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Liberty Quotes

Browse 6578 quotes about Liberty.

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Liberty Quotes

“The combination of the growth of these digital technologies, the ability of the government to conjure up these secret interpretations, plus a very unusual and novel court make for this ever-expanding surveillance state. We so treasure our freedoms; we will regret it if our generation doesn't use this unique time to reform the surveillance laws and make it clear that security and liberty are not mutually exclusive. We can do both.”

IfsStatesUseGovernmentLawGrowthCan DoAbilitySecretLibertyTechnologyNovelClearGenerationsSecurityRegretUniqueCourtTreasureReformCombinationDigitalInterpretationPlusUnusualExpandingExclusiveSurveillanceOur GenerationDigital TechnologySurveillance StateSecurity And Liberty
Author:Ron Wyden
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“No person shall be restrained of his liberty but by regular process from a court of justice, authorized by a general law. . . . On complaint of an unlawful imprisonment to any judge whatsoever, he shall have the prisoner immediately brought before him and shall discharge him if his imprisonment be unlawful. The officer in whose custody the prisoner is shall obey the order of the judge, and both judge and officer shall be responsible civilly and criminally for a failure of duty herein.”

IfsPersonsLawOrderProcessJusticeLibertyJudgingDutyResponsibleCourtPrisonerOfficersComplaintsBeing ResponsibleImprisonmentDischargeCustodyUnlawful
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“We may well soon be subjected to anything that judges want to enforce.... The result will be an enforced inability of the states to pass laws that reflect the principled judgment of their own citizens....And as our Founders taught us so well, ...[that] will be the end of liberty and the establishment of tyranny in America.”

WantWellsMayEndsStatesAmericaLawResultsLibertyTaughtJudgingCitizensJudgmentTyrannyEstablishmentFoundersInabilityTaught UsPrincipledWell Soon
Author:Alan Keyes
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“Kinship among nations is not determined in such measurements as proximity of size and age. Rather we should turn to those inner things - call them what you will - I mean those intangibles that are the real treasures free men possess. To preserve his freedom of worship, his equality before law, his liberty to speak and act as he sees fit, subject only to provisions that he trespass not upon similar rights of others - a Londoner will fight. So will a citizen of Abilene. When we consider these things, then the valley of the Thames draws closer to the farms of Kansas and the plains of Texas.”

MenShouldMeanRealAgeLawTurnsFightingSpeakNationsLibertyRightsSubjectsCitizensFitWorshipDrawsSizeDeterminedTreasurePreservesTexasFarmsValleysProvisionMeasurementFree ManKansasKinshipProximityThamesLondoners
Author:Dwight D. Eisenhower
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“Freedom cannot always continue in comfort and convenience, cannot be assured without sacrifice, without truth and decency, without willingness to work, without downright honesty and honor, and readiness to keep the commandments and live within the law...there is no liberty without a real respect for law; no liberty if we forget God, or fail to remember the principles on which freedom is founded.”

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Author:Richard L. Evans
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“It is easy to understand why the law is used by the legislator to destroy in varying degrees among the rest of the people, their personal independence by slavery, their liberty by oppression, and their property by plunder. This is done for the benefit of the person who makes the law, and in proportion to the power that he holds.”

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Author:Frederic Bastiat
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“A nation ignorant of the equal benefits of liberty and law, must be awed by the flashes of arbitrary power: the cruelty of a despot will assume the character of justice; his profusion, of liberality; his obstinacy, of firmness.”

CharacterLawNationsJusticeLibertyEqualBenefitsAssumingIgnorantCrueltyFlashArbitraryFirmnessDespotsObstinacyLiberality
Book:The Collected Works of Edward Gibbon: Historical Works, Autobiographical Writings and Private Letters, Including The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“While the machinery of law enforcement and indeed the nature of crime itself have changed dramatically since the Fourth Amendment became part of the Nation's fundamental law in 1791, what the Framers understood then remains true today - that the task of combating crime and convicting the guilty will in every era seem of such critical and pressing concern that we may be lured by the temptations of expediency into forsaking our commitment to protecting individual liberty and privacy.”

MaySeemsTodayLawIndividualNationsLibertyCrimeChangedUnderstoodCommitmentConcernTasksFundamentalsRemainsCriticalTemptationGuiltyErasPrivacyAmendmentsFourthLaw EnforcementEnforcementMachineryIndividual LibertyExpediencyFramersFourth Amendment
Author:William J. Brennan
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“The legal system we have and the rule of law are far more responsible for our traditional liberties than any system of one man one vote. Any country or Government which wants to proceed towards tyranny starts to undermine legal rights and undermine the law.”

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Book:As I said to Denis--: the Margaret Thatcher book of quotations
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“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.”

WisdomActionLawIndividualLibertyRightsLimitsEqualAddLibertarianTyrantsEqual RightsFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyLimited GovernmentBig GovernmentIndividual LibertyIndividual RightsInalienable RightsUs ConstitutionEternal VigilanceLimiting FreedomLiberty And EqualityLife Liberty And The Pursuit Of HappinessPlenitudeAmerican LawLaws And Government
Book:Jefferson: Political Writings
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“All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.”

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Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“For Dicey, writing in 1885, and for me reading him some seventy years later, the rule of law still had a very English, or at least Anglo-Saxon, feel to it. It was later, through Hayek's masterpieces "The Constitution of Liberty" and "Law, Legislation and Liberty" that I really came to think this principle as having wider application.”

