"Economist: n. a scoundrel whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be." ~Ambrose Bierce

"The role of the economist in discussions of public policy seems to me to be to prescribe what should be done in light of what can be done, politics aside, and not to predict what is "politically feasible" and then to recommend it." ~Milton Friedman

"The society that puts equality before freedom will end up with neither. The society that puts freedom before equality will end up with a great measure of both". ~Milton Friedman

"Cannot free men choose to be ruled by a tyrant?" ~ Plato

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." ~ Henry Louis Mencken

"The government is good at one thing ... it knows how to break your legs, and then hand you a crutch and say, 'See, if it weren't for the government you wouldn't be able to walk.'" ~ Harry Browne

"In a democracy, the two major parties spend the majority of their time and energy trying to inform an ignorant electorate that the other party is unfit to rule. And both do that admirably. And both are right."~ Henry Louis Mencken