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Liberty Quotes

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Liberty Quotes

“The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness means that each of us is free to go our own way, even if the ways some of us may choose to go seem sinful or shocking to our fellow citizens.”

IfsWayMayMeanSeemsLibertyCitizensFellowsPursuitShockingPursuit Of HappinessRight To LifeLife Liberty And The Pursuit Of Happiness
Book:Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America
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“It has always seemed to me that the social order was implicit in the very nature of things, and required nothing more from the human spirit than care in arranging the various elements; that a people could be governed without being made thralls or libertines or victims thereby; that man was born for peace and liberty, and became miserable and cruel only through the action of insidious and oppressive laws. And I believe therefore that if man be given laws which harmonize with the dictates of nature and of his heart he will cease to be unhappy and corrupt.”

PeopleIfsMenBelieveHumansHeartMadeCareActionLawSpiritOrderGivenI BelieveSocialBornLibertyElementsVictimVariousCeaseUnhappyMiserableHuman SpiritImplicitSocial OrderInsidiousArrangingLibertine
Author:Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
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“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
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“Anarchists are extreme libertarian socialists , "libertarian" meaning the demand for freedom from prohibition, and "socialist" meaning the demand for social equality . ...Complete freedom implies equality, since if there are rich and poor, the poor cannot be permitted to take liberties with riches. Complete equality implies freedom, since those who suffer restrictions cannot be the equals of those who impose them.”

IfsSufferingSocialPoorLibertyRichDemandExtremesLibertarianRichesSocialistRestrictionAnarchismAnarchistRich And PoorProhibitionComplete FreedomSocial Equality
Book:What is Anarchism?: An Introduction
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“There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This, within certain limits, is probably true, and, in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged.”

IfsLooksMayCountryCharacterGovernmentSpiritCertainPartyLibertyOpinionAliveLimitsCastsFavorsChecksAdministrationPolitical PartiesIndulgenceBe EncouragedFree CountryFarewell Address
Book:Journal of the convention of the state of Mississippi, and the act calling the same: with the Constitution of the United States, and Washington's Farewell Address
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“The commotions that have taken place in America, as far as they are yet known to me, offer nothing threatening. They are a proof that the people have liberty enough, and I could not wish them less than they have. If the happiness of the mass of the people can be secured at the expense of a little tempest now and then, or even of a little blood, it will be a precious purchase. 'Malo libertatem periculosam quam quietem servitutem.' Let common sense and common honesty have fair play, and they will soon set things to rights.”

PeopleIfsLittlesEnoughPlayAmericaPoliticsWishCommonKnownLibertyEconomyTakenRightsBloodHonestyOffersMassFairsProofCommon SenseLiberalismExpensesNow And ThenThreateningTempestSecuredFair Play
Book:Correspondence
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“Our Founding Fathers well understood that concentrated power is the enemy of liberty and the rights of man. They knew that the American experiment in individual liberty, free enterprise and republican self-government could succeed only if power were widely distributed. And since in any society social and political power flow from economic power, they saw that wealth and property would have to be widely distributed among the people of the country. The truth of this insight is immediately apparent.”

PeopleIfsMenWellsSelfCountryWisdomGovernmentPoliticalFatherPoliticsIndividualSocialWealthLibertyEnemyEconomySawsRightsEconomicRepublicanSucceedUnderstoodFlowPropertyInsightExperimentsLiberalismEnterpriseFoundingOur Founding FathersPolitical PowerFree EnterpriseIndividual LibertySelf-governmentEconomic Power
Author:Ronald Reagan
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“He has no right to his life when his duty calls him to resign it. Other men are bound ... to deprive him of life or liberty, if that should appear in any case to be indispensably necessary to prevent a greater evil.”

IfsMenShouldEvilLibertyCasesGreaterAtheismDutyBoundsPositive Atheism
Book:Enquiry concerning political justice: with selections from Godwin's other writings
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“The establishment of religious freedom was no less momentous an achievement than the clearing of the great forest or the winning of independence, for the twin doctrines of separation of church and state and liberty of individual conscience are the marrow of our democracy, if not indeed America's most magnificent contribution to the freeing of Western man.”

IfsMenStatesAmericaWinningIndividualChurchReligiousLibertyDemocracyAtheismAchievementConscienceIndependenceWesternPositive AtheismSeparationForestsDoctrineContributionEstablishmentTwinsMagnificentChurch And StateSeparation Of Church And StateReligious FreedomClearingMarrow
Author:Clinton Rossiter
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“John Stuart Mill, in his wonderful 1859 book On Liberty, talks about civility. And this is why you should always be concerned about calls for civility. He points out that civility ends up getting defined by the people who are in charge. And you'll notice that when people argue for civility, they tend to actually believe that whatever they say is civil. And if they're angry about it, it's righteous rage. But if you say it and it's kind of sharp or mean, then it's incivil. ... And sometimes, disagreement-to be productive-can't be all that civil.”

