Best 3053 quotes in «liberty quotes» category

Your fathers killed their government for far less, why won’t you?

Your liberty will not be freely given to you.You must be bold to liberate yourself.

Your money is your liberty. Without the benefit of the earnings of your own labor, you cannot be free. Insisting on tax reductions is the responsible approach to keeping government small (as it was originally intended to be) and maintaining the liberty of the people.

Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man’s nose begins.

You see, Monsieur, it's worth everything, isn't it, to keep one's intellectual liberty, not to enslave one's powers of appreciation, one's critical independence? It was because of that that I abandoned journalism, and took to so much duller work: tutoring and private secretaryship. There is a good deal of drudgery, of course; but one preserves one's moral freedom, what we call in French one's quant a soi. And when one hears good talk one can join in it without compromising any opinions but one's own; or one can listen, and answer it inwardly. Ah, good conversation--there's nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing. And so I have never regretted giving up either diplomacy or journalism--two different forms of the same self-abdication." He fixed his vivid eyes on Archer as he lit another cigarette. "Voyez-vous, Monsieur, to be able to look life in the face: that's worth living in a garret for, isn't it? But, after all, one must earn enough to pay for the garret; and I confess that to grow old as a private tutor--or a `private' anything--is almost as chilling to the imagination as a second secretaryship at Bucharest. Sometimes I feel I must make a plunge: an immense plunge. Do you suppose, for instance, there would be any opening for me in America-- in New York?

You see, evil men, the likes of whom have sought to enslave their fellow man since the dawn of creation, took America not by might or strength of arms, but by deception and guile.

You speak as though they cannot be trusted with freedom to build a future for themselves, given the opportunity. Certainly humanity as a whole shares a collective guilt for incompetency in crafting a decent future for ourselves – more often than not, we seem eager to destroy others for our own selfish gain. If you truly care for their prospects once freed, then raise a voice and a hand towards that cause! But do not condemn those who work towards the step that must be accomplished first. Liberty first must be achieved, before anything else can have any meaning. - Jo March to Kate Vaughn, on the abolition of slavery

A beane in liberty is better then a comfit in prison.

A Bill of Rights that means what the majority wants it to mean is worthless.

Abe Lincoln died because he stood for liberty and truth.

Absolute freedom of the press to discuss public questions is a foundation stone of American liberty.

Absolute power corrupts even when exercised for humane purposes. The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep. The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its anti-humanity.

Absolute justice is achieved by the suppression of all contradiction, therefore it destroys freedom.

Abuse is the very hallmark of liberty.

Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be found.

Absolute freedom need not be lost as the price we must pay for the advent of civilization; men are born free, and need never be in chains. Man may achieve liberty and abundance, freedom and civilization.

A caged canary is safe but not free.

A Christian has no need of any law in order to be saved, since through faith we are free from every law. Thus all the acts of a Christian are done spontaneously, out of a sense of pure liberty.

A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity.

A chip on the shoulder is too heavy a piece of baggage to carry through life.

A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers.

A discriminating irreverence is the creator and protector of human liberty.

A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty Is worth a whole eternity in bondage.

Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.

A country that goes out of its way to imprison the innocent has no business preaching democracy to the world.

A free man is he that, in those things which by his strength and wit he is able to do, is not hindered to do what he has a will to.

Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.

Affirmative action based on quotas is wrong - wrong because it is antithetical to the genius of the American idea: individual liberty.

[A] free government . . . cannot be supported without Virtue.

A free man is he who does not fear to go to the end of his thought.

A few weeks ago we were reminded that other peoples - in particular the United States of America - fought so that we Germans could live in liberty. That we should never forget.

A flirt is like a dipper attached to a hydrant; every one is at liberty to drink from it, but no one desires to carry it away.

A free spirit takes liberties even with liberty itself.

After 100 years of trying, finally we passed health care for all Americans as a right for all - not just a privilege for a few. It honored the vows of our Founders: Of life, a healthier life; liberty; the freedom to pursue our own happinesses. ... We knew that ... this bill was ironclad constitutionally.

After each perceived security crisis ended, the United States has remorsefully realized that the abrogation of civil liberties was unnecessary.

After order and liberty, economy is one of the highest essentials of a free government.

Aging has brought me greater liberty in fiction. When I was young I was harder on myself. I wrote with an idea of absolute seriousness.

Against us are all timid men who prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty We are likely to preserve the liberty we have obtained only by unremitting labors and perils.

Aggressors cannot wage total war without introducing Socialism.

A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.

Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are the most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise.

A government which lays taxes on the people not required by urgent public necessity and sound public policy is not a protector of liberty, but an instrument of tyranny. It condemns the citizen to servitude.

A great work is made out of a combination of obedience and liberty.

A jealous lover of human liberty, deeming it the absolute condition of all that we admire and respect in humanity, I reverse the phrase of Voltaire, and say that, if God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him.

A heavily armed citizenry is not about overthrowing the government; it is about preventing the government from overthrowing liberty.

A large portion of our citizens, who will not believe, even on the evidence of facts, that any public evils exist, or are impending. They deride the apprehensions of those who foresee, that licentiousness will prove, as it ever has proved, fatal to liberty.

Ah! my friend, for whomever is alone, without a god and without a master, the weight of time is terrible. One must then choose a master, God being out of style.

A just government maintains a healthy tension between the claims of authority and the claims of liberty.

[ Alexis de] Tocqueville said it in 1835, and it's as true today as it was then: 'Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. Religion is more needed in democratic societies than in any other.'

A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being for any reason whatever; nor will a libertarian advocate the initiation of force, or delegate it to anyone else. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim.