Freedom And Liberty Quotes:

We must remind ourselves that an assault on any one of our liberties and freedoms is an assault on all.

- George Takei

source: Source: www.signature-reads.com

topic: Liberty, Assault, Freedom And Liberty

But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

- John Adams

source: John Adams (2012). “The Letters of John and Abigail Adams”, p.76, Simon and Schuster

topic: Government, Forever, Presidential, Our Founding Fathers, Patriotism And Freedom

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

- Benjamin Franklin

topic: Inspirational, Happiness, Peace, Social Democracy, Power Corruption

No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.

- Douglas MacArthur

source: Title of speech to the people of Japan, May 3, 1948, upon the first anniversary of the Japanese constitution. MacArthur, A Soldier Speaks (1965), p. 194. Francis T. Miller, General Douglas MacArthur, Fighter for Freedom, p. 1, 1942.

topic: Freedom, Blessing, Men, Vigilant, Inspirational Military

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

- C. S. Lewis

topic: Peace, War, Tyrants, Busybodies, Limited Freedom

The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.

- Thomas Jefferson

source: "The Lonely Quest: The Evolution of Presidential Leadership". Book by Robert Rienow and Leona Train Rienow, p. 209., 1966.

topic: Freedom, 4th Of July, Thinking, Writing Essays, Legitimate Government

Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.

- Benjamin Franklin

source: Benjamin Franklin (1907). “The Franklin Year Book: Maxims and Morals from the Great Philosopher”

topic: 4th Of July, Men, Law, American Revolution, American Voters

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

- P. J. O'Rourke

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Money, Power Corruption, Money And Power

Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom.

- John F. Kennedy

topic: Sacrifice, Liberty, Arms, Minutemen, Limiting Government

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

- John F. Kennedy

source: Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1961

topic: Inspirational, Memorial Day, Freedom, Inaugural Speech, Independence And Freedom

This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

- Frederick Douglass

topic: Struggle, Blow, Tyrants, Democracy And Human Rights, Price Of Freedom

The people cannot delegate to government the power to do anything which would be unlawful for them to do themselves.

- John Locke

topic: Government, Libertarian Party, People, Limited Freedom, Unlawful

What light is to the eyes - what air is to the lungs - what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.

- Robert Green Ingersoll

topic: Love, Motivational, Stars, Lovely Eyes, Lovers Eyes

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.

- Edward R. Murrow

topic: Sheep, Government, Political, Freedom And Liberty, Citizenry

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.

- Elbridge Gerry

source: House of Representatives, Amendments to the Constitution, August 17, 1789.

topic: Freedom, Mean, Army, Invading, Militia

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.

- John Stuart Mill

source: "The Contest in America", Fraser's Magazine, February 1862.

topic: War, Patriotic, Thinking, Soldiers At War, Ugly Things

If you want government to intervene domestically, you’re a liberal. If you want government to intervene overseas, you’re a conservative. If you want government to intervene everywhere, you’re a moderate. If you don’t want government to intervene anywhere, you’re an extremist.

- Joseph Sobran

topic: Funny, Government, Political, Intervening, Columnists

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

- James Madison

source: 1822; cited in U.S. Senate, Alleged Assassination Plots (1975).

topic: Education, Wisdom, Knowledge, Knowledge And Ignorance, Knowledge Education

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.

- Edward Abbey

topic: Inspirational, Country, Freedom, Inspirational Patriotic, Inspiring Patriotic

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and order, and they will preserve them.

- Thomas Jefferson

topic: Meaningful, Order, People, Freedom And Liberty, Freedom Liberty

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom, and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.

- W. Somerset Maugham

source: "Strictly Personal" by W. Somerset Maugham, (ch. 31), 1941.

topic: Freedom, Patriotic, Liberty, Limited Government, Price Of Freedom

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

- Henry David Thoreau

topic: Freedom, Historical, Liberty, Liberty And Equality, Walden Pond

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

- Thomas Jefferson

topic: War, Patriotic, Government, Resistance To Change, American Revolution

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

- George Bernard Shaw

topic: Inspirational, Fear, Clever, Independence And Freedom, Man And Superman

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

- James Madison

topic: Freedom, War, Political, Limiting Freedom, Great War

Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.

