Self Ownership Quotes

“There can be no socialism without a state, and as long as there is a state there is socialism. The state, then, is the very institution that puts socialism into action; and as socialism rests on aggressive violence directed against innocent victims, aggressive violence is the nature of any state.”
― Hans-Hermann Hoppe, A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism: Economics, Politics, and Ethics

“When we give government the power to make medical decisions for us, we in essence accept that the state owns our bodies.”
― Ron Paul

“Collectivism is the "philosophy" of every cockroach and sewer rat: "If I want it, I must need it, and if I need it, I have a right to it, and if I have a right to it, it doesn't matter what I have to do to get it." The
fact that such an inherently animalistic, short-sighted, anti-human
viewpoint is now painted by some as compassionate and "progressive" does not make it any more sane, or any less dangerous.”
― Larken Rose

“You always seek to control others when you are not in full ownership of yourself.”
― Cicely Tyson, Just as I Am

“Individuals have rights and there are things no person or group may do to them (without violating their rights).”
― Robert Nozick

“There's a line in the picture where he (Johnny - The Wild One) snarls, 'Nobody tells me what to do.' That's exactly how I've felt all my life.”
― Marlon Brando

“I don't want to run your life, I don't know how to run your life, I don't have the authority to run your life, and the Constitution doesn't permit me to run your life.”
― Ron Paul

“Nowadays the job of the judge is not to do justice. The judge is more of a functionary . He's like a civil servant whose job is to interpret words written down by another branch of the government, whether those words are just or not.”
― Stephan Kinsella

“Government as we now know it in the USA and other economically advanced countries is so manifestly horrifying, so corrupt, counterproductive, and outright vicious, that one might well wonder how it continues to enjoy so much popular legitimacy and to be perceived so widely as not only tolerable but indispensable. The answer, in overwhelming part, may be reduced to a two-part formula: bribes and bamboozlement (classically "bread and circuses"). Under the former rubric falls the vast array of government "benefits" and goodies of all sorts, from corporate subsidies and privileges to professional grants and contracts to welfare payments and health care for low-income people and other members of the lumpenproletariat. Under the latter rubric fall such measures as the government schools, the government's lapdog news media, and the government's collaboration with the producers of professional sporting events and Hollywood films. Seen as a semi-integrated whole, these measures give current governments a strong hold on the public's allegiance and instill in the masses and the elites alike a deep fear of anything that seriously threatens the status quo.”
― Robert Higgs

“More often than not, a statist's argument against Anarchism boils down to an unwillingness to take control and responsibility for their own lives, actions, and communities. The sad truth is that the human animal has been domesticated to the point where it actually fears Liberty.”
― Dane Whalen

“In national politics, where you are one of some twenty million voters, your influence is infinitesimal unless you are exceptional or occupy an exceptional position. You have, it is true, a twenty-millionth share in the government of others, but only a twenty-millionth share in the government of yourself. You are therefore much more conscious of being governed than of governing.”
― Bertrand Russell, Authority and the Individual

“Egalitarianism, in every form and shape, is incompatible with the idea of private property.”
― Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Democracy: The God That Failed

“To make a claim of ownership implies a claim against others. That is, others must refrain from interfering with your use of that thing. As such the very act of the body occupying its standing room is to make a claim against others because only one body can occupy the space at a time.”
― Daniel Alexander Brackins, Private Property, Law, and the State

“I believe that deciding upon the time and place of your death is the ultimate expression of self-ownership. It seems clear to me that anyone who professes a belief in personal freedom cannot be opposed to suicide. Freedom to choose how and when we die is a fundamental right.”
― Lottie Moggach, Kiss Me First

“Life can sometimes seem an endless experience in compromise, in bending into the break, in the give + take + lead + follow of interconnection. This is all so good and necessary to building a community of souls, trusting that we are not in this world on our own, learning the power of leaning into the collective good. And yet. There are spaces and places and ideals in my life that are not open to discussion, not up for negotiation, not an invitation to debate or argue or compromise. Leading this list are the terms of my own freedom, the ways I have learned to know and name my ownership of this one life I am living. I have come to name this sense of ownership my personal sovereignty. It is mine and mine alone. The container of this sovereignty—what it includes and leaves behind, the way it moves through the world, how it dances with others—all of this may change a million times over, but that is mine and mine alone to decide.”
― Jeanette LeBlanc

“On this, both right-libertarians and left-libertarians agree...the doctrine of self-ownership. Each person has exclusive ownership of herself [or himself] and nobody has any property rights in another person.”
― Peter Vallentyne, The Origins of Left-Libertarianism: An Anthology of Historical Writings