““Free competition enforced by law” is a grotesque contradiction in terms.”

—  Ayn Rand

The Objectivist Newsletter “Antitrust: The Rule of Unreason,” The Objectivist Newsletter, Feb. 1962, 1

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "“Free competition enforced by law” is a grotesque contradiction in terms." by Ayn Rand?
Ayn Rand photo
Ayn Rand322
Russian-American novelist and philosopher 1905–1982

Related quotes

Gustave de Molinari photo

“The production of security should, in the interests of the consumers of this intangible commodity, remain subject to the law of free competition.”

Gustave de Molinari (1819–1912) Belgian political economist and classical liberal theorist

Source: The Production of Security (1849), p. 22–23.

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“It seems to me that any law that is not enforced and can't be enforced weakens all other laws.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

Source: Friday

Barrett Brown photo

“This is not the “rule of law”…it is the “rule of law enforcement.””

Barrett Brown (1981) American journalist, essayist and satirist

The Guardian, "Barrett Brown statement: 'This is not the rule of law, it is the rule of law enforcement'" http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/22/barrett-brown-hacking-sentencing-full-statement-text, 22 January 2015.

“No tyranny can exist without police powers to enforce the ruler's "laws" and punish rebels or free thinkers. The enforcers are called soldiers when sent to other countries and police when operating inside a country. But their function is the same.”

David Lane (white nationalist) (1938–2007) American white supremacist, convicted felon

Focus Fourteen

Groucho Marx photo

“Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

Swami Vivekananda photo

“A perfect life is a contradiction in terms.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Swâmi Vivekânanda on Râja Yoga (1899), Ch. VI : Pratyâhâra and Dhâraṇâ

Francis Escudero photo

“We must enforce the laws and enforce them speedily. People will obey and follow our laws if there is certainty of punishment.”

Francis Escudero (1969) Filipino politician

2009, Speech: The Socio-Economic Peace Program of Senator Francis Escudero

“For eudaimonism, an ethics of prohibition is a contradiction in terms.”

David L. Norton (1930–1995) American philosopher

Source: Personal Destinies: A Philosophy of Ethical Individualism (1976), p. 30

Hunter S. Thompson photo

“The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

1970s, Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 (1973)
Context: So much for Objective Journalism. Don't bother to look for it here — not under any byline of mine; or anyone else I can think of. With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results, and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms.

Karl Marx photo

“Is that to say we are against Free Trade? No, we are for Free Trade, because by Free Trade all economical laws, with their most astounding contradictions, will act upon a larger scale, upon the territory of the whole earth; and because from the uniting of all these contradictions in a single group, where they will stand face to face, will result the struggle which will itself eventuate in the emancipation of the proletariat.”

Karl Marx (1818–1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist

Writing in the Chartist newspaper (1847), in Marx Engels Collected Works Vol 6, pg 290.

Related topics