Best liberty & liberalism Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.”

Liberty Virtue Variety Beloved Liberalism

“Enslave the liberty of but one human being and the liberties of the world are put in peril.”

“As a reformer the liberal is dissatisfied with things as they are because they violate his exceptionally tender conscience.... Liberalism does not advocate change for its own sake, but for the sake of something better in the direction of what he regards as good, namely, the maximum of liberty consistent with a regard for all men and all interests -- the general happiness based on peace and justice.”

Men Doe Interest Justice Liberty Conscience Regard Sake Liberalism Consistent Maximum Something Better Peace And Justice Dissatisfied Reformers

Author:Ralph Barton Perry

“Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”

“Political democracy cannot flourish under all economic conditions. Democracy requires an economic system which supports the political ideals of liberty and equality for all. Men cannot exercise freedom in the political sphere when they are deprived of it in the economic sphere.”

Men Political Politics Liberty Support Economy Democracy Economic Conditions Exercise Ideals Liberalism Spheres Deprived Economic Systems Equality For All Liberty And Equality

Book:The Capitalist Manifesto

Source: The Capitalist Manifesto

“And what has come to prevail in democracies is the very reverse of beneficial, in those, that is, which are regarded as the most democratically run. The reason for this lies in the failure properly to define liberty. For there are two marks by which democracy is thought to be defined: "sovereignty of the majority" and "liberty." "Just" is equated with what is equal, and the decision of the majority as to what is equal is regarded as sovereign; and liberty is seen in terms of doing what one wants.”

Want Two Reason Running Lying Politics Term Decision Liberty Economy Democracy Equal Mark Majority Defined Liberalism Reverse Sovereign Sovereignty Beneficial

Author:Aristotle

“And these great natural rights may be reduced to three principal or primary articles: the right of personal security; the right of personal liberty; and the right of private property; because as there is no other known method of compulsion, or of abridging man's natural free will, but by an infringement or diminution of one or other of these important rights, the preservation of these, inviolate, may justly be said to include the preservation of our civil immunities in their largest and most extensive sense.”

Source: Blackstone's Commentaries systematically abridged and adapted to the existing state of the law and constitution, with great additions. By Samuel Warren

“Historically the great movements for human liberation have always been movements to change institutions and not to preserve them intact. It follows from what has been said that there have been movements to bring about a changed distribution of power to do - and power to think and to express thought is a power to do- so that there would be a more balanced, a more equal, even, and equitable system of human liberties.”

Source: The Later Works, 1925-1953

“The demand for liberty is a demand for power, either for possession of powers of action not already possessed or for retention and expansion of powers already possessed.”

Wisdom Action Politics Liberty Economy Demand Possession Liberalism Possessed Expansion Retention

Book:The Later Works, 1925-1953

Source: The Later Works, 1925-1953

“The right to work, I had assumed, was the most precious liberty that man possesses. Man has indeed as much right to work as he has to live, to be free, to own property.”

Men Wisdom Politics Liberty Economy Property Liberalism

Author:William O. Douglas

“We know that the only alternative to private competition is government monopoly of enterprise. We know that when government monopolizes production, distribution, and employment, it is no longer the servant of men - it is their master. And, therefore, we know that economic liberty and political liberty are inseparable parts of the same ball of wax - that we must keep them both, or we shall lose them both.”

“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.”

Source: Correspondence

“It has been the fashion to speak of the conflict between human rights and property rights, and from this it has come to be widely believed that the use of private property is tainted with evil and should not be espoused by rational and civilized men... the only dependable foundation of personal liberty is the personal economic security of private property. The Good Society.”

“We ought to be very cautious and circumspect in the prosecution of magic and heresy. The attempt to put down these two crimes may be extremely perilous to liberty.”

May Two Wisdom Politics Liberty Economy Magic Crime Ought Liberalism Cautious Heresy Prosecution

Author:Baron de Montesquieu

“Nine-tenths of the people are at present freeholders... The time is not distant when this country will abound with mechanics and manufacturers who will receive their bread from their employers. Will such men be the secure and faithful guardians of liberty? Give the votes to people who have no property, and they will sell them to the rich who will be able to buy them.”

People Men Giving Country Wisdom Able Politics Liberty Economy Rich Vote Sells Property Nine Bread Secure Faithful Liberalism Mechanic Guardian Employers

Author:Gouverneur Morris

“I've long believed one of the mainsprings of our own liberty has been the widespread ownership of property among our people and the expectation that anyone's child, even from the humblest of families, could grow up to own a business or corporation.”

People Children Long Has Beens Wisdom Politics Grows Liberty Economy Growing Up Expectations Property Corporations Liberalism Ownership Homestead Act

Book:Ronald Reagan

Source: Ronald Reagan

“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.”

