Ron Paul

The most basic principle to being a free American is the notion that we as individuals are responsible for our own lives and decisions

Is it any more moral to dilute the value of the purchasing power of the money you hold in your wallet than it is for the farmer to dilute the milk supply with water?

We can achieve much more in peace than we can ever achieve in these needless, unconstitutional, undeclared wars.

The freer the market is and the more respect you have for private property, the better the environment is protected.

The concept of equal pay for equal work is not only an impossible task, it can only be accomplished with the total rejection of the idea of the voluntary contract. The idea that a businessman must hire anyone and is prevented from firing anyone for any reason he chooses, and in the name of rights, is a clear indication that the basic concept of a free society has been lost.

I have come to one firm conviction after these many years of trying to figure out the plain truth of things. The best chance for achieving peace and prosperity, for the maximum number of people worldwide, is to pursue the cause of liberty. If you find this to be a worthwhile message, spread it throughout the land.

History has shown that the masses have been quite receptive to the promises of authoritarians which are rarely if ever fulfilled,

The notion of a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution or the writings of our Founding Fathers. On the contrary, our Founders' political views were strongly informed by their religious beliefs.

All branches of our government today are controlled by individuals who use their power to undermine liberty and enhance the welfare/warfare state-and frequently their own wealth and power,

The Founders warned that a free society depends on a virtuous and moral people. The current crisis reflects that their concerns were justified.

If it's not accepted that big government, fiat money, ignoring liberty, central economic planning, welfarism, and warfarism caused our crisis, we can expect a continuous and dangerous march toward corporatism and even fascism with even more loss of our liberties,

Our Constitution, which was intended to limit government power and abuse, has failed,

There's capital controls and there's people control. So every time you think of a fence keeping all those bad people out, think about those fences maybe being used against us, keeping us in.

We don't think a child of 13 should be held responsible as a man of 23. That's true for most people, but black males age 13 who have been raised on the streets and who have joined criminal gangs are as big, strong, tough, scary and culpable as any adult and should be treated as such.

It's not part of our Constitution to assume that we are the world's policemen.

America was born of protest, revolution, and mistrust of government. Subservient societies neither maintain nor deserve freedom for long.

I believe that Israel is one of our most important friends in the world.

Unskilled and inexperienced workers are the ones most often deprived of employment opportunities by increases in the minimum wage.

I am convinced that there are more threats to American liberty within the 10 mile radius of my office on Capitol Hill than there are on the rest of the globe.

I take my marching orders from the Constitution.

The sad thing is, our foreign policy WILL change eventually, as Rome's did, when all budgetary and monetary tricks to fund it are exhausted.

What can you do? More and more Americans are carrying a gun in the car. An ex-cop I know advises that if you have to use a gun on a youth, you should leave the scene immediately, disposing of the wiped off gun as soon as possible. Such a gun cannot, of course, be registered to you, but one bought privately (through the classifieds, for example.)

We get our rights from our Creator as individuals. So every individual should be treated the same way.

Imagine if the political elites in our country were forced to endure the same conditions at the airport as business travelers, families, senior citizens, and the rest of us. Perhaps this problem could be quickly resolved if every cabinet secretary, every member of Congress, and every department head in the Obama administration were forced to submit to the same degrading screening process as the people who pay their salaries.

There should essentially be no limits to the voluntary definition of marriage.

Who's married and who isn't married. I have my standards but I shouldn't have to impose my standards on others. Other people have their standards and they have no right to impose their marriage standards on me.

By the way, when I say cut taxes, I don't mean fiddle with the code. I mean abolish the income tax and the IRS, and replace them with nothing.

If you have ever been robbed by a black teen-aged male, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be.

Spain has been massively diverting capital from the private sector into politically favored environmental projects for the better part of a decade...every green job created, eliminated 2.2 real jobs and cost around $800,000 each!

Washington bureaucrats have classified the very air we exhale as a pollutant and have gone unchallenged in this incredible assertion. The logical consequence is that there will come a time when we will have to buy a government permit just to emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from our own lungs!