Robert LeFevre on Politics

"Formal government can be defined as: a group of men who sell retribution to the inhabitants of a limited geographic area at monopolistic prices."

"What you want is protection. You want to be safe. What the government does is to try to retaliate after the fact."

"Very few men advocate government control over themselves. But they constantly believe that others must be controlled by some outside force."

"If men are good, you don’t need government; if men are evil or ambivalent, you don’t dare have one."

"Government may be intrinsically evil; clearly they operate on the basis of tax predation."

"Does government protection protect? It doesn't do anything of the sort. It takes vengeance in your name after you've been hurt and calls it protection."

"Now, where did we ever get the idea that there is such a thing as 'good government?' That is a contradiction in terms as ridiculous as 'constructive rape.'"

"Government, when it is examined, turns out to be nothing more nor less than a group of fallible men with the political force to act as though they were infallible."

"An anarchist is anyone who believes in less government than you do."

"I carry no brief in favor of the criminal. That is why I carry no brief in defense of those in government. Setting a thief to catch a thief doubles the amount of loot stolen."

"Politics may be defined as: the method adopted in governments for obtaining motivation toward a monopoly. In all political actions, a monopoly of control and method is sought."

"Government is a disease masquerading as its own cure."

"Government doesn't cure problems. It aggravates them."

"In brief, let us define the anarchist as a political individualist and an economic socialist. In contrast, the libertarian can be defined as an individualist, both politically and economically."

"I demonstrated that slavery is rationalized, under the name of government and politics, because of the belief that if we didn’t enslave others, the others would enslave us. Thus, we practice slavery on some in order that others should be free."

"If men are capable of committing evil actions, granting them power over others makes evil actions certain. But there is a difference. When men in government commit and evil act, they are legally shielded from their consequences of the act. ** p. 487"

"And thus we see the government is at once both protector and predator. It is not that governments begin in virtue only to end in sin. Government begins by protecting some against others and ends up protecting itself against everyone. This is the course of history."

"Economically speaking, all anarchists are socialists, however they may coalesce to the political spectrum. Economically speaking, the libertarian is an individualist, believing in and supporting the concept of private ownership, individual responsibility and self-government."

"Since I favor total self-control—absolute government of the individual over himself—I believe autarchy more accurately describes, in a positive fashion, the kind of situation I consider most desirable. Some dictionaries define autarchy as a kind of tyranny or despotism, but of necessity it is limited to self-application."

"But history shows repeatedly the madness of crowds and the irrationality of majorities. The only conceivable merit relating to majority rule lies in the fact that if we obtain monopoly decisions by this process, we will coerce fewer persons than if we permit the minority to coerce the majority. But implicit in all political voting is the necessity to coerce some so that all are controlled."

"The government is an agency of legalized force. It has exhibited skill and efficiency in only one area—that of collecting whatever it wants from the populace. There are three things government traditionally takes away from the people over whom it exercises coercion. It takes their money and we call it ‘taxation.’ It takes their property and we call it ‘eminent domain.’ Or, it takes them as people. We call this a ‘draft.’"