Top 100 Larken Rose Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “When the people actually want true freedom, they will achieve it without the need for any election or revolution.”

— Larken Rose

52. “The belief in “government” is not based on reason; it is based on faith.”

— Larken Rose

53. “Frederick Douglass, a former slave, witnessed and described that exact phenomenon among his fellow slaves, many of whom were proud of how hard they worked for their masters and how faithfully they did as they were told. From their perspective, a runaway slave was a shameful thief, having “stolen” himself from the master.”

— Larken Rose

54. “But history shows that most human beings would literally rather die than objectively reconsider the belief systems they were brought up in.”

— Larken Rose

55. “Legalizing” wrong does not make it right.”

— Larken Rose

56. “One who begs for lower “taxes” is implicitly agreeing that it is up to the politicians how much a man may keep of what he has earned.”

— Larken Rose

57. “You evade your responsibility as human beings by hallucinating a false god that relieves you of the duty to think for yourselves. You don’t want to be free, because being merely obedient requires so much less thought.”

— Larken Rose

58. “Ultimately, it is the belief in “authority” among the victims of oppression, even more than the beliefs of the ruling class and their enforcers, which allows tyranny, and man’s inhumanity to man, to continue on such a large scale.”

— Larken Rose

59. “The alleged right to rule, in any degree and in any form, is the opposite of humanity. The initiation of violence is the opposite of harmonious coexistence. The desire for dominion is the opposite of love for mankind. Hiding the violence under layers of complex rituals and self-contradictory rationalizations, and labeling brute thuggery as virtue and compassion, does not change that fact.”

— Larken Rose

60. “When confronted with the idea that it is wrong for them to be forcibly deprived of the fruits of their labor, even if it is done “legally,” such people often vehemently defend those who continue to rob them, insisting that such robbery is essential to human civilization.”

— Larken Rose

61. “All belief in “government” rests on the idea that the “common good” justifies the “legal” initiation of violence against innocents to one degree or another. And once that premise has been accepted, there is no objective moral standard to limit “government” behavior.”

— Larken Rose

62. “In short, despite all of the complex rituals and convoluted rationalizations, all modern belief in “government” rests on the notion that mere mortals can, through certain political procedures, bestow upon some people various rights which none of the people possessed to begin with.”

— Larken Rose

63. “Unthinking adherence to any “authority” constitutes the greatest betrayal to humanity that there could possibly be, as it seeks to discard the free will and individual judgment that make us human and make us capable of morality, in favor of blind obedience, which reduces human beings to irresponsible robots.”

— Larken Rose

64. “Whether an old lady is robbed by an armed street thug or by a well-dressed, well-educated “tax collector” makes no difference, morally or in practical terms.”

— Larken Rose

65. “Note the drastic contrast between the usual connotations of those terms – “anarchy” sounding scary and violent, “law and order” sounding civilized and just – and the real-world results of following conscience versus following rulers. The level of evil committed by individuals acting on their own is completely dwarfed by the level of evil committed by people obeying a perceived “authority.”

— Larken Rose

66. “Just as everyone in a tribe praying to a volcano god would reinforce the idea that there is a volcano god, so begging politicians for favors reinforces the idea that there is a rightful ruling class, that their commands are “law,” and that obedience to such “laws” is a moral imperative.”

— Larken Rose

67. “The “lawmakers” give the commands, but it is their faithful enforcers who carry them out. Millions upon millions of otherwise decent, civilized people spend day after day harassing, threatening, extorting, controlling and otherwise oppressing others who have not harmed or threatened anyone.”

— Larken Rose

68. “Mortals cannot alter morality any more than they can alter the laws of mathematics. Their understanding of something may change, but they cannot, by decree, change the nature of the universe. Nor would anyone sane attempt to. Yet that is what every new “law” passed by politicians pretends to be: a change in what constitutes moral behavior.”

— Larken Rose

69. “Jesus taught nonviolence, and told you to love your neighbor, but the state encourages you to vote for people who will use the violence of government to butt into every aspect of everyone else’s life. Which do you believe?”

— Larken Rose

70. “Targeting “governments,” instead of their loyal enforcers, would serve humanity wonderfully, not only ending most violent conflicts a lot more quickly but creating a huge deterrent to any megalomaniac tempted to start conflicts in the first place. Yet there is an open, mutual, standing agreement between most high-level tyrants that, while it is okay to play games with the lives of their subjects, they will rarely target each other.”

— Larken Rose

71. “Every “government,” including the most oppressive regimes in history, has been funded by the payment of “taxes” by loyal, productive subjects.”

— Larken Rose

72. “The only thing that “law” and “government” are needed for is to attempt to legitimize immoral force. And that is exactly what “government” adds, and the only thing it adds, to society: more inherently unjust violence. No one who understands this simple truth would ever claim that “government” is essential to human civilization.”

— Larken Rose

73. “Every person who claims to act on behalf of “authority” is demonstrating that he has accepted an utterly ridiculous lie: that his position, his badge, his office dramatically changes what behaviors are moral and what behaviors are immoral. The idea is patently insane, but is rarely recognized as such because even the victims of the enforcers share in this delusion.”

— Larken Rose

74. “The message here is not that we should try to create a world without “authority”; instead, the message is that it would behoove human beings to accept the fact that a world without “authority” is all that has ever existed, and that mankind would be far better off, and people would behave in a far more rational, moral and civilized manner, if that fact were widely understood.”

— Larken Rose

75. “Instead of being offended at the insult and injustice of being coercively controlled and exploited – in fact, instead of even recognizing that as injustice – many victims of “government” oppression feel profound loyalty to their controllers.”

