Home / Topics / Liberty Quotes

Liberty Quotes

Browse 6578 quotes about Liberty.

Liberty Quotes

“Moral decay first hampers and then strangles honest government, regular commerce, and even the ability to take genuine pleasure in the goods of this world. Compulsion is applied from above as self-discipline relaxes below, and the last liberties expire under the weight of a unitary state.... Since religion has lost its empire over the souls of men, the most prominent boundary that divided good from evil is overthrown; kings and nations are guided by chance and none can say where are the natural limits of despotism and the bound of license.”

“Aegistheus, the kings have another secret.... Once liberty has exploded in the soul of a man, the Gods can do nothing against that man. It is a matter for men to handle amongst themselves, and it is up to other men and to them alone to let him flee or to destroy him.”

Men Soul Matter Can Do Secret Liberty Kings Handle

Author:Jean-Paul Sartre

“To sow, that others may reap; to work and plant for those that are to occupy the earth when we are dead; to project our influences far into the future, and live beyond our time; to rule as the Kings of Thought, over men who are yet unborn; to bless with the glorious gifts of Truth and Light and Liberty those who will neither know the name of the giver, nor care in what grave his unregarded ashes repose, is the true office of a Mason and the proudest destiny of a man.”

Knows Men May Light Care Earth Names Liberty Destiny Influence Kings Office Projects Plant Graves Our Time Glorious Bless Ashes Giver Reap Repose Unborn Masons

Book:Morals and Dogma

Source: Morals and Dogma

“Human rights did not begin with the French Revolution...[they] really stem from a mixture of Judaism and Christianity...[we English] had 1688, our quiet revolution, where Parliament exerted its will over the King...it was not the sort of Revolution that France's was...'Liberty, equality, fraternity' - they forgot obligations and duties I think. And then of course the fraternity went missing for a long time.”

Source: As I said to Denis--: the Margaret Thatcher book of quotations

“Perhaps the enemies of liberty are such only because they judge it by its loud voice. If they knew its charms, the dignity that accompanies it, how much a free man feels like a king, the perpetual inner light that is produced by decorous self-awareness and realization, perhaps there would be no greater friends of freedom than those who are its worst enemies.”

“'Tis Liberty that crowns Britannia's isle, and makes her barren rocks and her bleak mountains smile... 'Tis Britain's care to watch o'er Europe's fate, and hold in balance each contending state, To threaten bold presumptuous kings with war, and answer her afflicted neighbours' prayer... Soon as her fleets appear their terrors cease.”

War States Care Prayer Answers Liberty Watches Fate Rocks Kings Balance Mountain Europe Terror Cease Britain Crowns Neighbour Barren Bleak Isle Presumptuous Contending

Author:Joseph Addison

“Travel makes all men countrymen, makes people noblemen and kings, every man tasting of liberty and dominion.”

People Men Liberty Kings Travel Every Man Dominion Countrymen Tasting Noblemen

Book:Concord Days

Source: Concord Days

“The problem for the King is just how strict The lack of liberty, the squeeze of the law And discipline should be in school and state.”

Should States Problem Government School Law Liberty Kings Discipline Strict

Book:The poetry of Robert Frost

Source: The poetry of Robert Frost

“What is Americanism? Every one has a different answer. Some people say it is never to submit to the dictation of a King. Others say Americanism is the pride of liberty and the defence of an insult to the flag with their gore. When some half-developed person tramples on that flag, we should be ready to pour out the blood of the nation, they say. But do we not sit in silence when that flag waves over living conditions which should be an insult to all patriotism?”

“The poorest man may, in his cottage, bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail, its roof may shake; the wind may blow though it; the storm may enter; the rain may enter; but the King of England may not enter; all his force dares not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement.”

Men May Force Liberty Wind Kings Rain Crosses England Blow Dare Storm Libertarian Shakes Libertarianism Crowns Roof Ruined Defiance Poorest Threshold Frail Cottages Tenements

Author:William Pitt

“It has ever been my hobby-horse to see rising in America an empire of liberty, and a prospect of two or three hundred millions of freemen, without one noble or one king among them. You say it is impossible. If I should agree with you in this, I would still say, let us try the experiment, and preserve our equality as long as we can. A better system of education for the common people might preserve them long from such artificial inequalities as are prejudicial to society, by confounding the natural distinctions of right and wrong, virtue and vice.”

Source: Works: with a life of the author

“The rights of Englishmen are derived from God, not from king or Parliament, and would be secured by the study of history, law, and tradition.”

Would Be Law Liberty Study Rights Kings Tradition Parliament Englishmen Secured

Author:John Adams

“To the medieval mind a liberty was a right to the enjoyment of a specific property It was a freedom to do something with one's own without interference by the king or any other man.”

Men Mind Liberty Kings Property Enjoyment Medieval Interference

Book:Set in a silver sea: the island peoples from earliest times to the fifteenth century

Source: Set in a silver sea: the island peoples from earliest times to the fifteenth century

“In America, it is indispensable that every well wisher of true liberty should understand that acts of tyranny can only proceed from the publick. The publick, then, is to be watched, in this country, as, in other countries kings and aristocrats are to be watched.”

Should Wells Country America Liberty Kings Tyranny Other Countries Indispensable

Author:James F. Cooper

“That's really the big inspiration of this movie. It's really looking at a man who's really showing all the traits and all the characteristics of the classic patriarchal country, where he's of military power, he's the king of the hill at home, as well as in the streets. He has the liberty to live where he wants.”

Men Want Wells Country Home Bigs Inspiration Liberty Streets Military Kings Hills Classic Characteristics Traits Military Power

Author:Oren Moverman

“If Martin Luther King looked at the Obama administration and saw an intimate connection with Wall Street, he'd be very critical. If he saw drones being dropped on innocent people, he'd be very critical. If he saw rights and liberties violated by secret policies of the government, of the kind we've seen by the National Security Agency, he'd be very critical.”

People Ifs Kind Government Secret Liberty Saws Rights Streets Security Policy Wall Kings Connections Critical Innocent Administration Intimate Agency National Security Luther Drones

Author:Cornel West

“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.”