14 Ron Paul Quotes Guaranteed to Start a Conversation
By Lauren Moore | 06/15/2012 | Elections 2012 | 10 Comments
In his quest to shake up Washington and the bipartisan system, Dr. Ron Paul has been quoted taking some pretty touchy stances. The following Ron Paul quotes are sure to shake things up in the mainstream.
“Up until this past century, you know for 100 years, they were legal. What you’re inferring is ‘you know what? If we legalize heroin tomorrow, everybody is going to use heroin.’ How many people here would use heroin if it was legal? I bet nobody would.”
Ron Paul gave this answer in a debate when asked if legalizing heroin, marijuana, cocaine, and prostitution would be acceptable if states allow them.
“How did the Department of Homeland Security get into the medical business?”
Dr. Paul’s response to the 2009 Swine flu “epidemic”, in which no deaths were recorded, but the federal government and the Department of Homeland Security became involved.
“Osama Bin Laden was our good friend because he was a freedom fighter in Afghanistan and we gave him our weapons and supported him. But then we found out he was not quite so friendly, so we captured a few of his men and he retaliated by bombing our embassies. Of course, we retaliated by bombing innocent chemical plants as well as people in Afghanistan that had nothing to do with it.”
Ron Paul was recorded saying this on C-SPAN, when he was speaking in favor of an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for the 1999 fiscal year.
“Libertarians are incapable of being a racist, because racism is a collectivist idea.”
Ron Paul threw this out when he came under fire for his newsletters that were published over 20 years ago, and, to some, were filled with racist remarks. He continued by saying, “You see people in group. And a civil libertarian, like myself, see everybody as an important individual.”
“How about getting rid of the Department of Education and Department of Agriculture. Just go down the list. Get rid of it. Cut the budget in half. Everything that’s not constitutional. That’s a good place to start.”
Dr. Paul said this in an interview on MSNBC back in 2009.
“You want to get rid of drug crime in this country? Fine, let’s just get rid of all the drug laws.”
This is an “official” Ron Paul quote and you can find it on his homepage along with many other quotes he believes in.
“Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities.”
This is a quote from one of his infamous newsletters published in 1990. The debate rages on over who actually wrote the newsletters in question, as Dr. Paul denies it, but he did publish the works.
“Certainly the drafters of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, both replete with references to God, would be aghast at the federal government’s hostility to religion. The establishment clause of the First Amendment was simply intended to forbid the creation of an official state church like the Church of England, not to drive religion out of public life.”
Ron Paul made this statement regarding separation of church and state. This is controversial because America was founded as a secular state, not a Christian state.
“People often say that what this country needs is for people in Washington to stop fighting and just get the job done. To achieve that, we need more ‘bipartisanship.’ I don’t agree…When the ideas of both parties are bad, there is really only one hope: that they will continue fighting and not pass any new legislation.”
This comes from Dr. Paul’s book Liberty Defined, published April 19, 2011.
“I think this fence business is designed and may well be used against us and keep us in. In economic turmoil, the people want to leave with their capital. And there’s capital controls and there’s people control. So, every time you think of the fence keeping all those bad people out, think about those fences maybe being used against us, keeping us in.”
Ron Paul said this during the Politico Republican Primary Debate hosted in September 2011. You can click here to watch the video.
“The prevailing attitude of the American people is that everyone has a right to medical care. This is an intellectual error that will lead us down a path toward destroying what is good in the current system.”
This quote is taken again from his book, Liberty Defined. In this quote, Paul goes further than most Republicans dare, denouncing not only Obamacare but organized health care in general.
Last but not least, taken again from his book Liberty Defined:
“Any effort to mandate or enforce the goal of making everyone free from want and fear through government action will guarantee the destruction of the concept of personal liberty,” he writes. “Whether it’s local government or world government, and no matter the motivation, this effort can only destroy one’s right to life, liberty, and property.”





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10 Comments
Michael Dishmon
06.15.2012
@bizurk
I think this is just fantastic.
Ron H.
06.15.2012
I was hoping for a good little article here, but then you throw in one of those “newsletter” excerpts. That’s not a quote. Ron Paul didn’t even write that. Oh well.
Lauren Moore
06.15.2012
@laurendimitra
see! It started a conversation.
AnotherBird
06.15.2012
The GOP must be breathing a sigh of relief that Ron Paul isn’t there candidate. Some of those quotes are gold, enough that it can be claimed that it isn’t a smear campaign but Ron Paul actual words.
no1butpaul
06.15.2012
Excellent article, except for your one mistaken quote taken from the newsletters, obviously doesn’t even reflect his views.
Ron Paul sure does speak truth to power. And those are just some of the reasons I support him. Maybe some of the more important quotes that should be used to start conversations come from the speeches in the following videos:
In 1983 he predicted the 1987 recession (I lost my job in that recession)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FmlsK_nJKU&feature=related
In 1998 he predicted the 2000 dot com crash
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4837NXWxpMA
In 2001 he predicted the housing bubble crash, TARP and QE1,2,etc (of course he didn’t know they would call it TARP or QE). It was interesting how the Fed and most of the financial sector kept harping after the fact on how nobody could have seen that coming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KONpt9a6HrI&feature=relmfu
And then Dr. Paul’s prediction of the coming bond market crash is one we will all be discussing pretty soon. There is nothing like a crashing economy to get a discussion rolling.
joe
06.16.2012
I found all of the quotes to be mostly rather obvious and non-controversial and not likely to start much of a conversation.
Stephen Lumpkin
06.16.2012
People still pay attention to this loon?
Nancy C. Gulotta
06.16.2012
@Stephen Lumpkin … you really are a dumpkin
John Vasilakis
06.16.2012
Why is he a loon Stephen? Because he believes in liberty, limited government, the US Constitution, a sound monetary policy, and a sane foreign policy? Get a clue guy.
Al Nava
06.16.2012
Compared to Right-wingers Obama & Romney, Paul is politically to their Left.