Robert LeFevre

If you have a government of good laws and bad men, you will have a bad government. For bad men will not be bound by good laws.

— Robert LeFevre

Governments, by their nature, are instruments of privilege.

— Robert LeFevre

The family unit is the incubator for human character; the state is the incubator for human dependency.

— Robert LeFevre

Government, when it is examined, turns out to be nothing more nor less than a group of fallible men with the political force to act as though they were infallible.

— Robert LeFevre

Since I favor total self-control—absolute government of the individual over himself—I believe autarchy more accurately describes, in a positive fashion, the kind of situation I consider most desirable. Some dictionaries define autarchy as a kind of tyranny or despotism, but of necessity it is limited to self-application.

— Robert LeFevre

Government doesn't cure problems. It aggravates them.

— Robert LeFevre

If men are good, you don’t need government; if men are evil or ambivalent, you don’t dare have one.

— Robert LeFevre

But history shows repeatedly the madness of crowds and the irrationality of majorities. The only conceivable merit relating to majority rule lies in the fact that if we obtain monopoly decisions by this process, we will coerce fewer persons than if we permit the minority to coerce the majority. But implicit in all political voting is the necessity to coerce some so that all are controlled.

— Robert LeFevre

An anarchist is anyone who believes in less government than you do.

— Robert LeFevre

Government is a disease masquerading as its own cure.

— Robert LeFevre

Government may be intrinsically evil; clearly they operate on the basis of tax predation.

— Robert LeFevre

But the thing all members of governments desire to do is to rule their own people and to collect money from them. This is inherent in their natures. So the United Nations, perforce, will aid and abet the member governments in their universal desire to maintain a coercive hold over their individual subjects. Thus, the United Nations is a government of the governments, by the governments, and for the governments. And it cannot and will not restrain their governments,…

— Robert LeFevre

And thus we see the government is at once both protector and predator. It is not that governments begin in virtue only to end in sin. Government begins by protecting some against others and ends up protecting itself against everyone. This is the course of history.

— Robert LeFevre

Government alone, in all man’s inventions, is capable of independent life. Government alone, like Mrs. Shelley’s terrifying creation of the monster born in Frankenstein’s mind, has the power and the ability to turn upon its creators and destroy them.

— Robert LeFevre

We know that men cannot be compelled to be good. They can only be prevented from being bad—a negative condition. We know from bitter experience that men cannot be forced into doing the wise thing, for such a forcement is foolishness.

— Robert LeFevre

The aim of the anarchist is to eliminate private ownership.

— Robert LeFevre

Economically speaking, all anarchists are socialists, however they may coalesce to the political spectrum. Economically speaking, the libertarian is an individualist, believing in and supporting the concept of private ownership, individual responsibility and self-government.

— Robert LeFevre

The most constructive of the anarchists were, socially speaking, individualists, peaceful and harmless. The least constructive, socially speaking, were dedicated to the overthrow of force by counter force. But without exception, in the realm of economics every anarchist comes unglued.

— Robert LeFevre

In brief, let us define the anarchist as a political individualist and an economic socialist. In contrast, the libertarian can be defined as an individualist, both politically and economically.

— Robert LeFevre

So the thing I object to about government isn't its organizational feature. Organization has to be accomplished. It is the coercive nature of government organization. My argument is that we can organize better without coercion.

— Robert LeFevre

Many times when I use the term 'government', people think that I mean law and order. And so, if they hear me say: 'We don't need government', they think I mean we don't need law and order. Well, this is probably what makes me an 'autarchist' rather than an anarchist. I think we need law and order. You see, I am dedicated to the idea of lawful and orderly procedures. And because of that I have to stand against government. Because government doesn't provide either law or order.

— Robert LeFevre

Now, where did we ever get the idea that there is such a thing as 'good government?' That is a contradiction in terms as ridiculous as 'constructive rape.'

— Robert LeFevre

Very few crooks perform with a police audience.

— Robert LeFevre

When the government uses "divide and conquer," it sows suspicion so that the people who would naturally tend to affiliate will distrust each other. Thus, they don't affiliate. The consequence is that everyone distrusts his neighbor. But everyone trusts the government.

— Robert LeFevre

What you want is protection. You want to be safe. What the government does is to try to retaliate after the fact.

— Robert LeFevre

The police aren't hired to protect you. They're hired to keep an eye on you to see what you did that was wrong so that they can book you. That's their function. They are not protectors. They are not hired to be protectors. They are hired to keep an eye on all of us as potential criminals. Now, do you think they're going to make you safe? They weren't hired to make you safe.

— Robert LeFevre

Does government protection protect? It doesn't do anything of the sort. It takes vengeance in your name after you've been hurt and calls it protection.

— Robert LeFevre

Cannibalism is actually a sort of dietetic socialism. Here is the ultimate sacrifice. A human life is taken for the purpose of maximizing the ‘public welfare.’

— Robert LeFevre

As a result of this failure of communist ideology to comprehend the nature of man, Stalin decided to alter the Russian constitution. No longer would economic rewards be distributed on the basis of 'need'; rather, the new concept was to be 'to each according to his work.

— Robert LeFevre

Politics may be defined as: the method adopted in governments for obtaining motivation toward a monopoly. In all political actions, a monopoly of control and method is sought.

— Robert LeFevre

If men were basically good, we would not require government; if men were basically evil, we could not afford to grant any man the power of government.

— Robert LeFevre

Very few men advocate government control over themselves. But they constantly believe that others must be controlled by some outside force.

— Robert LeFevre

Formal government can be defined as: a group of men who sell retribution to the inhabitants of a limited geographic area at monopolistic prices.

— Robert LeFevre

I carry no brief in favor of the criminal. That is why I carry no brief in defense of those in government. Setting a thief [the government] to catch a thief doubles the amount of loot stolen.

— Robert LeFevre