Top 60 John Stossel Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Fraud will always exist. Enforcement of anti-fraud laws is a useful deterrent, but in the end there’s no substitute for investor vigilance. Government regulations provide a false sense of security – and that’s worth less than no sense of security at all.”

— John Stossel

2. “Central authority is bad. The bias should be for freedom. And without a central authority, there are lots of little authorities, and we learn which ones to trust.”

— John Stossel

3. “Good government has to mean less government.”

— John Stossel

4. “Give me a break – They say taxes are inevitable, like death. At least death doesn’t come every year.”

— John Stossel

5. “Asking someone in the media about liberal bias is like asking a fish about water. ‘Huh, what are you talking about? Where is it?’”

— John Stossel

6. “A system that rewards politicians skilled at campaigning – which is the art of creating an illusion – and that puts hundreds of billions of coerced taxpayer dollars at the disposal of the winners will tend to attract men and women with a comparative advantage in manipulation.”

— John Stossel

7. “The people who tried government regulation have lives which are miserable.”

— John Stossel

8. “Why, in our ‘free’ country, do Americans meekly stand aside and let the state limit our choices, even when we are dying?”

— John Stossel

9. “People acting in their own self-interest is the fuel for all the discovery, innovation, and prosperity that powers the world.”

— John Stossel

10. “Saying that government is not the way to solve problems is not saying that humanity cannot solve its problems. What I’ve finally learned is this: Despite the obstacles created by governments, voluntary networks of private individuals – through voluntary exchange – solve all sorts of challenges.”

— John Stossel

11. “Happiness comes when we test our skills towards some meaningful purpose.”

— John Stossel

12. “Government has no wealth of its own. Before it gives anything to anyone, it must take from those who produced it.”

— John Stossel

13. “To finance ‘entitlement’ programs, the government threatens force against the taxpayers who provide the money. Why are people who favor compulsion called humanitarians, while those who favor freedom are stigmatized as greedy?”

— John Stossel

14. “Companies don’t get rich hurting their customers.”

— John Stossel

15. “Liberalism had come to mean spending more on everything-speech police, failed poverty programs that reward dependence, a bigger nanny state telling us we cannot eat fatty foods, workplace roles that stifle opportunity, and absurd environmental regulations.”

— John Stossel

16. “Entitlement? How can you be entitled to someone else’s money?”

— John Stossel

17. “You can either invade a country or leave them alone and trade with them. When goods cross borders, armies don’t.”

— John Stossel

18. “When entrepreneurs are free to compete, they grow the pie so that everyone’s share gets larger.”

— John Stossel

19. “As coercive monopolies that spend other people’s money taken by force, governments are uniquely unqualified to solve problems. They are riddled by ignorance, perverse incentives, incompetence and self-serving.”

— John Stossel

20. “Government has no money of its own. All it does is take resources from one group and given them to another.”

— John Stossel

21. “All our rights are gradually eroded as government gets bigger.”

— John Stossel

22. “A handful of people who probably never even ran a small business actually think they can reinvent the health care system.”

— John Stossel

23. “Donald Trump was offended when I called him a bully for trying to force an old lady out of her house to make more room for his Atlantic City casino. After the interview, the producer stayed behind to pack up our equipment. Trump came back into the room, puffed himself up, and started blustering, “Nobody talks to me that way!” Well, someone should.”

— John Stossel

24. “Take away the government’s monopoly, and private groups will do it better.”

— John Stossel

25. “Where I live in Manhattan and where I work at ABC, people say ‘conservative’ the way people say ‘child molester.’”

— John Stossel

26. “Nothing keeps a company honest and efficient like the threat of other companies coming along and taking its business away.”

— John Stossel

27. “The happiest stutterers, I learned, are those who are willing to stutter in front of others.”

— John Stossel

28. “What I’ve learned in 40 years of consumer reporting is that the market is imperfect, and some people get ripped off.”

— John Stossel

29. “Life is fairer when individuals are free to make their own decisions.”

— John Stossel

30. “Give me safety, or give me death.”

— John Stossel

31. “If individuals can take from a common pot regardless of how much they put in it, each person has an incentive to be a free rider, to do as little as possible and take as much as possible because what one fails to take will be taken by someone else.”

— John Stossel

32. “David Boaz has been my guide to the history, economics, and politics of freedom for years.”

— John Stossel

33. “It’s not about electing the right people. It’s about a narrowing their responsibilities.”

— John Stossel

34. “No transaction happens unless it is voluntary. It only happens if both of you think you win.”

— John Stossel

35. “There’s no business that’s too small for government to torture.”

— John Stossel

36. “Prosperity comes from leaving people free in a legal system that respects their persons and property so they can pursue their dreams while taking responsibility for their actions.”

— John Stossel

37. “I was ashamed for people to see me struggle.”

— John Stossel

38. “I never wanted to be an anchor for 25 years, and suddenly I wanted to be one.”

— John Stossel

39. “Competition leads both drug companies and private regulators to be trustworthy. If they are not trustworthy, they die.”

— John Stossel

40. “Private businesses ought to get to discriminate.”

— John Stossel

41. “As a free person, I ought to be allowed if I’m dying to take something.”

— John Stossel

42. “Madoff’s scam was small compared to Ponzi schemes the government itself runs: Social Security and Medicare.”

— John Stossel

43. “The one thing I’ve learned is that stuttering in public is never as bad as I fear it will be.”

— John Stossel

44. “Government is so big today that more than half the population gets a major part of its income from the state.”

— John Stossel

45. “The politicians should not tell the people to shut up.”

— John Stossel

46. “The people who have the biggest passion for restricting other people’s behavior are the very people we should worry about most. Unfortunately, they keep running for office.”

— John Stossel

47. “Freedom works, and government, when it grows beyond the barest minimum, keeps people poor.”

— John Stossel

48. “I’m a libertarian. It’s a terrible word.”

— John Stossel

49. “Patrick Henry did not say, ‘Give me absolutely safety or give me death.’ America is supposed to be about freedom.”

— John Stossel

50. “I had to watch government fail for 25 years doing consumer reporting before I really saw it because intuitively, the reaction is problem, bring government and government will make it better.”

— John Stossel