Best 5891 quotes in «freedom quotes» category

We stand for freedom. That is our conviction for ourselves; that is our only commitment to others.

Western civilization is based upon the libertarian principle, and all its achievements are the results of the action of free men.

We trade away some, if not much, of our freedom for the feeling of safety that comes with sticking with what we know because the known can only be as scary as it already is, whereas the unknown has limitless potential to be terrifying.

We've been blessed with the opportunity to stand for something - for liberty and freedom and fairness. And these are things worth fighting for, worth devoting our lives to.

We've got to maintain freedom of navigation of the seas and in the air.

We want freedom for our country, but not at the expense or exploitation of others, not so as to degrade other countries.

We who officially value freedom of speech above life itself seem to have nothing to talk about but the weather.

We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.

We will be a better country when each religious group can trust its members to obey the dictates of their own religious faith without assistance from the legal structure of the country.

We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.

We will not be led like sheep to the slaughter.

What a curious phenomenon it is that you can get men to die for the liberty of the world who will not make the little sacrifice that is needed to free themselves from their own individual bondage.

What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

What do people have against convicts? Is living together in the pen of freedom, where young people engage in mutual psychology, any more beautiful?

What do we mean by setting a man free? You cannot free a man who dwells in a desert and is an unfeeling brute.

What do you suppose will satisfy the soul, except to walk free and own no superior?

Whatever field of human activity one may take, only those trends that are in harmony with the needs of society show rapid progress.

Whatever liberates our spirit, without also giving us mastery over ourselves, is destructive.

Whatever natural right men may have to freedom and independency, it is manifest that some men have a natural ascendency over others.

Whatever the price, identify it now. What will you have to go through to get where you want to be? There is a price you can pay to be free of the situation once and for all. It may be a fantastic price or a tiny one -- but there is a price.

Whatever situation you're in: Send love, place it in God's hands, open your heart to everyone involved - and it will turn out miraculously.

Whatever the immediate gains and losses, the dangers to our safety arising from political suppression are always greater than the dangers to the safety resulting from political freedom. Suppression is always foolish.

What good is a Bill of Rights that does not include the right to play, to wander, to explore, the right to stillness and solitude, to discovery and physical freedom?

What is freedom? Freedom is the right to choose: the right to create for oneself the alternatives of choice. Without the possibility of choice a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing. —Archibald MacLeish

What is it you want to change? Your hair, your face, your body? Why? For God is in love with all those things and he might weep when they are gone.

What is it that every man seeks? To be secure, to be happy, to do what he pleases without restraint and without compulsion.

What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee.

What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty ... Whenever governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.

What is so beneficial to the people as liberty, which we see not only to be greedily sought after by men, but also by beasts, and to be prepared in all things.

What I would like to give my daughter is freedom. And this is something that must be given by example, not by exhortation.

What's real freedom? Real freedom is being able to not have my way and still be just as happy as if I did.

What some people term Freedom is nothing else than a liberty of saying and doing disagreeable things. It is but carrying the notion a little higher, and it would require us to break and have a head broken reciprocally without offense.

What we need is a new consciousness concerning the idea of human liberty.

When all government ...in little as in great things... shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power; it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.

What we should grasp, however, from the lessons of European history is that, first, there is nothing necessarily benevolent about programmes of European integration; second, the desire to achieve grand utopian plans often poses a grave threat to freedom; and third, European unity has been tried before, and the outcome was far from happy.

What we want is not mainly to colonize Nebraska with free men, but to colonize Massachusetts with free men-to be free ourselves. As the enterprise of a few individuals, that is brave and practical; but as the enterprise of the State, it is cowardice and imbecility. What odds where we squat, or bow much ground we cover? It is not the soil that we would make free, but men.

When a prisoner sees the door of his dungeon open, he dashes for it without stopping to think where he shall get his dinner outside.

When an opponent declares, "I will not come over to your side," I calmly say, "Your child belongs to us already...What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.

Whenever men take the law into their own hands, the loser is the law. And when the law loses, freedom languishes.

When each thought absorbs your attention completely, it means you identify with the voice in your head. Thought then becomes invested with a sense of self. This is the ego, a mind-made "me." That mentally constructed self feels incomplete and precarious. That's why fearing and wanting are its predominant emotions and motivating forces.

When caring for your neighbor becomes a compulsory obligation imposed by government instead of voluntary, charity turns to confiscation and freedom to achieve to involuntary servitude. To liberals, compassion seems to be defined by how many people are dependent on the government; to conservatives, it's defined by how many people no longer need help. One promotes dependence, the other freedom, responsibility and achievement.

Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.

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.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

Whenever we take away the liberties of those whom we hate we are opening the way to loss of liberty for those we love.

When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong.

When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.

When I was a boy I used to do what my father wanted. Now I have to do what my boy wants. My problem is: When am I going to do what I want?

When life does not go our way or we inadvertently make a mistake, it is so easy to make excuses, place blame on others, or argue that circumstances were against us. But we only progress in life to the extent that we take responsibility for our actions and attitudes, and put forth the initiative necessary to create our own circumstances.

When men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe... that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas-- that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That at any rate is the theory of our Constitution. It is an experiment. As all life is an experiment. Every year if not every day we wager our salvation upon some prophecy based upon imperfect knowledge.