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This right to life, this right to liberty, and this right to pursue one’s happiness is unabashedly individualistic, without in the slightest denying at the same time our thoroughly social nature. It’s only that our social relations, while vital to us all, must be chosen—that is what makes the crucial difference.

— Tibor R. Machan

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More quotes by Tibor R. Machan

Without a market in which allocations can be made in obedience to the law of supply and demand, it is difficult or impossible to funnel resources with respect to actual human preferences and goals.

Ethics requires the kind of personal reflection, in the end, that no one else can do decisively for any individual.

The Promise of Liberty: A Non-Utopian Vision (2009)

The institution of taxation is not a civilized but a barbaric method to fund anything... it amounts to... a gross violation of human liberty.

If one behaved as a good citizen or a charitable person simply because one was dreadfully scared of the state placing one in jail, one would not be a good citizen or person but barely more than a circus animal.

Classical Individualism: The Supreme Importance of Each Human Being (1998)

Regulatory policies are inherently redistributive; that is, they involve the seizure of earned income for purposes of allocating this income in ways the government’s policymakers believe are more important than do those whose income has been seized.

Private Rights and Public Illusions (1994)

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