“The good citizen will demand liberty for himself, and as a matter of pride he will see to it that others receive the liberty which he thus claims as his own. Probably the best test of true love of liberty in any country is the way in which minorities are treated in that country. Not only should there be complete liberty in matters of religion and opinion, but complete liberty for each man to lead his life as he desires, provided only that in so doing he does not wrong his neighbor.”

Men Way Should Doe Country Matter Wisdom Desire Politics Liberty Opinion Economy Pride Citizens Demand Tests Claims Neighbor Treated Liberalism Minorities Good Citizen

Author:Theodore Roosevelt

“It is perfectly clear that people, given no alternative, will choose tyranny over anarchy, because anarchy is the worst tyranny of all... The special nature of liberties is that they can be defended only as long as we still have them. So the very first signs of their erosion must be resisted, whether the issue be domestic surveillance by the Army, so-called preventive detention, or the freedom of corporate television, or that of a campus newspaper.”

“One of the greatest disasters that happened to modern civilization was for democracy to inscribe "liberty" on its banners instead of "justice." Because "liberty" was considered the ideal it was not long until some men interpreted it as meaning "freedom from justice"; then when religion and decent government attempted to bring them back to justice, organized into "freedom groups" they protested that their constitutional and natural rights were being violated.”

“To give a man his life but deny him his liberty, is to take from him all that makes his life worth living. To give him his liberty but take from him the property which is the fruit and badge of his liberty, is to still leave him a slave.”

Men Giving Stills Politics Liberty Economy Property Slave Fruit Deny Liberalism Worth Living Badges Life Worth Living

Author:George Sutherland

“The liberty of the press, trial by jury, the Habeas Corpus Writ, even Magna Carta itself, although justly deemed the paladia of freedom, are all inferior considerations, when compared with the general distribution of real property among every class of people.”

People Real Wisdom Politics Liberty Class Economy Presses Property Trials Liberalism Consideration Inferiors Distribution Jury Corpus Trial By Jury Real Property Habeas Corpus Magna Carta

Author:Noah Webster

“Liberalism regards all absolutes with profound skepticism, including both moral imperatives and final solutions... Insistence upon any particular solution is the mark of an ideologue.”

“Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty. Perhaps, at first, prejudice, habit, shame or fear, principle or religion, would restrain the poor from attacking the rich, and the idle from usurping on the industrious; but the time would not be long before courage and enterprise would come, and pretexts be invented by degrees, to countenance the majority in dividing all the property among them, or at least, in sharing it equally with its present possessors.”

Source: The Works of John Adams Vol. 6: Defence of the Constitution IV, Discourses on Davila

“Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist. But if unlimited or unbalanced power of disposing property, be put into the hands of those who have no property, France will find, as we have found, the lamb committed to the custody of the world. In such a case, all the pathetic exhortations and addresses of the national assembly to the people, to respect property, will be regarded no more than the warbles of the songsters of the forest.”

People Ifs World Hands Found Politics Liberty Cases Economy Property Committed Forests France Liberalism Addresses Unlimited Pathetic Assembly Lambs Secured Custody Unbalanced

Author:John Adams

“We may... affirm that the balance of power in a society accompanies the balance of property in land. The only possible way, then, of preserving the balance of power on the side of liberty and public virtue is to make the acquisition of land easy to every member of society; to make a division of the land into small quantities, so that the multitude may be possessed of landed estates.”

Source: John Adams Speaking: Pound's Sources for the Adams Cantos

“If the multitude is possessed of the balance of real estate, the multitude will have the balance of power, and in that case the multitude will take care of the liberty, virtue, and interest of the multitude in all acts of government.”

Ifs Real Government Care Politics Interest Liberty Cases Economy Virtue Balance Take Care Liberalism Possessed Multitudes Estates Balance Of Power

Book:The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations

Source: The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations

“Whensoever, therefore, the legislative shall transgress this fundamental rule of society, and either by ambition, fear, folly, or corruption, endeavour to grasp themselves, or put into the hands of any other, an absolute power over the lives, liberties, and estates of the people, by this breach of trust they forfeit the power the people had put into the hands... and it devolves to the people, who have a right to resume their original liberty, and... provide for their own safety and security.”

Source: Two Treatises of Government: With a Supplement, Patriarcha, by Robert Filmer

“In the end, the difference between Conservatism and Liberalism seems to be this: the Conservative thinks of liberty as something to be preserved, the Liberal thinks of it as something to be enlarged.”

Thinking Ends Seems Differences Liberty Conservative Liberalism Conservatism

Author:Clinton Rossiter

“There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please.”

Humans Wells Liberty Please Libertarian Damn Liberalism Great Libertarian Basic Human Rights

Author:P. J. O'Rourke

“The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.”

Book:A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774)

Source: A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774)

“The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.”

Politics Liberty Economy Sea Library Wave Liberalism 4th Of July American Revolution Boisterous

Book:The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private

Source: The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private

“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.”