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Author:Margaret Thatcher
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“In a government framed for durable liberty, not less regard must be paid to giving the magistrate a proper degree of authority, to make and execute the laws with rigour, than to guarding against encroachments upon the rights of the community. As too much power leads to despotism, too little leads to anarchy, and both eventually to the ruin of the people.”

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Book:1779-1781
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“If it be asked what is to restrain the House of Representatives from making legal discriminations in favor of themselves and a particular class of the society? I answer, the genius of the whole system, the nature of just and constitutional laws, and above all the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America, a spirit which nourishes freedom, and in return is nourished by it. If this spirit shall ever be so far debased as to tolerate a law not obligatory on the Legislature as well as on the people, the people will be prepared to tolerate anything but liberty.”

PeopleIfsWellsWholeAmericaLawSpiritHouseAnswersLibertyClassParticularReturnGeniusPreparedFavorsDiscriminationRepresentativesTolerateBe PreparedLegislatureManlyVigilantHouse Of RepresentativesConstitutional Law
Book:The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788
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“The foundations of liberty are private property and the rule of law; this system guarantees the fewest possible forms of injustice, produces the greatest material and cultural progress, most effectively stems violence and provides the greatest respect for human rights. According to this concept of liberalism, freedom is a single, unified concept. Political and economic liberties are as inseparable as the two sides of a medal.”

HumansTwoFormLawPoliticalSidesLibertyRightsProgressViolenceEconomicProduceMaterialsConceptsFoundationPropertyInjusticeHuman RightsLiberalismGuaranteesStemMedalRule Of LawInseparableTwo SidesPrivate PropertyUnified
Author:Mario Vargas Llosa
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“Law is justice. And it is under the law of justice - under the reign of right; under the influence of liberty, safety, stability, and responsibility - that every person will attain his real worth and the true dignity of his being. It is only under this law of justice that mankind will achieve - slowly, no doubt, but certainly - God's design for the orderly and peaceful progress of humanity.”

PersonsRealLawHumanityPeaceJusticeResponsibilityLibertyDoubtProgressInfluenceAchieveMankindDesignDignitySafetyPeacefulNo DoubtStabilityReignOrderly
Author:Frederic Bastiat
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“There is a moral virtue, a moral fidelity, ability and honesty, which other men, besides church members, are, by good nature and education, by good laws and good examples nourished and trained up in; so that civil places and trust and credit need not be monopolized into the hands of church members (who sometimes are not fitted for public office), while all others are deprived and despoiled of their natural and civil rights and liberties.”

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Author:Roger Williams
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“Liberalism is a creation of the seventeenth century, fathered by British philosopher John Locke (1632-1704). For Locke, liberalism means limited government, the rule of law, due process, liberty, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, separation of church and state, and separation of government powers into branches that oversee each other's authority.”

MeanStatesGovernmentLawProcessChurchLibertyCenturyCreationSpeechAuthorityPressesPhilosopherBritishDuesSeparationBranchesLiberalismFreedom Of SpeechChurch And StateAssemblyRule Of LawSeparation Of Church And StateLimited GovernmentFreedom Of The PressFreedom Of ReligionDue ProcessFreedom Of Assembly
Book:A Manual for Creating Atheists
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“This [anti-terrorism bill] is a violation of the First Amendment right to free speech and the Fourth Amendment protection of private property... Some of these provisions place more power in the hands of law enforcement than our Founding Fathers could have dreamt and severely compromises the civil liberties of law-abiding Americans. This bill, while crafted with good intentions, is rife with constitutional infringements I could not support.”

FirstsHandsLawFatherLibertySupportSpeechBillsPropertyIntentionTerrorismProtectionCompromiseAmendmentsFourthFree SpeechLaw EnforcementEnforcementFoundingViolationProvisionFirst AmendmentAbidingGood IntentionsPrivate PropertyCivil LibertiesOur Founding FathersInfringementFourth AmendmentAnti Terrorism
Author:Butch Otter
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“If you see the rhetoric from coming out of the Democrats is that they're pro-civil liberties, and an important part of civil liberties is respect for the First Amendment and the rule of law, and that has broken down under the Obama administration, and Hillary Clinton was part of that process.”

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Author:Julian Assange
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“This going on and on about how terrible a carbon-based economy is, these people are full of crap. They don't know what they're talking about. Their motives are not necessarily good just because they say they are being good. It's peace, love, and understanding. To which I can just say, "Shut up." Human liberty, rule of law, and free markets fix this stuff. It isn't necessary to go around being the Mia Farrow of the ecosphere.”

PeopleKnowsHumansI CanLawStuffUnderstandingTalkingLibertyEconomyTerribleBe GoodMotiveCrapShut UpCarbonFree MarketRule Of LawPeace LoveMia
Author:P. J. O'Rourke
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“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.”

RealityMotivationalLawPoliticalOrderIndividualCommunityLibertyAcceptingBreakAcceptanceWillingKingsHighestRespectConscienceInjusticeLibertarianActivismAfrican AmericanProtestPenaltiesUnjustDissentDisobedienceCivil DisobedienceImprisonmentPeace And JusticeIndividual RightsPeace JusticeLibertarian PartyEquality And JusticeLiberty And JusticeDignity And RespectGood KingsJustice And InjusticeUnjust LawsJustice EqualityUnjust War
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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