PeopleIfsShouldBelieveKindMeanBookEndsSometimesLibertyWonderfulConcernedAngryRageArguingDefinedProductiveRighteousCivilityDisagreementMills
Author:Greg Lukianoff
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“When it can be proved that the observance of Christmas, Whitsuntide, and other Popish festivals was ever instituted by a divine statute, we also will attend to them, but not till then. It is as much our duty to reject the traditions of men, as to observe the ordinances of the Lord. We ask concerning every rite and rubric, "Is this a law of the God of Jacob?" and if it be not clearly so, it is of no authority with us, who walk in Christian liberty.”

IfsMenChristianLawAsksWalksLibertyLordDivineDutyAuthorityTraditionRejectsFestivalsJacobRiteOrdinancesStatutesObservanceRubrics
Book:The Treasury of David: Spurgeon's Classic Work on the Psalms
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“There is no hate without fear. Hate is crystallized fear, fear's dividend, fear objectivized. We hate what we fear and so where hate is, fear is lurking. Thus we hate what threatens our person, our liberty, our privacy, our income, our popularity, our vanity and our dreams and plans for ourselves. If we can isolate this element in what we hate we may be able to cease from hating... Hate is the consequence of fear; we fear something before we hate; a child who fears noises becomes the man who hates them.”

IfsMenMayChildrenPersonsDreamHateLibertyPlansElementsConsequenceCeaseIncomeNoiseVanityPrivacyPopularityOur DreamsDividendsLurkingNo Hate
Author:Cyril Connolly
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“Is it just or reasonable, that most voices against the main end of government should enslave the less number that would be free? more just it is, doubtless, if it come to force, that a less number compel a greater to retain, which can be no wrong to them, their liberty, than that a greater number, for the pleasure of their baseness, compel a less most injuriously to be their fellow-slaves. They who seek nothing but their own just liberty, have always right to win it and to keep it, whenever they have power, be the voices never so numerous that oppose it.”

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Author:John Milton
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“You are a free man, and let no organization come between you and your best interests. Do not let any man, or any body of men, tell you where you shall work, or where you shall not work, when you shall work, or when, you shall not work. If a man wants to belong to a labor organization, let him belong. If he does not want to belong to a labor organization, let him have perfect liberty to stay out. You own yourself. Let no man put a manacle on your hand, or foot, or head, or heart.”

IfsMenWantHeartDoeBodyHandsInterestPerfectLibertyFeetLaborOrganizationFree ManLabor Day
Book:The Battle for Bread: A Series of Sermons Relating to Labor and Capital
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“Christianity excludes malignity, subdues selfishness, regulates the passions, subordinates the appetites, quickens the intellect, exalts the affections. It promotes industry, honesty, truth, purity, kindness. It humbles the proud, exalts the lowly, upholds law, favors liberty, is essential to it, and would unite men in one great brotherhood. It is the breath of life to social and civil well-being here, and spreads the azure of that heaven into whose unfathomed depths the eye if faith loves to look.”

IfsMenWellsLooksEyeLawPassionHeavenSocialLibertyChristianityKindnessHonestyIndustryProudEssentialsBreathsDepthAffectionSpreadIntellectFavorsWell BeingSelfishnessPurityAppetiteBrotherhoodSubordinatesTruth HonestyAzureFaith In Love
Author:Mark Hopkins
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“Americans have always held firm, because we have always believed in certain truths. We know that if evil is not confronted, it gains in strength and audacity and returns to strike us again. We know that when the work is hard, the proper response is not retreat, it is courage. And we know that a great ideal of human freedom entrusted to us in a special way and that the ideal of liberty is worth defending.”

IfsKnowsWayHumansHardCertainEvilLibertySpecialReturnGainsIdealsResponseStrikesFirmRetreatAlways BelieveGreat IdeaAudacityHuman Freedom
Author:George W. Bush
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“America ... holds up its way of life as the ideal for every nation, and seeks to impose its own standards of living - which many people think ridiculously and unwholesomely high - on others, partly of course in the search for markets. If it were openly stated that it was just a search for markets, that would be one thing, but it is not; by a tremendous propaganda campaign this materialistic conception is held up as an ideal, as somehow part of liberty, and above all, as a form of happiness.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWayWould BeAmericaFormCoursesNationsLibertyUnited StatesOne ThingStandardsIdealsCampaignsPropagandaConceptionImperialismGlobalizationMaterialisticStandards Of Living
Author:Ann Bridge
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“A people who still remembered that their ancestors had been the masters of the world would have applauded, with conscious pride, the representation of ancient freedom, if they had not long since been accustomed to prefer the solid assurance of bread to the unsubstantial visions of liberty and greatness.”

