“This year has begun hopefully for right thinkers. After all these centuries of feudal barbarism and political slavery, it is surprising to see how the word of 'liberty' sets minds on fire.” YearsMindPoliticalLibertyFireCenturyRevolutionSlaveryHopefullyThinkerSurprisingBarbarismFrench Revolution Book:The Corsican: The Virtual Diary of Napoleon Bonaparte Source: The Corsican: The Virtual Diary of Napoleon Bonaparte
“Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime, from the sowing of the seed at Athens, 2,460 years ago, until the ripened harvest was gathered by men of our race. It is the delicate fruit of a mature civilization; and scarcely a century has passed since nations, that knew the meaning of the term, resolved to be free. In every age its progress has been beset by its natural enemies, by ignorance and superstition, by lust of conquest and by love of ease, by the strong man's craving for power, and the poor man's craving for food.” MenYearsHas BeensAgeNextStrongNationsTermNaturalPoorCommonRaceLibertyEnemyProgressCenturyCrimeIgnoranceCivilizationYears AgoFruitDeedsSeedsLustEaseMotiveMatureDelicateSuperstitionsHarvestConquestGood DeedsCravingPoor ManPretextStrong ManAthensSowingNatural Enemies Author:Lord Acton
“Liberty is so great a magician, endowed with so marvelous a power of productivity, that under the inspiration of this spirit alone, North America was able within less than a century to equal, and even surpass, the civilization of Europe.” InspirationAbleAmericaSpiritLibertyCenturyCivilizationEqualEuropeProductivityMarvelousMagicianNorth America Author:Mikhail Bakunin
“It was a real revolution. But with one missing feature. That is the feeling in a people that "We have done it once, and if the new lot let us down, we can do it again!" It was that proud, menacing confidence which made the French revolution special. But it's not around in 21st-century Europe. After 1989, the people handed over liberty to the experts. Will they ever want it back?” PeopleIfsWantMadeRealDoneFeelingsCan DoLibertySpecialCenturyMissingRevolutionProudEuropeFeaturesExperts21st CenturyFrench Revolution Author:Neal Ascherson
“I use throughout the term 'liberal' in the original, nineteenth-century sense in which it is still current in Britain. In current American usage it often means very nearly the opposite of this. It has been part of the camouflage of leftish movements in this country, helped by muddleheadedness of many who really believe in liberty, that 'liberal' has come to mean the advocacy of almost every kind of government control.” BelieveKindMeanHas BeensStillsCountryUseGovernmentTermLibertyCenturyMovementEconomicsOppositesOriginalsCurrentsBritainNineteenth CenturyAdvocacyUsageCamouflage Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
“The Magna Carta is an early reminder of the crucial difference between freedom and liberty. Liberty is freedom that is unique to humans, it is guaranteed by law. All animals are free, but in a system of humans total freedom is anarchy. Humans have thrived by letting a dominant authority regulate freedom. Liberty is a freedom that the authority has granted or has been persuaded to grant. For centuries, the state and the people have negotiated, peacefully and violently.” PeopleHumansHas BeensStatesLawDifferencesAnimalLibertyCenturyAuthorityUniqueGrantedGrantsAnarchyCrucialDominantRemindersFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyMagna Carta Author:Manu Joseph
“Liberty is an old fact; it has had its heroes and its martyrs in almost every age. As I look back through the vista of centuries, I can see no end of the ranks of those who have toiled and suffered in its cause, and who wear upon their breasts its stars of the legion of honor.” LooksI CanEndsFactsAgeStarsCausesLibertyCenturyHeroHonorBreastsMartyrLegionVistas Author:Edwin Hubbel Chapin
“A President Roosevelt comes only once in a century. I believe God knew and does know of the need of the world at this moment. I don't believe President Roosevelt is an accident in time, or that it is an accident that he is President for a third time. I believe that Franklin D. Roosevelt truly is the voice of liberty in the world.” KnowsWorldNeedsBelieveDoeMomentsI BelievePresidentVoiceLibertyDestinyCenturyGreatnessThirdsDon't BelieveAccidentsBelieve In GodFranklinThird TimePresident Roosevelt Author:Lyndon B. Johnson
“If we have learned anything in the past quarter century, it is that we cannot Federalize Virtue.” IfsPastLibertyVirtueCenturyLibertarianQuartersLibertarianism Author:George H. W. Bush
“He[Napoleon] had destroyed only one thing: the Jacobin Revolution, the dream of equality, liberty and fraternity, and of the people rising in its majesty to shake off oppression. It was a more powerful myth than his, for after his fall it was this, and not his memory, which inspired the revolutions of the nineteenth century, even in his own country.” PeopleCountryDreamFallMemoriesPowerfulLibertyOne ThingCenturyRevolutionInspiredMythOppressionDestroyedRisingShakesMajestyNineteenth CenturyFraternity Author:Eric Hobsbawm
“There have been in this century only one great man and one great thing: Napoleon and liberty. For want of the great man, let us have the great thing.” MenWantHas BeensLibertyCenturyGreat ThingsGreat Men Author:Victor Hugo
“Liberty and morality had to win their way slowly over many centuries, until finally expanding liberty made possible the great technological advance of the Industrial Revolution and the flowering of modern capitalism.” WayMadeWinningLibertyModernCenturyRevolutionMoralityCapitalismTechnologicalExpandingFloweringIndustrial Revolution Author:Murray Rothbard