflate our way out of it.

The war propaganda effort requires demonizing the enemy, especially the leader of the country targeted. It's easier to convince people to sacrifice to fight another "Hitler" than an enemy who demonstrates an element of humanity. That is the role of the propagandists: Demonize and build hate regardless of how many lies have to be told.

Sadly this process started early in our history with Adams's Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798 and has continued through our history to the present day with Obama reinvigorating the Espionage Act of 1917.

Why volunteer to fight in wars that contribute nothing for our security and undermine our Constitution? More and more Americans are beginning to realize that the government has little to do with "defending our freedoms" or stopping terrorism.

But, no matter how big or small dictators are, they all accept 100 percent the principle that granting government authority to manipulate our lives and control our property is legitimate and morally acceptable.

The problem isn't with the choices made by central bankers. The problem is that they possess the power to make any choice at all.