Freedom And Liberty Quotes - Page 2

• Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Education, Wisdom, People

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson”

  101 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Freedom, Independent, Men

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

  115 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Daniel Webster

  Freedom, Gun, Libertarian Party

  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

  27 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Pain, Freedom, Fear

  Thomas Paine (2016). “THOMAS PAINE Ultimate Collection: Political Works, Philosophical Writings, Speeches, Letters & Biography (Including Common Sense, The Rights of Man & The Age of Reason): The American Crisis, The Constitution of 1795, Declaration of Rights, Agrarian Justice, The Republican Proclamation, Anti-Monarchal Essay, Letters to Thomas Jefferson and George Washington…”, p.1336, e-artnow

  118 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Lord Acton

  Wisdom, Freedom, Mean

  Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom: Great Event”, p.19, VM eBooks

  74 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Freedom, War, Military

  88 Copy quote

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

  Samuel Adams

  Law, Government, People

  The Advertiser, 1748.

  45 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Men

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1793-1798”, p.238, Cosimo, Inc.

  34 Copy quote

  Show source

• That government is best which governs least.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Government

  Civil Disobedience (1849) See Ralph Waldo Emerson 29; O'Sullivan 1; Shipley 1

  48 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  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

  Country, People, Liberty

  103 Copy quote

• There was no one left to speak for me.

  Martin Niemoller

  Speaking Up, Bystanders, Nwo

  "First they came". Poem by Martin Niemoller,

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms.

  Richard Henry Lee

  Gun, Strong Arms, People

  Richard Henry Lee (1978). “Letters from the Federal farmer to the Republican”, Univ of Alabama Pr

  104 Copy quote

  Show source

• These are the times that try men's souls.

  Thomas Paine

  Veterans Day, Time, Motivation

  The American Crisis, 19 Dec. 1776

  80 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Political, Liberty, Connections

  George Washington, J. M. Williams (1800). “Washington's political legacies: To which is annexed an appendix, containing an account of his illness, death, and the national tributes of respect paid to his memory, with a biographical outline of his life and character”, p.90

  61 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Wisdom, Law, Tyrants

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.224, Cambridge University Press

  77 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Thomas Paine

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  The American Crisis, 12 Sept. 1777

  128 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.

  Voltaire

  Inspirational, Religious, Freedom

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

  583 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Mark Twain

  Life, Trust, Freedom

  110 Copy quote

• 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

  Army, Gun, Power

  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

  163 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Men, Gun, Law

  323 Copy quote

• 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

  Government Debt, Independence, Liberty

  Thomas Jefferson, Jean M. Yarbrough (1963). “The Essential Jefferson”, p.242, Hackett Publishing

  57 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Death, Sweet, Freedom

  Speech in Virginia Convention, Richmond, Va., 23 Mar. 1775.

  113 Copy quote

  Show source

• Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Freedom, Mistake, Struggle

  Mahatma Gandhi (1947). “Teachings of Mahatma Gandhi”

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Direct Action

  "Letter from Birmingham Jail," 16 Apr. 1963

  130 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

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

  Edmund Burke

  Inspirational, Wisdom, Witty

  337 Copy quote