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Liberty Quotes

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Liberty Quotes

“At the foundation of our civil liberties lies the principle that denies to government officials an exceptional position before the law and which subjects them to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen.”

Government Law Lying Liberty Principles Subjects Position Citizens Foundation Deny Command Civil Rights Officials Exceptional Civil Liberties Government Officials Law Courts

Author:Louis D. Brandeis

“Compelling a man by law to pay his money to elect candidates or advocate law or doctrines he is against differs only in degree, if at all, from compelling him by law to speak for a candidate, a party, or a cause he is against. The very reason for the First Amendment is to make the people of this country free to think, speak, write and worship as they wish, not as the Government commands.”

People Ifs Thinking Men Writing Firsts Country Reason Government Law Speak Wish Causes Party Pay Liberty Degrees Worship Doctrine Command Candidates Amendments Compelling First Amendment

Author:Hugo Black

“The very reason for the First Amendment is to make the people of this country free to think, speak, write and worship as they wish, not as the Government commands.”

People Thinking Writing Firsts Country Reason Government Speak Wish Liberty Worship Command Amendments First Amendment

Author:Hugo Black

“Denotation by means of sounds and markings is a remarkable abstraction. Three letters designate God for me; several lines a million things. How easy becomes the manipulation of the universe here, how evident the concentration of the intellectual world! Language is the dynamics of the spiritual realm. One word of command moves armies; the word liberty entire nations.”

“What finally emerges from the 'clear and present danger' cases is a working principle that the substantive evil must be extremely serious and the degree of imminence extremely high before utterances can be punished...It must be taken as a command of the broadest scope that explicit language, read in the context of a liberty-loving society, will allow.”

Evil Language Justice Liberty Principles Cases Taken Clear Danger Serious Degrees Constitution Command Scope Utterance Explicit

Author:Hugo Black

“For in this modern world, the instruments of warfare are not solely for waging war. Far more importantly, they are the means for controlling peace. Naval officers must therefore understand not only how to fight a war, but how to use the tremendous power which they operate to sustain a world of liberty and justice, without unleashing the powerful instruments of destruction and chaos that they have at their command.”

“But there are no institutions on earth which enable each separate person to have a hand in the exercise of Power, for Power is command, and everyone cannot command. Sovereignty of the people is, therefore, nothing but a fiction, and one which must in the long run prove destructive of individual liberties.”

People Persons Long Hands Running Earth Individual Fiction Liberty Exercise Prove Institutions Command Destructive Long Runs Sovereignty Individual Liberty

Book:On Power: Its Nature and the History of Its Growth

Source: On Power: Its Nature and the History of Its Growth

“A struggle for liberty is in itself respectable and glorious. . . . When conducted with magnanimity, justice and humanity, it ought to command the admiration of every friend to human nature. But if sullied by crimes and extravagancies, it loses its respectability.”

Ifs Humans Humanity Loses Justice Liberty Struggle Human Nature Crime Ought Command Glorious Admiration Respectable Respectability Magnanimity

Book:Citizen Hamilton: The Wit and Wisdom of an American Founder

Source: Citizen Hamilton: The Wit and Wisdom of an American Founder

“The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents.”

Government Liberty Property Command Constituents Propensity

Book:Selected letters of Thomas Jefferson

Source: Selected letters of Thomas Jefferson

“The only things government can do are regulate and redistribute, prohibit and penalize, confiscate and command. Are these the things that liberty is made of? Somebody else's money and an endless list of Thou Shalt Nots?”

Made Government Can Do Liberty Lists Endless Command

Book:Freedom in Chains: The Rise of the State and the Demise of the Citizen

Source: Freedom in Chains: The Rise of the State and the Demise of the Citizen

“Subjects have no greater liberty in a popular than in a monarchial state. That which deceives them is the equal participation of command.”

States Liberty Greater Subjects Equal Command Deceiving Participation

Author:Thomas Hobbes