Civil Liberties Quotes - Page 7

• The sad reality is that all the well-meaning groups and individuals who challenge our permanent war economy and the doctrine of preemptive war, who care about sustainable energy, fight for civil liberties and want corporate malfeasance to end, were once again suckered by the Democratic Party. They were had. It is not a new story. The Democrats have been doing this to us since Bill Clinton. It is the same old merry-go-round, only with Obama branding.

  Chris Hedges

  War, Party, Fighting

  "The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress". Book by Chris Hedges, 2013.

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• Individuals for whom no orthodox cure is available surely are entitled to select a health care approach.....This right (is) specifically within,,,the 1st, 4th, 5th, 9th, and 14th amendments to the (US) Constitution....To be insensitive to the very fundamental civil liberties....(:) the choice...of the person whose body is being ravaged (by disease), is to display slight understanding of the essence of our free society and its constitutional underpinnings.

  Luther L. Bohanon

  Dark, Essence, Choices

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• Let no man think we can deny civil liberty to others and retain it for ourselves. When zealous agents of the Government arrest suspected "radicals" without warrant, hold them without prompt trial, deny them access to counsel and admission of bail....we have shorn the Bill of Rights of its sanctity.

  Robert M. La Follette, Sr.

  Men, Thinking, Rights

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• I do not know what has caused MacKinnon to become, and, more surprisingly, to remain, so obsessed with pornography, and so zealous for censorship. But let us not sacrifice our civil liberties on the altar of her obsession.

  Richard Posner

  Sacrifice, Government, Liberty

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• The first duty of government is to protect the citizen from assault. Unless it does this, all the civil rights and civil liberties in the world aren't worth a dime.

  Richard Viguerie

  Rights, Government, Liberty

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• The concept of military necessity is seductively broad, and has a dangerous plasticity. Because they invariably have the visage of overriding importance, there is always a temptation to invoke security "necessities" to justify an encroachment upon civil liberties. For that reason, the military-security argument must be approached with a healthy skepticism.

  William J. Brennan

  Military, Temptation, Healthy

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• American high schools have physically imprisoned young people, stripped them of civil liberties and fed them a diet of p.c. pap.

  Camille Paglia

  School, People, Liberty

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• Churchmen are quick to defend religious freedom; lawyers were never so universally aroused as by President Roosevelt's Court bill; newspapers are most alert to civil liberties when there is a hint of press censorship in the air. And educators become perturbed at every effort to curb academic freedom. But too seldom do all of these become militant when ostensibly the rights of only one group are threatened. They do not always react to the truism that when the rights of any individual or group are chipped away, the freedom of all erodes.

  Earl Warren

  Religious, Rights, Air

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• Americans are tired of the games and the lies of today's media. They want the truth. Imagine this. No censors, no barricades, no statists. We will be able to engage viewers directly on subjects that matter most to them, from finances to civil liberties to foreign policy.

  Ron Paul

  Lying, Tired, Media

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• Those concerns of a national character-such as air and water pollution that do not respect state boundaries, or the national transportation system, or efforts to safeguard your civil liberties-must, of course, be handled on the national level.

  Ronald Reagan

  Character, Air, Water

  Ronald Reagan, Michael Reagan (2016). “The Last Best Hope: The Greatest Speeches of Ronald Reagan”, p.55, Humanix Books

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• It is not necessary to argue to those for whom I write that the two great needs of mankind, that all men may be lifted up into the light of the highest Christian civilization, are, first, a pure, spiritual Christianity, and, second, civil liberty.

  Josiah Strong

  Christian, Spiritual, Writing

  Josiah Strong (1963). “Our Country”

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• Let us teach our people again to be proud that they are Filipinos. Let us teach them to realize anew that being a Filipino means having as rich and noble a heritage of language, culture, patriotism and heroic deeds as any nation on earth. Let us teach a steadfast faith in Divine Providence, a stable family institution, the unhampered enjoyment of civil liberties, the advantages of constitutional government, the potentials of a rich and spacious land.

