Freedom and Liberty Quotes
“We are reluctant to admit that we owe our liberties to men of a type that today we hate and fear—unruly men, disturbers of the peace, men who resent and denounce what Whitman called ‘the insolence of elected persons’—in a word, free men.” Gerald W. Johnson
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“And reason teaches all mankind who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.”
John Locke
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“To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.” Theodore Roosevelt, 1918
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“As I watch government at all levels daily eat away at our freedom, I keep thinking how prosperity and government largesse have combined to make most of us fat and lazy and indifferent to, or actually in favor of, the limits being placed on that freedom.” Lyn Nofziger
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“Then what is freedom? It is the will to be responsible to ourselves.” Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), Twilight of the Idols, 1888
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“One of the things that bothers me most is the growing belief in the country that security is more important than freedom. It ain’t.” Lyn Nofziger [Franklyn C. Nofziger], Press Secretary for President Reagan
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“The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.” James Madison (1751-1836), Father of the Constitution for the USA, 4th US President
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“I think that every true reformer, every real friend of liberty, will agree with me in saying that if we must erect safeguards, they should be rather for the security of the individual than of the mass, and that our chiefest care must be to train the majority to respect the rights of the minority, to prevent the claims of the few from being trampled under foot by the caprice or passion of the many.” Richard Cartwright, in the Legislative Assembly, Canada, March 9, 1865; reproduced in Janet Ajzenstat, Paul Romney, Ian Gentles, and William D. Gairdner (Eds.), Canada’s Founding Debates (Toronto: Stoddart, 1999), p. 19
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“Outside Independence Hall when the Constitutional Convention of 1787 ended, Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.” Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), US Founding Father 1787, as recorded by Constitution signer James McHenry in a diary entry
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“A man is none the less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.” Lysander Spooner (1808-1887), political theorist, activist, abolitionist Source: The Constitution of No Authority (Boston: 1870), p. 28.
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“Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction.” Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President Source: in a letter to John Adams as quoted in John A. Stormer, None Dare Call it Treason (Florissant, MO: Liberty Bell Press, 1964) 93.
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“And what sort of philosophical doctrine is this—that numbers confer unlimited rights, that they take from some persons all rights over themselves, and vest these rights in others. ... How, then, can the rights of three men exceed the rights of two men?” Auberon Herbert (1838-1906), English author, “The Ethics of Dynamite”, Contemporary Review, May 1894; reproduced in The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State, and Other Essays by Auberon Herbert (Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1978), pp. 202-203
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“The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.” Thomas Jefferson
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“One of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the great struggle for independence.” Charles Austin Beard (1874-1948)
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“A slave is he who cannot speak his thoughts.” Euripides
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“There are no boundaries in this struggle to the death. We cannot be indifferent to what happens anywhere in the world, for a victory by any country over imperialism is our victory.” Ernesto Che Guevara
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“Too long have the workers of the world waited for some Moses to lead them out of bondage. I would not lead you out if I could; for if you could be led out, you could be led back again. I would have you make up your minds there is nothing that you cannot do for yourselves.” Eugene Victor Debs, from an address on Industrial Unionism delivered at Grand Central Palace, New York City, Dec. 18, 1905
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“Place me not with those who are weak of mind and willingly give up the rights of others, for these poor ignorant souls know not that the rights they give up are their own!” Warren Friton
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“To consider judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions is a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy.” Thomas Jefferson
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“Whenever legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience.” John Locke, 1690
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"This is, in theory, still a free country, but our politically correct, censorious times are such that many of us tremble to give vent to perfectly acceptable views for fear of condemnation. Freedom of speech is thereby imperiled, big questions go undebated, and great lies become accepted, unequivocally as great truths." -- Simon Heffer
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". . .nothing is more important than freedom. Nothing is more sacred than freedom. Nothing is greater than freedom. Nothing. . .can be permitted to stand in the way of freedom. Freedom. . .is all that makes men great. It is all men have to live for. Without freedom, what good is life?" Allen Drury, A Shade of Difference
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"To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man." Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
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"The worst enemy of truth and freedom in our society is the compact majority. Yes, the damned, the compact, liberal majority." Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People, Act 4