— Larken Rose

76. “There is a certain feeling of comfort and safety that one gets by conforming and obeying. Believing that things are in someone else’s hands, and having trust that someone else will make things right, is a way to avoid responsibility.”

— Larken Rose

77. “Some of us realize the self-evident truth that no election, no constitution, no legislation, and no other pseudo-religious political ritual can bestow upon anyone the right to rule another. Nothing can make a man into a rightful master; nothing can make a man into a rightful slave.”

— Larken Rose

78. “It’s amazing the amount of anger, hostility and hatred some people show towards those of us who want to leave them in freedom. Hysterically, some statists characterize that as the voluntaryists trying to “force” their views on everyone else. “You’re oppressing me, by leaving me alone, and wanting me to leave you alone!” Meanwhile, they wildly cheer when some politician promises to extort and control them. Go figure.”

— Larken Rose

79. “The main factor distinguishing the belief in “government” from other religions today is that people actually believe in the god called “government.”

— Larken Rose

80. “I have rights that you don’t. You must do as I say, submit to my commands, and treat me as your superior, because I am not a mere human being. I have risen above that. Through my unquestioning obedience and loyalty to my masters, I have become a piece of the superhuman entity called ‘government’ and act on its ‘authority.’ As a result, the rules of human morality do not apply to me, and my actions should not be judged by the usual standards of human behavior.”

— Larken Rose

81. “If the IRS had to calculate the tax due and then directly take it from each “taxpayer,” there would be no more federal “taxation.”

— Larken Rose

82. “Even when a slave master fights to prevent some other slave master from stealing his slaves, he is still no friend of the slaves themselves.”

— Larken Rose

83. “Kids are taught to praise and adore tyrants, and taught to hate any who resist them. We make fun of it when other countries put their own spin on history. We’re stunned that anyone could still think that Josef Stalin or Chairman Mao was a good guy. But this country does the same thing, teaching our kids to adore tyrants like FDR and Lincoln.”

— Larken Rose

84. “For something to be “government,” it must, by definition, do something that average people do not have the right to do. A “government” with the same rights as everyone else is not a “government” any more than the average man on the street is “government.”

— Larken Rose

85. “If a hundred people were shipwrecked on an island, what would it even mean to say that everyone there has a “right” to food, or that everyone has a “right” to health care, or the “right” to a job, or the “right” to a “living wage”?”

— Larken Rose

86. “The sad irony is that the American ruling class, because of the legitimacy its victims imagine it to have, is the only gang actually capable of conquering and subjugating the American people.”

— Larken Rose

87. “When July Fourth rolls around, and you’re all swigging your beer and waving your flags, does the fact that we are infinitely less free than we ever were under British rule ever make its way into what’s left of your brains?”

— Larken Rose

88. “Irony: Taking a 170-year-old envy-based “philosophy,” which has led to the murder of several hundred million human beings and the oppression of billions more, and calling it “progressive”.”

— Larken Rose

89. “Pride in being a “law-abiding taxpayer” is not the result of having helped people, which the person could have done far more effectively on a voluntary basis; the pride comes from having faithfully obeyed the commands of a perceived “authority.”

— Larken Rose

90. “If a hundred people were shipwrecked on an island, who would imagine that forcing most of them to serve and obey a “protector” would be necessary or useful? And who would imagine that letting one or two of them forcibly impose their morals on the rest would make such a group more virtuous?”

— Larken Rose

91. “Perhaps the most valuable thing the “Great American Experiment” accomplished was to demonstrate that “limited government” is impossible. There cannot be a master who answers to his slaves.”

— Larken Rose

92. “The state mercenaries refer to this lack of groveling as someone having an “attitude.” In their eyes, someone treating them as mere mortals, as if they are on the same level as everyone else, amounts to showing disrespect for their alleged “authority.”

— Larken Rose

93. “The great Emancipation Proclamation, which I assume you’ve heard of, only declared slaves free in areas not controlled by the Union. It wasn’t a great victory for freedom; it was a military tactic, one used by lots of tyrants before Lincoln, including King George: tell your enemy’s slaves that if you win, they’ll be free. It’s a fine way to cause havoc on the other side, but it has nothing to do with principles.”

— Larken Rose

94. “Throughout history, the perpetual suffering and injustice, occurring on an incomprehensible scale – it was all because of people just like you: the well-trained, thoroughly indoctrinated conformists, the people who do as they’re told, who proudly bow to their masters, who follow the crowd, believing what everyone else believes and thinking whatever authority tells them to think. That is you.”

— Larken Rose

95. “But his nationalism and pack mentality – and most of all, his unshakable faith in authority – rendered him blind to the evil he was committing. It’s the same with every army, and every cop. Above all else, they take pride in their ability to obey without question, as if it’s a virtue instead of the most heinous sin a person can commit.”

— Larken Rose

96. “The truth of the matter, back then and today, is that these parasites who call themselves ‘leaders’ are not superior beings, they are not great men and women, they are not honorable, they’re not even average.”

— Larken Rose

97. “Trying to clear things up, when people in power are constantly trying to confuse matters, is a tough job. There are so many levels of misunderstanding in most people’s minds, that it’s hard to even know where to begin.”

— Larken Rose

98. “You feel pride at being able to say you once shook a senator’s hand, or saw the President in person. Ah, yes, the grand deity himself, His Royal Highness, the President of the United States of America. You speak the title as if you’re referring to God Almighty.”

— Larken Rose

99. “You proclaim how proud you are to be ‘law-abiding citizens,’ and express utter contempt for anyone who considers himself above your so-called ‘laws,’ laws that are nothing more than the selfish whims of tyrants and thieves.”

— Larken Rose

100. “There are a whole lot of people who have learned the hard way just how little our justice system cares about justice. The system cares about one thing, and one thing only: its own power.”

— Larken Rose