[From my Webnote series]
I have not yet confirmed these–got help from ChatGPT, Grok, and NotebookLM—
“The present work attempts to fill this gap, to set forth a systematic ethical theory of liberty. It is not, however, a work in ethics per se, but only in that subset of ethics devoted to political philosophy.”
— The Ethics of Liberty
Hoppe? “Libertarianism as developed in The Ethics of Liberty was no more and no less than a political philosophy. It provided an answer to the question of which actions are lawful and hence may not be legitimately threatened with physical violence, and which actions are unlawful and may be so punished. It did not say anything with respect to the further question whether or not all lawful actions should be equally tolerated or possibly punished by means other than… a threat of physical violence…”
— The Ethics of Liberty
“It is not … a work in ethics per se, but only in that subset of ethics devoted to political philosophy.”
ethics, preface
“It is not the business of the law—the use of retaliatory violence—to enforce anyone’s conception of morality. … It is only the business of legal violence to defend people against the use of violence, to defend them from violent invasions of their person or property.”
a to z
“Liberty is … not the be-all and end-all of anyone’s personal philosophy. The libertarian does not believe that liberty per se provides the magic panacea for all ills or the magic guide for all actions.”
a to z
“Libertarianism as developed in The Ethics of Liberty was no more and no less than a political philosophy. It provided an answer to the question of which actions are lawful and hence may not be legitimately threatened with physical violence, and which actions are unlawful and may be so punished.”
— Murray N. Rothbard, The Ethics of Liberty, ch. 30
Online version (Mises Institute)
“Libertarianism does not offer a moral or aesthetic code for living one’s life. It offers no instruction on how to attain personal virtue or salvation. It offers a political framework only.”
— Murray N. Rothbard, as quoted in Rothbard A to Z, entry on “Ethics”
Online PDF (Mises Institute)
“It is not the business of the law—the use of retaliatory violence—to enforce anyone’s conception of morality. … It is only the business of legal violence to defend people against the use of violence, to defend them from violent invasions of their person or property.”
— Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, ch. 6
Online version (Mises Institute)
“Liberty is not, and never has been, a normative ethical principle in the sense of being the highest or the only end of man. … Libertarianism is not a complete moral theory, it is a political theory only.”
— Murray N. Rothbard, as quoted in Rothbard A to Z, entry on “Liberty”
Online PDF (Mises Institute)
… it is a man’s right to do whatever he wishes with his person; it is his right not to be molested or interfered with by violence from exercising that right. But what may be the moral or immoral ways of exercising that right is a question of personal ethics rather than of political philosophy …
Ethics of Liberty, p. 24
Rothbard A to Z | 515
… it is not the business of law — properly the rules and instrumen-talities by which person and property are violently defended — to make people moral by use of legal violence. It is not the proper business of law to make people be truthful or to keep their prom-ises. It is the business of legal violence to defend persons and their property from violent attack, from molestation or appropriation of their property without their consent.
Ethics of Liberty, pp. 79–80
… it is not and cannot be the function of law (i.e., legal violence) in a libertarian system to enforce morality …
Ethics of Liberty, p. 133
… the moral and the legal are, for the libertarian, two very diff er-ent categories.
For a New Liberty, p. 117
… it is not the business of the law — the use of retaliatory vio-lence — to enforce anyone’s conception of morality. It is not the business of the law — even if this were practically possible, which is, of course, most unlikely — to make anyone good or reverent or moral or clean or upright. Th is is for each individual to decide for himself. It is only the business of legal violence to defend people against the use of violence, to defend them from violent invasions of their person or property.
For a New Liberty, p. 127
… the moral law of the free society can be summed up in the phrase: “mind your own business!” At fi rst sight, this seems a rather narrow ethic for mankind. … One would hope that the free society of the future would be free, not only of aggressive violence, but also of self-righteous and arrogant nagging and harassment. “Mind your own business” implies that each person attend well to his own aff airs, and allow every other man the same privilege. It is a morality of basic civility, of courtesy, of civilized life, of respect for the dignity of every individual. It does not encompass all of morality, but by God it is a necessary ingredient to a truly rational and civilized social ethic.
Libertarian Forum v. 1, p. 208
To the libertarian, who must always separate legal from general moral theory, the crucial question is always: shall such and such an action be criminal, shall it be licit in the free society? Th ere are numerous actions, for example, which a libertarian may or may not consider “immoral” (e.g., drinking alcohol or yelling at one’s neigh-bor) but does not consider criminal. Th e libertarian always concen-trates on what is a crime, and for him, the conclusion depends on his general theory that crime (and therefore illegality) must be con-fi ned to acts of aggression upon the person or property of others.
Libertarian Forum v. 2, p. 774
… it is a man’s right to do whatever he wishes with his person; it is his right not to be molested or interfered with by violence from exercising that right. But what may be the moral or immoral ways of exercising that right is a question of personal ethics rather than of political philosophy …
Ethics of Liberty, p. 24
Rothbard A to Z | 515
… it is not the business of law — properly the rules and instrumen-talities by which person and property are violently defended — to make people moral by use of legal violence. It is not the proper business of law to make people be truthful or to keep their prom-ises. It is the business of legal violence to defend persons and their property from violent attack, from molestation or appropriation of their property without their consent.
Ethics of Liberty, pp. 79–80
… it is not and cannot be the function of law (i.e., legal violence) in a libertarian system to enforce morality …
408 | Rothbard A to Z
libertarian principle, of non-aggression against the person or prop-erty of others; in short, on the basis of reason rather than on mere tradition …
For a New Liberty, p. 286
… unjust laws deserve to be broken. Left and Right, p. 130
… liberty requires not that despotic laws be passed and then only moderately enforced, but that the law not be passed at all.
Libertarian Forum v. 1, p. 4
Libertarian law must be a law shorn of all elements of tyranny and aggression against those not yet proven to be criminal invaders of the person and just property of another man.
Libertarian Forum v. 1, p. 73
