The State is, and always has been, the great single enemy of the human race, its liberty, happiness, and progress.
Murray RothbardIt is easy to be conspicuously 'compassionate' if others are being forced to pay the cost.
Murray RothbardJust as no one is morally required to answer a robber truthfully when he asks if there are any valuables in oneโs house, so no one can be morally required to answer truthfully similar questions asked by the State, e.g., when filling out income tax returns.
Murray RothbardInstead of a bumbling and inefficient tool of society, the radical [libertarian] sees the State itself, in its very nature, as coercive, exploitative, parasitic, and hence profoundly antisocial. The State is, and always has been, the great single enemy of the human race, its liberty, happiness, and progress.
Murray RothbardThe state has typically been a device for producing affluence for a few at the expense of many.
Murray Rothbard[W]hich category of crimes does the State pursue and punish most intensely? [T]hose against private citizens or those against itself? The gravest crimes in the State's lexicon are almost invariably not invasions of private person or property, but dangers to its own contentment, for example, treason, desertion of a soldier to the enemy, failure to register for the draft, subversion and subversive conspiracy, assassination of rulers and such economic crimes against the State as counterfeiting its money or evasion of its income tax.
Murray Rothbard