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Liberty Quotes

Browse 6578 quotes about Liberty.

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Liberty Quotes

“In circumstances as dark as these, it becomes us, as Men and Christians, to reflect that whilst every prudent measure should be taken to ward off the impending judgments, ...at the same time all confidence must be withheld from the means we use; and reposed only on that God rules in the armies of Heaven, and without His whole blessing, the best human counsels are but foolishness.”

MenShouldHumansMeanWholeUseChristianHeavenDarkLibertyTakenCircumstancesBlessingJudgmentArmyFoolishnessOur Founding FathersPrudentUs Founding Fathers
Author:John Hancock
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“Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.”

InspirationalLooksWholePoliticalNationsLibertyArmsGunIndiaHistoricalBritishLibertarianAmendmentsGun ControlFreedom And LibertyBansSecond AmendmentFreedom LibertyRiflesFirearmsRight To Bear ArmsGun ViolenceBearing ArmsGun RightsBritish HistoryLimiting GovernmentRights And FreedomsPro GunFounding Fathers Gun2 AmendmentActs Of ViolenceDeprivingFounding Fathers Second AmendmentGreat LibertarianMisdeedsAnti GunAmendment 1British PoliticsAmendment 19Patriotic GunGuns In AmericaGun BanBritish RuleBritish Rule In India
Book:My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi
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“Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill it teaches the whole people by example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means - to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal - would bring terrible retributions.”

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Author:Louis D. Brandeis
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“Liberty ... was a two-headed boon. There was first, the liberty of the people as a whole to determine the forms of their own government, to levy their own taxes, and to make their own laws.... There was second, the liberty of the individual man to live his own life, within the limits of decency and decorum, as he pleased -- freedom from the despotism of the majority.”

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Book:Alexander Hamilton: Lapham's Quarterly - Special Issue
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“The whole point of religious faith, its strength and chief glory, is that it does not depend on rational justification. The rest of us are expected to defend our prejudices. But ask a religious person to justify their faith and you infringe 'religious liberty'.”

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Book:The God Delusion
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“Experience shows that the frequent use of severe punishment has never rendered a people better. The death of a criminal is a less effective means of restraining crimes than the permanent example of a man deprived of his liberty during the whole of his life to make amends for the injury he has done to the public.”

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Author:Catherine the Great
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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.”

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Book:Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings
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“Can a free people restrain crime without sacrificing fundamental liberties and a heritage of compassion?... Let us show that we can temper together those opposite elements of liberty and restraint into one consistent whole. Let us set an example for the world of a law-abiding America glorying in its freedom as well as its respect for law.”

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Author:Gerald R. Ford
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“A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy.”

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Book:The Writings of Samuel Adams: 1778-1802
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“At the heart of the First Amendment is the recognition of the fundamental importance of the free flow of ideas and opinions on matters of public interest and concern. The freedom to speak one's mind is not only an aspect of individual liberty - and thus a good unto itself - but also is essential to the common quest for truth and the vitality of society as a whole. We have therefore been particularly vigilant to ensure that individual expressions of ideas remain free from governmentally imposed sanctions.”

MindFirstsHeartIdeasMatterWholeIndividualSpeakInterestCommonLibertyOpinionExpressionEssentialsConcernAspectFlowImportanceFundamentalsRecognitionAmendmentsQuestsFreedom Of SpeechVitalityFirst AmendmentSanctionsVigilantIndividual LibertyPublic InterestIndividual Expression
Author:William Rehnquist
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“Let our object be - our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country. And by the blessing of God, may that country itself become a vast and splendid monument - not of oppression and terror, but of wisdom, of Peace, and of Liberty, upon which the world may gaze with admiration forever.”

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Book:An Address Delivered at the Completion of the Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1843
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“Such regulations may, no doubt, be considered as in some respect a violation of natural liberty. But those exertions of the natural liberty of a few individuals, which might endanger the security of the whole society, are, and ought to be, restrained by the laws of all governments; of the most free, as well as or the most despotical. The obligation of building party walls, in order to prevent the communication of fire, is a violation of natural liberty, exactly of the same kind with the regulations of the banking trade which are here proposed.”

WellsKindMayWholeGovernmentMightLawOrderIndividualNaturalPartyLibertyDoubtFireSecurityBuildingCommunicationWallOughtTradeObligationNo DoubtRegulationBankingViolationExertion
Book:An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations
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“Whatever Party of Men obtain the Reins of Management, and have power to name the Person who shall License the Press, that Party of Men have the whole power of keeping the World in Ignorance, in all matters relating to Religion or Policy, since the Writers of that Party shall have full liberty to impose their Notions upon the World.”

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Book:An Essay on the Regulation of the Press
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“Ought to have a universal compulsory force to move and arrange each part in the manner best suited to the whole. Just as nature gives each man an absolute power over all his members, the social compact gives the body politic an absolute power over all its members." "We grant that each person alienates, by the social compact, only that portion of his power, his goods, and liberty whose use is of consequence to the community; but we must also grant that only the sovereign is the judge of what is of consequence.”

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Author:Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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“If we in Asia want to speak credibly for Asian values, we must be prepared to also champion those ideals which are universal and belong to humanity as a whole...It is altogether shameful, if ingenious, to cite 'Asian values' as an excuse for autocratic practices and the denial of basic rights and civil liberties.”

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Author:Anwar Ibrahim
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“We believe in a free Europe, not a standardised Europe. Diminish that variety within the member states, and you impoverish the whole Community. We insist that the institutions of the European Community are managed so that they increase the liberty of the individual throughout the continent. These institutions must not be permitted to dwindle into bureaucracy. Whenever they fail to enlarge freedom the institutions should be criticised and the balance restored.”

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