“Statism is a system of institutionalized violence and perpetual civil war. It leaves men no choice but to fight to seize political power -- to rob or be robbed, to kill or be killed. … Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by production.”

—  Ayn Rand, book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

Source: Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966), Ch. 2 "Roots of War", p. 36-37

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Russian-American novelist and philosopher 1905–1982

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