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Whenever government assumes responsibility for the security, welfare, and prosperity of citizens, the costs of government rise beyond the point where it is politically expedient to cover them by direct tax levies.

— Leonard E. Read I Prefer Security to Freedom (1962)

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More quotes by Leonard E. Read

The lesson I have to teach is this: Leave all creative energies uninhibited. Merely organize society to act in harmony with this lesson.

Socialism is founded on a lie -- the premise that man knows more than he in fact does know.

Leonard E. Read Journal (1949)

Communism, socialism, the welfare state, et cetera, are essentially one and the same thing.

Leonard E. Read Journal (1949)

Civilization, I sometimes think, is little more than a thin veneer of culture covering a host of red-assed baboons!

Leonard E. Read Journal (1949)

It should be noted that people in the free market rarely bear false witness; integrity is the rule.

The Complete Works of Leonard E. Read (1976)

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