  Carlos P. Romulo

  Mean, Heroic Deeds, Government

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• Washington's is the mightiest name of earth - long since mightiest in the cause of civil liberty; still mightiest in moral reformation. On that name no eulogy is expected. It cannot be. To add brightness to the sun, or glory to the name of Washington, is alike impossible. Let none attempt it. In solemn awe pronounce the name, and in its naked deathless splendor leave it shining on.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Names, Long, Shining

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• Almost all the civil liberty now enjoyed in the world owes its origin to the principles of the christian religion.

  Noah Webster

  Christian, Liberty, Principles

  Noah Webster (1832). “History of the United States: To which is Prefixed a Brief Historical Account of Our [English] Ancestors, from the Dispersion at Babel, to Their Migration to America, and of the Conquest of South America, by the Spaniards”, p.299

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• Governor Ford is sworn to support the Constitution of the United States and also of this State Illinois, and these constitutions guarantee religious as well as civil liberty to all religious societies whatever.

  Joseph Smith, Jr.

  Religious, Freedom, America

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• We will not let terrorists change our way of life; we will not live in fear; and we will not undermine the civil liberties that characterize our Democracy.

  Adam Schiff

  Hippie, Democracy, Liberty

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• The psychedelic issue is a civil rights and civil liberties issue. It is an issue concerned with the most basic of human freedoms: religious practice and the privacy of the individual mind.

  Terence McKenna

  Religious, Issues, Rights

  Terence McKenna (2010). “Food Of The Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge”, p.255, Random House

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• It is no response to assert that the Patriot Act has been useful; what you need to explain is how any particular safeguard would have so diluted investigative powers that it would have frustrated an investigation and created a security harm outweighing the benefit to civil liberties. If you'd rather trade scary stories, that's fine too - just let me know so I can buy a bag of marshmallows before our next round.

  Julian Sanchez

  Scary Stories, Frustrated, Liberty

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• The copyright industry has managed to kill civil liberties for their own children, ushering in a dystopian surveillance machine, merely to avoid taking responsibility for their own business failures. I lack words to quantify my contempt for these utter parasites.

  Rick Falkvinge

  Children, Responsibility, Liberty

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• What man loses by the social contract is his natural liberty and an unlimited right to everything he tries to get and succeeds in getting; what he gains is civil liberty and the proprietorship of all he possesses.

  Jean-Baptiste Rousseau

  Men, Society, Trying

  "Du Contrat Social" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, translated by G. D. H. Cole, 1913.

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• I think that there’s going to be a rush to judgment on civil liberties, and a clamping down, a suspension of our democratic rights. And I believe that those who are good Americans would want to see this not happen and that we debate how to find a balance between the public safety and the protection of civil liberties.

  Barbara Lee

  Believe, Thinking, Rights

  "Alone on the Hill". Interview with Bill Hogan, www.motherjones.com. September 20, 2001.

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• We should be active leaders in the fight for civil liberties which adequately reflect present social realities. Furthermore the left as a movement must appropriate the green agenda. Sustainability has to become the foundation of all our pursuits. This movement is my dream and vision. The left remains strong in Malta, but stronger it will become if we have the courage to unite and dream.

  Joseph Muscat

  Dream, Strong, Fighting

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• Our basic civil liberties are in jeopardy, but we're going to be spending our time as a society arguing about whether or not schoolchildren should be forced to pay tribute to imaginary invisible beings who live in magical kingdoms in outer space some

  Tom Tomorrow

  Space, Liberty, Kingdoms

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• Civil liberties are a great heritage for Americans.  They are not rights that the government gives to the people, they are the rights that the people carved out for themselves when they created the government.

  Edward Bennett Williams

  Rights, Government, People

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• Presidents who restrict civil liberties, even in wartime, are usually judged harshly for it.

  David Greenberg

  President, Liberty, Wartime

  "Making Presidential History". Online chat, www.slate.com. August 9, 2007.

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