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Mary Ruwart Quotes

Mary J. Ruwart is an American retired biomedical researcher and a libertarian speaker, writer, and activist. She was a leading candidate for the 2008 Libertarian Party presidential nomination and is the author of the book Healing Our World. Wikipedia  

✵ 16. October 1949
Mary Ruwart photo
Mary Ruwart: 18   quotes 0   likes

Famous Mary Ruwart Quotes

“As children, we learned that if no one hits first, no fight is possible. Therefore, refraining from ‘first-strike’ force, theft, or fraud, is the first step in creating peace.”

Mary Ruwart

Source: Healing Our World: The Compassion of Libertarianism, (2015), p. 21

“When we, as individuals, take from our neighbors what they won’t voluntarily give—at gunpoint, if necessary—we call it theft. When majorities take from minorities what they won’t voluntarily give—at gunpoint, if necessary—we call it taxation.”

Mary Ruwart

Source: Healing Our World: The Compassion of Libertarianism, (2015), p. 21

“In a libertarian society, big business wouldn’t be so big, since they couldn’t destroy their competition through government regulation. Without government control of the airways, more radio and television stations would be available and could not be shut down on political whim.”

Mary Ruwart

Source: Short Answers to the Tough Questions: How to Answer the Questions Libertarians Are Often Asked, (2012), p. 230

“‘Mandatory’ means forced—at gunpoint, if necessary. When we force people to do things, for their own good or the good of others, we violate their right of self-determination. Libertarians respect the rights of others to choose their own path—that’s what liberty is all about. If community service is such a good deal, we should have no trouble persuading people to do it voluntarily. If we can’t convince others that our way is best, maybe we should humbly consider the possibility that it isn’t.”

Mary Ruwart

Source: Short Answers to the Tough Questions: How to Answer the Questions Libertarians Are Often Asked, (2012), p. 199

“When tariffs are eliminated, consumers pay less for foreign goods. They therefore have more money to spend on other things. Their spending creates more new jobs than those that are lost.”

Mary Ruwart

Source: Short Answers to the Tough Questions: How to Answer the Questions Libertarians Are Often Asked, (2012), p. 183

“If a woman has chosen to gift a fetus with life, it does not necessarily follow that she is obligated to continue to support it with her body, especially if that support threatens the woman’s life. A woman’s body is her property, to do with as she wishes.”

Mary Ruwart

Source: Short Answers to the Tough Questions: How to Answer the Questions Libertarians Are Often Asked, (2012), p. 141

Mary Ruwart Quotes

“When you subsidize anything, you get more of it. Paying teens even a pittance to have more children encourages them to do so. By the time they are old enough to vote, they finally realize that they will always be poor unless they can get into the work force. By then, however, it is almost too late. Unless a relative helps out, child care costs are prohibitive for someone starting in an entry level job. They find themselves forever stuck in the ‘Poverty Trap.’”

Mary Ruwart

Source: Short Answers to the Tough Questions: How to Answer the Questions Libertarians Are Often Asked, (2012), p. 137

Children , Help , Time

“Our greatest polluter is the government (i.e., U.S. military), not corporate America. Putting government in charge of protecting the environment is like asking the fox to guard the hen house.”

Mary Ruwart

Source: Short Answers to the Tough Questions: How to Answer the Questions Libertarians Are Often Asked, (2012), p. 48

Housing

“Simply, libertarians do not advocate the initiation of force, fraud, or theft to achieve social or political goals. If you refused to contribute to my favorite charity, and I took your money at gunpoint anyway, I’d be stealing from you. Similarly, if I vote for taxes to force you to contribute to that charity, I’m asking the government to take your money—at gunpoint, if necessary… Wrong doesn’t turn into right, just because the majority agrees to it. Minorities have no protection if they have to depend upon the majority for it.”

Mary Ruwart

Source: Short Answers to the Tough Questions: How to Answer the Questions Libertarians Are Often Asked, (2012), p. 18

Money , Fraud , Dependency

“The basic premise of libertarianism is that each individual should be free to do as he or she pleases so long as he or she does not harm others.”

Mary Ruwart

Source: Healing Our World: In An Age of Aggression, (2003), p. 161

“Those too poor to own their own home pay no property taxes, but their rent reflects the taxes that the landlord must pay. The poor pay higher rents to subsidize inefficiency and waste.”

Mary Ruwart

Source: Healing Our World: In An Age of Aggression, (2003), p. 123

Home

“[M]ost poverty in the world today is caused by aggression, not ignorance. The illusion that aggression-through-government benefits the poor at the expensive of the rich is just that, an illusion.”

Mary Ruwart

Source: Healing Our World: In An Age of Aggression, (2003), p. 92

World

“When we consider that resources will one day be mined from planets other than the earth, that matter and energy are totally interchangeable, and that basic chemical elements can be transmuted, we realize that resource seeds are so abundant that they do not impose practical limitations on the creation of wealth at all.”

Mary Ruwart

Source: Healing Our World: In An Age of Aggression, (2003), p. 19

Wealth

“Wealth is created when we use existing resources in new ways. Since such creativity is virtually limitless, wealth is too.”

Mary Ruwart

Source: Healing Our World: In An Age of Aggression, (2003), p. 17

Way , Wealth

“We defer to authority figures because they are supposed to know more than we do. If a mistake is made, it's easy to lay the blame at their feet. Ultimately, however, we are responsible for choosing the authority figure we defer to. Choosing to defer to one who urges aggression against others still puts the responsibility on us.””

Mary Ruwart

Source: Healing Our World: In An Age of Aggression, (2003), p. 10

“We reap as we sow. In trying to control others, we find ourselves controlled. In failing to honor our neighbor's choice, we create a world of poverty and strife.”

Mary Ruwart

Source: Healing Our World: The Other Piece of the Puzzle, (1993), p. 260

World

“Many individuals are capable of creating wealth but are excluded from the job market by minimum wage and licensing laws. Much poverty can be alleviated by allowing people to create wealth at whatever level they can and ‘work their way up.’”

Mary Ruwart

Source: Healing Our World: The Other Piece of the Puzzle, (1993), p. 147

Way , Wealth , People , Law

“We are more likely to protect the environment when we own a piece of it and profit by nurturing it.”

Mary Ruwart

Gary Chartier & Charles W. Johnson, edit., Markets Not Capitalism: Individualist Anarchism against Bosses, Inequality, Corporate Power and Structural Poverty, New York and London, Minor Compositions/Autonomedia, (2011), Chap. 46 “Aggression and the Environment,” p. 405

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