Threats To Liberty Quotes:

History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure.

- Thurgood Marshall

source: "Neither Liberty, Nor Safety" by Virginia Postrel, reason.com. June 1989.

topic: Inspirational, Rights, Historical, Urgency, Threats To Liberty

Of course, there are dangers in religious freedom and freedom of opinion. But to deny these rights is worse than dangerous, it is absolutely fatal to liberty. The external threat to liberty should not drive us into suppressing liberty at home. Those who want the government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination.

- Harry S. Truman

topic: Suicide, Religious, Home, Religious Freedom, Assassination

Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government...

- Thomas Jefferson

topic: Pursuit Of Happiness, Government, People, Secession, Consent Of The Governed

An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty.

- Eugene McCarthy

source: Eugene J. McCarthy (2004). “Parting Shots from My Brittle Bow: Reflections on American Politics and Life”, p.109, Fulcrum Publishing

topic: Liberty, Bureaucracy, Threat, Inefficiency, Threats To Liberty

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

- Thomas Jefferson

source: Declaration of Independence (1776).

topic: Life, Change, Happiness, Social Equality, Inaugural Speech

...that standing army can never be formidable (threatening) to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in the use of arms.

- Alexander Hamilton

topic: Army, Gun, People, Militia, Right To Bear Arms

Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed

- Walter E. Williams

topic: Men, Government, Consent, Independence And Freedom, Secession

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

- Thomas Jefferson

topic: Strength, Wisdom, Veterans Day, Social Revolution, Manure

When all the objectives of government include the achievement of equality - other than equality before the law - that government poses a threat to liberty.

- Margaret Thatcher

topic: Government, Law, Achievement, Threats To Liberty

"Little Brother" sounds an optimistic warning. It extrapolates from current events to remind us of the ever-growing threats to liberty. But it also notes that liberty ultimately resides in our individual attitudes and actions. In our increasingly authoritarian world, I especially hope that teenagers and young adults will read it - and then persuade their peers, parents and teachers to follow suit.

- Dan Gillmor

topic: Teacher, Brother, Attitude, Threats To Liberty, Current Events

In fact, it's the greatest threat to liberty of all kinds, whether it is freedom of religion, whether it is freedom of speech, whether it is freedom of the press, whether it is freedom of association, all of the rights that are enshrined in the First Amendment are threatened by the active, aggressive homosexual lobby and the homosexual agenda.

- Bryan Fischer

topic: Rights, Freedom Of Speech, Liberty, Threats To Liberty