One can argue that communism, which holds that people would be better off without greed, is better than capitalism. One can also argue that people would be better off if they were able to fly. According to the communist’s logic, that would mean we had better begin pushing people off of rooftops.

The goal of socialism is communism. That’s Vladimir Lenin’s famed “socialism leads to communism quote,” a good one to preface any list of socialism quotes. Marxists usually regard socialism as the stepping stone to communism, a state of utopia in which the government controls everything its citizens say and do. Any socialists who don’t believe this are obliviously doing the Marxists’ work for them.

Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave. Slavery, regardless of whom is enslaved, is evil in one of its purest forms. In the United States we are most familiar with the enslavement of the African American – as we rightly should be – although the sin has been committed against men and women of all races across the world and throughout history. This is why Frederick Douglas quotes will always remain relevant.

 I am a mortal enemy to arbitrary government and unlimited power. The most popular Benjamin Franklin quotes are short witticisms – lessons about the rewards for healthy sleeping habits and saving pennies, for example. It is good that the Founding Father’s advice is still heeded, but he was much more than some doughy 18th century Ann Landers.

The Libertarian vs. Liberal debate is confusing for some, but once you understand it, it’s clear as day. While both of these political thought processes have some areas that overlap, you’ll soon understand the fundamental differences between the history, modernization, and 20th century belief systems behind them.

The difference between negative vs positive rights is that one requires action while the other requires inaction. Negative rights are the requirements of someone else not to interfere in your ability to obtain something. Positive rights are a requirement of someone else to provide you with something.

In American parlance, the word liberal is used reflexively, often without much deep thought about its origin. It usually refers to individuals associated with the contemporary left and loosely connected to the Democratic Party. However, liberal did not always have that connotation in American politics.

Are Republicans and Libertarians two peas in a pod? Political commentators have led many students of American politics to believe that the two groups have tons in common. After all, they usually want to keep the government’s greedy paws from people’s checkbooks and don’t like the idea of politicians spending like drunken sailors.

Are libertarians really just anarchists? Political debates are often filled with ad hominem attacks, bold assertions with dubious intellectual merits, and commentary designed to evoke outrage.

Libertarianism typically isn’t something you’re taught in the American public education system. This makes sense. Just like the priests who teach at Catholic school might not hand out copies of God Is Not Great, so too would government employees shrink away from a curriculum centered around the shrinking United States government – or abolishing it altogether.