PeopleIfsWorldLongStillsLibertyVisionHistoryGreatnessMastersPrideConsciousAncientBreadRememberedAncestorRepresentationAssuranceAccustomedRoman Empire
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“Government means always coercion and compulsion and is by necessity the opposite of liberty. Government is a guarantor of liberty and is compatible with liberty only if its range is adequately restricted to the preservation of economic freedom. Where there is no market economy, the best-intentioned provisions of constitutions and laws remain a dead letter.”

IfsMeanGovernmentLawLibertyEconomyEconomicLettersOppositesConstitutionInvestingRangePreservationCompulsionProvisionCoercionCompatibleMarket EconomyEconomic Freedom
Book:Economic freedom and interventionism: an anthology of articles and essays
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“I learned something then. And I believe it still. There is a value in taking a stand, whether or not anybody may be noticing it, and whether or not it is a risky thing to do. And if even those who are in danger can raise their lonely voices, isn't it more that is required of all of us, in this land where liberty had her birth? In America the true patriots are those who dare speak truth through power.”

IfsBelieveMayStillsAmericaValuesSpeakI BelieveVoiceLibertyLandDangerBirthLonelyRaisesDareThings To DoPatriotNoticingSpeak The Truth
Author:Teresa Heinz
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“[M]y conception of liberty does not permit an individual citizen or a group of citizens to commit acts of depredation against nature in such a way as to harm their neighbors and especially to harm the future generations of Americans. If many years ago we had had the necessary knowledge, and especially the necessary willingness on the part of the Federal Government, we would have saved a sum, a sum of money which has cost the taxpayers of America two billion dollars.”

IfsWayYearsDoeTwoGovernmentAmericaIndividualLibertyGenerationsGroupsCitizensCostYears AgoDollarsHarmNeighborBillionsSavedCommitWillingnessConceptionPermitElectricityConservationFederal GovernmentFuture GenerationTaxpayers
Author:Franklin D. Roosevelt
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“[If] the nature of ... government [were] a subordination of the civil to the ecclesiastical power, I [would] consider it as desperate for long years to come. Their steady habits [will] exclude the advances of information, and they [will] seem exactly where they [have always been]. And there [the] clergy will always keep them if they can. [They] will follow the bark of liberty only by the help of a tow-rope.”

IfsYearsLongHelpingSeemsGovernmentLibertyAtheismInformationHabitPositive AtheismDesperateSteadyRopeBarkClergySubordinationTow
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“My bad head cannot adjust itself to the way things are.... If I want to depict spring, it has to be in wintertime; if I want to describe a beautiful landscape, I must be enclosed within walls; and I have said a hundred times that if I were put in the Bastille, there I would paint a picture of liberty.”

IfsWayWantSaidTruthBeautifulImaginationLibertyWallSpringHundredPaintLandscapeAutobiographyWintertimeBeautiful LandscapesBastille
Author:Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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“If the union of these States, and the liberties of this people, shall be lost, it is but little to any one man of fifty-two yearsof age, but a great deal to the thirty millions of people who inhabit these United States, and to their posterity in all coming time.”

PeopleIfsMenLittlesTwoStatesAgeLostUnitedDealsLibertyMillionsUnited StatesUnionsThirtyFiftyOne ManPosterity
Book:The collected works of Abraham Lincoln
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“Female Virtues are of a Domestick turn. The Family is the proper Province for Private Women to Shine in. If they must be showing their Zeal for the Publick, let it not be against those who are perhaps of the same Family, or at least of the same Religion or Nation, but against those who are the open, professed, undoubted Enemies of their Faith, Liberty, and Country.”

IfsCountryTurnsNationsWomenLibertyEnemyVirtueFemaleShiningNationalismZealProvinces
Book:The spectator
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“The English are probably more capable than most peoples of making revolutionary change without bloodshed. In England, if anywhere,it would be possible to abolish poverty without destroying liberty.”

IfsWould BeLibertyPovertyCapableEnglandRevolutionaryDestroyingAbolishBloodshedRevolutionary Change
Book:The English People: With 8 Plates in Colour and 17 Illus. in Black and White
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“It is not enough that France should be regarded as a country which enjoys the remains of a freedom acquired long ago. If she is still to count in the world--and if she does not intend to, she may as well perish--she must be seen by her own citizens and by all men as an ever-flowing source of liberty. There must not be a single genuine lover of freedom in the whole world who can have a valid reason for hating France.”

IfsMenWorldShouldWellsMayLongDoeStillsCountryReasonEnoughWholeHateEnjoyLibertySourceLoversCitizensRemainsGenuineWhole WorldFranceLong Ago
Book:Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings
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“A people may prefer a free government, but if by momentary discouragement or temporary panic, or a fit of enthusiasm for an individual, they can be induced to lay their liberties at the feet of even a great man, or trust him with powers to subvert their institutions, in all these cases they are unfit for liberty.”

PeopleIfsMenMayGovernmentIndividualLibertyCasesFeetFitInstitutionsLaysEnthusiasmGreat MenTemporaryPanicDiscouragementMomentaryFree Government
Book:On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays
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