It is incorrect to think of liberty as synonymous with unrestrained action. Liberty does not and cannot include any action, regardless of sponsorship, which lessens the liberty of a single human being. To argue contrarily is to claim that liberty can be composed of liberty negations, patently absurd. Unrestraint carried to the point of impairing the liberty of others is the exercise of license, not liberty. To minimize the exercise of license is to maximize the area of liberty. Ideally, government would restrain license, not indulge in it; make it difficult, not easy; disgraceful, not popular. A government that does otherwise is licentious, not liberal.
– Leonard E. Read, The Freeman [March 1977]
HORNBERGER'S BLOG
October 2, 2025My New Book Is Now on Amazon! — FREE Today!
My new book The Case for Open Borders: A Primer is now available on Amazon! And it’s for FREE — but only for five days — from today, October 2, and expiring on October 6. After that, it will sell at its regular price, which is one dollar. The book comes in a digital Kindle version, and there will soon be ...
Free Speech and Flag Burning by Laurence M. Vance
After Donald Trump was elected president the first time in 2016, and before he even took office, there were protests on some college campuses ...
Trump Watch: Singing the Shutdown Blues by Jacob G. Hornberger
In this week's Trump Watch, Jacob discusses the threat of a government shutdown, the recent ...
We Need Many Small Beautiful Billsby Laurence M. Vance
The modern American presidency would be unrecognizable to the Founding Fathers and the Framers of the Constitution. Modern presidents exercise power that would shock ...
