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The only proper role of government, according to libertarians, is that of the protector of the citizen against aggression by other individuals. The government, of course, should never initiate aggression; its proper role is as the embodiment of the retaliatory use of force against anyone who initiates its use.

— John Hospers The Libertarian Alternative (1977)

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More quotes by John Hospers

If each human being is to have liberty, he cannot also have the liberty to deprive others of their liberty.

Libertarianism: A Political Philosophy for Tomorrow (1971)

Liberty (or freedom) is the absence of coercion by other human beings.

Libertarianism: A Political Philosophy for Tomorrow (1971)

The greater the hold of government upon the life of the individual citizen, the greater the risk of war.

Libertarianism: A Political Philosophy for Tomorrow (1971)

A fascist is a student who, seeing the representatives of a chemical industry recruiting on campus, cries, ‘Let's chase the bastard off! We have the right to free speech but he doesn't!’

Libertarianism: A Political Philosophy for Tomorrow (1971)

Beware: the Government Is Armed and Dangerous.

The Libertarian Alternative (1977)

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Ill can he rule the great, that cannot reach the small.

Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene (1589)

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

James Madison

Bureaucracy and social harmony are inversely proportional to each other.

Leon Trotsky The Revolution Betrayed (1936)

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

John Adams

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Hospers (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.