39+ Leonard Read Quotes On Education, Reading And Slavery

Leonard Read was an American academic and author who is best known for founding the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) in 1946. He was a staunch advocate of free-market economics and wrote extensively on the subject, including his most famous work, "I, Pencil." He was also a proponent of individual liberty and personal responsibility and wrote many books and essays on the topics. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Leonard Read on education, leadership, reading.

Top 10 Leonard Read Quotes

1. Socialism takes and redistributes wealth, but it is utterly incapable of creating wealth.
2. ...the greatest political problem facing the world today is...how to curb the oppressive power of government, how to keep it within reasonable bounds.
3. What precisely is this disease that causes inflation and all these other troubles? It has many popular names, such as socialism, communism, state interventionism, and welfare statism.
4. There is no moral distinction between the act of a pickpocket and the progressive income tax.
5. There is no moral distinction between petty thievery and 'from each according to ability, to each according to need.'
6. Statism, which forces all of us within its orbit, is nothing but a political system of organized plunder, managed by every conceivable type of pressure group.
7. The proper and limited use of government is to invoke a common justice and keep the peace - and that is all.
8. The advancement of freedom is not a matter of who wields political power over creative actions; rather, it depends upon the disassembling of such power.
9. Under both the welfare state and communism, the responsibility for the welfare, security, and prosperity of the people is presumed to rest with the central government.
10. Governments resort to inflation with popular support because the people apparently are naïve enough to believe that they can have their cake and eat it, too.

Leonard Read Short Quotes

• In market terms, one is entitled to what others will offer in willing exchange. That is all!
• There could be no greater error than to conclude that statism caused prosperity.
• There is no greater dishonesty than man effecting his own private gains at the expense of others.

Leonard Read Famous Quotes And Sayings

[S]tatism is but socialized dishonesty; it is feathering the nests of some with feathers coercively plucked from others - on the grand scale. There is no moral difference between the act of a pickpocket and the progressive income tax or any other social program. — Leonard Read

Once an activity has been socialized, it is impossible to point out, by concrete example, how men in a free market could better conduct it. How, for instance, can one compare a socialized post office with private postal delivery when the latter has been outlawed? — Leonard Read

Such terms as communism, socialism, Fabianism, the welfare state, Nazism, fascism, state interventionism, egalitarianism, the planned economy, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, the New Frontier are simply different labels for much the same thing. — Leonard Read

Were it necessary to bring a majority into a comprehension of the libertarian philosophy, the cause of liberty would be utterly hopeless. Every significant movement in history has been led by one or just a few individuals with a small minority of energetic supporters. — Leonard Read

The more complex our economy, the more we should rely on the miraculous, self-adapting processes of men acting freely. No mind of man nor any combination of minds can even envision, let alone intelligently control, the countless human energy exchanges in a simple society, to say nothing of a complex one. — Leonard Read

Politicians, bureaucrats, editors, new commentators, 'economists' teachers,' and other word artists who denounce private enterprise and praise socialism are their own worst enemies...these attackers are unwittingly destroying the sources of their own livelihood. They kill the geese that lay the golden eggs - and don't know it! — Leonard Read

Insecurity must follow the transfer of responsibility from self to others, particularly when transferred to arbitrary and capricious government. Genuine security is a matter of self-responsibility, based on the right to the fruits of one's own labor and freedom to trade. — Leonard Read

A fact rarely suspected, let alone understood, is that businessmen are by no means the chief beneficiaries of the free market, private ownership, limited government way of life. Many business ventures fail entirely. Who then are the beneficiaries? The masses! — Leonard Read

Coercion is as much the tool of the welfare state as it is of communism. The programs and edicts of both are backed by the police force. All of us know this to be true under communism, but it is equally true under our own brand of welfare statism. — Leonard Read

We need only take our heads out of the sand to see clearly that interventionism not only has failed to provide the promised something-for-nothing, but has led to all sorts of undesirable consequences. Indeed, many are just beginning to realize that we are moving towards disaster even though we have been on a wrong heading for decades. — Leonard Read

What, actually, is the difference between communism and fascism? Both are forms of statism, authoritarianism. The only difference between Stalin's communism and Mussolini's fascism is an insignificant detail in organizational structure. — Leonard Read

Whenever government assumed responsibility for the security, welfare, and prosperity of citizens, the costs of government rise beyond the point where it is politically expedient to cover them by direct tax levies. — Leonard Read

True, the free market ignores the poor precisely as it does not recognize the wealthy - it is 'no respecter of persons' — Leonard Read

Is it not obvious that the more complex an economy, the more certainly will governmental control of productive effort exert a retarding influence? — Leonard Read

If we remove the hope of profit as a means to alleviate misfortune - poverty, illness, misery, disaster - we shall increase our misfortunes and make them permanent. — Leonard Read

The American people are becoming more and more afraid of, and are running away from, their own revolution. — Leonard Read

The Constitution was definitely and specifically designed to hobble all people who are so foolish as to think themselves capable of leading others by compulsion. It so functions today to an extent exasperating to the authoritarians - which is why they want to get rid of it. — Leonard Read

It should be noted that people in the free market rarely bear false witness; integrity is the rule. The morning mile, phone calls, planes the airlines buy, autos by the millions - no one could list the instances - are as represented. We have daily, eloquent, enormous testimony that the Ten Commandments can be and are observed by fallible human beings. Contemporary politics is the most glaring of all exceptions. — Leonard Read

The system of plunder derives much of its support from individuals who do not subscribe to socialism but who say, 'We're paying for it, so we might as well get our share' — Leonard Read

The free market opens the way for men to operate at their moral best, and all observation confirms that the poor fare better under these circumstances than when the way is closed, as it is under socialism. — Leonard Read

The solution to this problem [welfare-statism] must take a positive form: the restoration of a faith in what free men can accomplish. — Leonard Read

No one has more than scratched the surface when it comes to understanding and explaining the miracle of the market. — Leonard Read

Socialistic practices are now so ingrained in our thinking, so customary, so much a part of our mores, that we take them for granted. — Leonard Read

The libertarian can have no truck with 'left' or 'right' because he regrets any form of authoritarianism - the use of police force to control the creative life of man. — Leonard Read

If the bureaucracy is not checked, it will tend to build, in the name of peace, a defense against every conceivable contingency - so much 'security' that 'the secured' are without resources - helpless and hopeless. — Leonard Read

There is really nothing that can be done except by an individual. Only individuals can learn. Only individuals can think creatively. Only individuals can cooperate. Only individuals can combat statism. — Leonard Read

Life Lessons by Leonard Read

1. Leonard Read taught that the power of the individual and the free market are essential for economic growth and prosperity.
2. He believed that government intervention in the economy should be limited, and instead individuals should be allowed to pursue their own economic interests.
3. He also argued that economic freedom is essential for human flourishing and that individuals should be encouraged to take responsibility for their own economic decisions.