The true humanitarian rejoices when the people he helps feel ready to assert their independence and to strike out on their own; for isn’t this independence essential to being truly human?

– Dr. Murray N. Rothbard, Left and Right, pp. 307–08

Government is the very negation of charity, for charity is uniquely an unbought gift , a freely fl owing uncoerced act by the giver.

– Dr. Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, p. 1228

… it is hardly “charity” to take wealth by force and hand it over to someone else. Indeed, this is the direct opposite of charity, which
can only be an unbought, voluntary act of grace. Compulsory confiscation can only deaden charitable desires completely, as the wealthier grumble that there is no point in giving to charity when the State has already taken on the task.

– Dr. Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, p. 1319