Quotes from Hans F. Sennholz

The gold standard sooner or later will return with the force and inevitability of natural law, for it is the money of freedom and honesty.

The history of fiat money is little more than a register of monetary follies and inflations. Our present age merely affords another entry in this dismal register.

Sound money and free banking are not impossible; they are merely illegal.

The popular notion that an increase in the stock of money is socially and economically beneficial and desirable is one of the great fallacies of our time.

The government transfers income and wealth according to the rules of politics, which make politicians the primary beneficiaries of the system, and the poor and needy the primary victims.

Unfortunately, it is not in the power of government to make everyone more prosperous. Government can only raise the income of one person by taking from another.

A government debt is a government claim against personal income and private property - an unpaid tax bill.

Envy is more irreconcilable than hate. It is the most corroding of all political vices and also a great power in our land. The friends of freedom are content to be envied, but envy not.

Political power intoxicates the best hearts. No man is wise enough, nor good enough, to be trusted with much political power.

A 'social justice' society is a conflict which locks beneficiaries and victims alike in a struggle without end. It becomes a society torn apart by resentment over the wealth of capitalists.

The transfer society is forever testing the bounds of patience of taxpayers. Having reached the limit and still facing loud demands for more benefits, it resorts to deficit financing.

Instead of safeguarding truth and honesty, the state then tends to become a major source of insincerity and mendacity.

Freedom is the quality of being free from the control of regulators and tax collectors. If I want to be free their control, I must not impose controls on others.

War cannot be driven out by war, for the use of evil breeds more evil, hostility more hostility, and the use of force more force.

Peace is the natural state of man, war the temporary repeal of reason and virtue.

Sound money and free banking are not impossible; they are merely illegal. Freedom of money and freedom of banking... are the principles that must guide our steps.

There is no escape from the vast imbalances in international trade and finance. They will be corrected, sooner or later, by the inexorable principles that govern human action.