L. Neil Smith Quotes (1946-2021)

Author, Writer, Activist

About L. Neil Smith

Lester Neil Smith III (12 May 1946 – 27 August 2021), also known by his nickname El Neil, was a libertarian science fiction author and political activist, whose works include the novels Pallas, The Forge of the Elders, and The Probablity Broach, each of which won the Libertarian Futurist Society's annual Prometheus Award for best libertarian novel.

Best L. Neil Smith Quotes

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Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful L. Neil Smith quotes.

β€œAmerica didn't have a drug problem before it passed drug laws.”
L. Neil Smith
β€œGreat men don't 'move to the center' β€” great men move the center!”
β€œThe only hope we have is the Internet.
We must strive to keep it free.
”
L. Neil Smith
β€œThe function of government is to provide you with service; the function of the media is to supply the Vaseline.”
L. Neil Smith
β€œWhat I want to accomplish artistically amounts to nothing more than fulfilling the promise of the American Revolution.”
β€œLike the government, corporations must be bound with the chains of the Constitution, and especially of the Bill of Rights.”
L. Neil Smith
β€œOf all the groups that sometimes claim to own your life, family is the hardest to defend your individual sovereignty from.”
L. Neil Smith
β€œWe live in times of wonderful technology and crappy politics. The task before us now is not to let the latter destroy the former.”
L. Neil Smith
β€œForget 'redeeming social value,' dirty pictures are fun. When I die I want my ashes sprinkled over a nudist camp.”
β€œAs a novelist, I have a somewhat higher soapbox to stand on than most people do when it comes to talking back to the merchants of fear.”
β€œOnce you've taken a public stand you know is right, never back down; anything less than a rock-hard stance will let your enemies nibble you to death.”
L. Neil Smith
β€œChoose your allies carefully: it's highly unlikely that you'll ever be held morally, legally, or historically accountable for the actions of your enemies.”
β€œIt is individuals who must be encouraged to undertake the unprecedented - and unprecedentedly profitable - effort to prevent the annihilation of the human race.”
β€œThere’s a big difference between keeping the peace, which is something folks do pretty well themselves, and enforcing the law, which is another thing altogether.”
β€œWe must oppose programs that would take food from the mouths of younger generations to buy prescription drugs for old people, and we must do it... for the children.”
β€œTry never to speak of your enemies by name. Any publicity is still publicity β€” and there are those for whom your disapproval constitutes a recommendation.”
L. Neil Smith
β€œYou cannot force me to agree with you. You can force me to act as though I agree with you β€” but then you'll have to watch your back. All the time.”
L. Neil Smith
β€œChoose your enemies carefully: you'll probably be known much better and far longer for who they were, than for anything else you ever managed to accomplish.”
β€œIf there were a generic one-word expression for 'one whose fear of the uncertainties of success moves him to surrender at the very moment of victory', it would be 'Republican'.”
β€œThose who sell their liberty for security are understandable, if pitiable, creatures. Those who sell the liberty of others for wealth, power, or even a moment's respite deserve only the end of a rope.”
L. Neil Smith
β€œMoney, first and foremost, is a medium of communication, conveying the information we call 'price'. Government control of the money supply is censorship, a violation of the First Amendment. Inflation is a lie.”
L. Neil Smith
β€œI'm tired of being considered some kind of criminal or dangerous throwback for no other reason than that I value, exercise, and defend my rights under the first ten Amendments to the United States Constitution.”
β€œIt's often been observed that the first casualty of war is the truth. But that's a lie, too, in its way. The reality is that, for most wars to begin, the truth has to have been sacrificed a long time in advance.”
L. Neil Smith
β€œJust as liberalism is the main force that drives conservatism and maintains its popularity in some quarters, conservatism is the reason liberalism continues to enjoy the traction that it does in our poor civilization.”
L. Neil Smith
β€œThanks to guys like Boss Tweed, famous for saying, 'I don't give a damn who does the voting, as long as I do the nominating,' there hasn't been an honest election in the USA since sometime around the War Between the States.”

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L. Neil Smith on Libertarianism 2 quotes

β€œA libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim.”
L. Neil Smith
View all 2 quotes on Libertarianism →

L. Neil Smith on Publicity

β€œTry never to speak of your enemies by name. Any publicity is still publicity β€” and there are those for whom your disapproval constitutes a recommendation.”
L. Neil Smith

L. Neil Smith on Conservatism

β€œJust as liberalism is the main force that drives conservatism and maintains its popularity in some quarters, conservatism is the reason liberalism continues to enjoy the traction that it does in our poor civilization.”
L. Neil Smith

L. Neil Smith on Compromise

β€œWorse than thieves, murderers, or cannibals, those who offer compromise slow you and sap your vitality while pretending to be your friends. They are not your friends. Compromisers are the enemies of all humanity, the enemies of life itself. Compromisers are the enemies of everything important, sacred, and true.”
L. Neil Smith

L. Neil Smith on Control

β€œMost libertarians agree that all rights are, in effect, property rights, beginning with this fundamental right to self-ownership and control of one's own life. As owners of their own lives, individuals are completely free to do absolutely anything they wish with them β€” provided, of course, that it doesn't violate the identical right of others β€” whether the people around them approve of what they do or not.”
L. Neil Smith

L. Neil Smith on Climate change denial

β€œ"Global Warming" represents the last gasp of so-called "scientific progressivism", a mass of pitifully transparent falsehoods being employed to justify reducing mankind under the absolute despotism of "experts", the obvious implication being that we can’t even breathe responsibly. Environmentalism, Gaianism, is a religion on the basis of which β€” illegally under the First Amendment β€” public policy is being generated. Exhaling carbon dioxide is Original Sin, a reliable source of unlimited power and wealth to a Parasitic Class of politicians, bureaucrats, and cops with which our civilization now finds itself infested.”
L. Neil Smith

L. Neil Smith on Censorship

β€œIt seems that Wikipedia.com, that splendid source for all kinds of information, is no longer dedicated to the truth, assuming it ever was. Individuals who have tried to edit the pages about Barack Obama β€” to reflect the incontrovertible fact that he is not God, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, or Ronald Reagan β€” report that their contributions have vanished within minutes of posting them, and that they, themselves, have been suspended for three days following each 'infraction'. When some sort of official at Wikipedia was contacted about this, she stonewalled, claiming that this censorship was the work of 'volunteers', implying they were somehow beyond control of Wikipedia itself. Like the Red Guard and the Khmer Rouge were "volunteers."”
L. Neil Smith

About L. Neil Smith

Lester Neil Smith III (12 May 1946 – 27 August 2021), also known by his nickname El Neil, was a libertarian science fiction author and political activist, whose works include the novels Pallas, The Forge of the Elders, and The Probablity Broach, each of which won the Libertarian Futurist Society's annual Prometheus Award for best libertarian novel.