- Louis D. Brandeis

source: Olmstead v. United States (dissenting opinion) (1928)

topic: Freedom, Men, Evil, Beneficence, Lurking

The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions

- Daniel Webster

source: Daniel Webster, James Rees (1839). “The beauties of the Hon. Daniel Webster: selected and arranged, with a critical essay on his genius and writings”, p.30

topic: Freedom, People, Liberty, Limited Government, Pro Gun

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

- Thomas Paine

topic: Pain, Freedom, Fear, Independence And Freedom, Independence Day Patriotic

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.

- Lord Acton

topic: Wisdom, Freedom, Mean, Absolute Power, Power Corrupts

A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

- John Stuart Mill

topic: Freedom, War, Fighting, Soldiers At War, Ugly Things

Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.

- Samuel Adams

source: The Advertiser, 1748.

topic: Law, Government, People, Laws And Government, Moral Virtues

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

- Thomas Jefferson

topic: Freedom, 4th Of July, Men, Limited Government, Calm Seas

That government is best which governs least.

- Henry David Thoreau

topic: Freedom, Government, Historical, Limiting Freedom, Limiting Government

A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country.

- James Madison

topic: Country, People, Liberty, Militia, Freedom And Liberty

There was no one left to speak for me

- Martin Niemoller

topic: Speak, Speaking Out, Democracy And Human Rights, Price Of Freedom, Freedom And Liberty

Whereas, to preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them; nor does it follow from this, that all promiscuously must go into actual service on every occasion. The mind that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican principle; and when we see many men disposed to practice upon it, whenever they can prevail, no wonder true republicans are for carefully guarding against it.

- Richard Henry Lee

source: "An Additional Number of Letters to the Republican". Letters by the Federal Farmer (pseudonym of Richard Henry Lee), Letter XVIII, teachingamericanhistory.org. January 25, 1988.

topic: Men, Practice, People, Nra, Strong Arms

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in the crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

- Thomas Paine

source: The American Crisis, 19 Dec. 1776

topic: Love, Summer, Country, Inaugural Address, American Revolution

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible.

- George Washington

topic: Political, Liberty, Connections, Political Parties, Property Rights

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.

- Thomas Jefferson

topic: Wisdom, Rights, Law, Individual Liberty, Individual Rights

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

- Thomas Paine

topic: Inspirational, Life, Motivational, Independence And Freedom, Independence Day Patriotic

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

- Voltaire

source: "The Age of Louis XIV". Book by Voltaire, 1751.

topic: Inspirational, Political, Cynical, Limited Freedom, Political Activism

No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.

- Mark Twain

topic: Life, Trust, Freedom, Limiting Government, Legislators

Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States.

- Noah Webster

source: Noah Webster (1787). “An Examination Into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution Proposed by the Late Convention Held at Philadelphia: With Answers to the Principal Objections that Have Been Raised Against the System”, p.43

topic: Army, Europe, Law, Handguns, Pretense

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.

- Thomas Jefferson

topic: Men, Law, May, Limited Government, Founding

To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.

- Thomas Jefferson

topic: Independence, Liberty, Debt, Servitude, Limiting Government

Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

- Patrick Henry

topic: Sweet, Freedom, Business, American Revolution, Individual Liberty

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.

- Mahatma Gandhi

topic: Freedom, Doe, Delight, Making Mistakes And Learning From Them, Freedom Of Expression

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

topic: Freedom, 4th Of July, Political, Independence And Freedom, Justice Denied

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

- Edmund Burke

topic: Inspirational, Wisdom, Witty, Social Evils, Money Is The Root Of All Evil