Lawrence Reed Quotes

#1. Our expensive welfare state is fueled by the destructive notion that 'greed' is when you want to keep your own money but 'compassion' is when you want to take somebody else's.

Lawrence Reed

#2. Anything short of the discipline and honesty of a true gold coin standard will inevitably self-destruct, consuming our wealth and liberties, and nurturing the omnipotent state.

Lawrence Reed

#3. On the silver screen, capitalists are usually vilified as greedy and heartless, while statists of every stripe are depicted as selfless, romantic idealists who only want to help people.

Lawrence Reed

#4. Free men are not equal and equal men are not free.

Lawrence Reed

#5. Pessimism is not only unwarranted, it is also a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you think the cause is lost, it will be. No one works hard for a cause they think will lose.

Lawrence Reed

#6. The greatest influence for good comes from those quiet folks who make morals, not moralizing, their vocation.

Lawrence Reed

#7. A statesman doesn't try to pull himself up by dragging someboy else down, and he doesn't try to convience people they're victims just so he can posture as their savior.

Lawrence Reed

#8. Marijuana has killed far fewer people than swimming pools; it's the war against it that does all the violence.

Lawrence Reed

#9. Because you can't redistribute anything to anybody if it's not created by somebody in the first place,

Lawrence Reed

#10. By mandating an even higher minimum, the living wage prices even more people out of work. The people who push these cockamamie ideas never seem to ask why any employer would hire someone at $8.23 if that person's services are only valued in the marketplace at, say, $5.00.

Lawrence Reed

#11. Money is an invention of the marketplace of exchange,
brought into being by traders
who discovered that a reliable medium
could facilitate trades that were more difficult
or even impossible by barter alone.

Lawrence Reed