24 Quotes by Hans-Hermann Hoppe

One-man-one-vote combined with “free entry” into government-democracy – implies that every person and his personal property comes within reach of-and is up for grabs by-everyone else: a “tragedy of the commons” is created.

Public officials are permitted to finance or subsidize their own activities through taxes. That is, they are permitted to engage in and live off, what in private dealings between private law subjects is prohibited and considered ‘theft’ and ‘stolen loot.’

It is states that are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions of people and immeasurable destruction in the 20th century alone. Compared to that, the victims of private crimes are almost negligible.

More paper money cannot make a society richer, of course, it is just more printed-paper. Otherwise why is it that there are still poor countries and poor people around?

As a matter of fact, states everywhere are highly intent on outlawing or at least controlling even the mere possession of arms by private citizens – and most states have indeed succeeded in this task – as an armed man is clearly more of a threat to any aggressor than an unarmed man. It bears much less risk for the state to keep things peaceful while its own aggression continues, if rifles with which the taxman could be shot are out of the reach of everyone except the taxman himself!

Of course, some historians are quite content with the category “feudalism,” which they adopt to explain pretty much everything in Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance. We concur with Brunner that this is “a convenient cover for everything that one does not understand about the Middle Ages.” 72.