Free Government Quotes - Page 4

• The mixing of government and religion can be a threat to free government, even if no one is forced to participate.... When the government puts its imprimatur on a particular religion, it conveys a message of exclusion to all those who do not adhere to the favored beliefs. A government cannot be premised on the belief that all persons are created equal when it asserts that God prefers some.

  Harry A. Blackmun

  Government, Religion, Atheism

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• A state too expensive in itself, or by virtue of its dependencies, ultimately falls into decay; its free government is transformed into a tyranny; it disregards the principles which it should preserve, and finally degenerates into despotism. The distinguishing characteristic of small republics is stability: the character of large republics is mutability.

  Simon Bolivar

  Fall, Character, Government

  Simon Bolivar's letter from Jamaica, Summer 1815.

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• One of the ordinary modes, by which tyrants accomplish their purposes without resistance, is, by disarming the people, and making it an offence to keep arms, and by substituting a regular army in the stead of a resort to the militia. The friends of a free government cannot be too watchful, to overcome the dangerous tendency of the public mind to sacrifice, for the sake of mere private convenience, this powerful check upon the designs of ambitious men.

  Joseph Story

  Powerful, Army, Sacrifice

  Joseph Story (1842). “A Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States”, p.264

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• We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace. We know that oppressive governments support terror, while free governments fight the terrorists in their midst. We know that free peoples embrace progress and life, instead of becoming the recruits for murderous ideologies.

  George W. Bush

  Fighting, Differences, Government

  United Nations General Assembly Address, delivered 21 September 2004, New York, NY

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• We can not have free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forego, or postpone a national election it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Government, Might, Election

  Abraham Lincoln, Mario Matthew Cuomo, G. S. Boritt (2004). “Lincoln on Democracy”, p.334, Fordham Univ Press

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• If I can only live to see the American union firmly fixed, and free governments well established in our western world, and can leave to my children but a crust of bread and liberty, I shall die satisfied.

  George Mason

  Children, Government, Liberty

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• The First Amendment provides the only kind of security system that can preserve a free government - one that leaves the way wide open for people to favor, discuss, advocate, or incite causes and doctrines however obnoxious and antagonistic such views may be to the rest of us.

  Hugo Black

  Security Systems, Government, Views

  Concurring opinion, Yates v. United States, 354 U.S. 298, 1957.

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• The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries.

  John Adams

  Government, Essence, Political

  John Adams (2001). “The Political Writings of John Adams”, p.361, Regnery Publishing

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• I anticipate with pleasing expectations that retreat in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, the ever favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.

  George Washington

  Sweet, Retirement, Freedom

  George Washington (1851). “The life of General Washington: first president of the United States”, p.337

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• One essential of a free government is that it rest wholly on voluntary support. And one certain proof that a government is not free, is that it coerces more or less persons to support it, against their will.

  Lysander Spooner

  Government, Support, Essentials

  Lysander Spooner (1867). “No Treason: No. 1-”

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• A people may prefer a free government, but if, from indolence, or carelessness, or cowardice, or want of public spirit, they are unequal to the exertions necessary for preserving it. They are more or less unfit for liberty; and although it may be for their good to have had it even for a short time, they are unlikely long to enjoy it

  John Stuart Mill

  Government, Long, People

  "Considerations on Representative Government". Book by John Stuart Mill (p. 6), 1861.

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• The American people owe it to themselves, and to the cause of free Government, to prove by their establishments for the advancement and diffusion of knowledge, that their political Institutionsare as favorable to the intellectual and moral improvement of Man as they are conformable to his individual and social rights.

  James Madison

  Education, Men, Rights

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• It used to be said in antislavery days that a people who would tacitly consent to the enslavement of 4,000,000 human beings were incapable of being just to each other, and I believe this same rule holds with regard to the injustice practiced by men towards women. So long as all men conspire to rob women of the citizen's right to perfect equality in all the privileges and immunities of our so-called "free" government, we can not expect these same men to be capable of perfect justice to each other.

  Susan B. Anthony

  Believe, Equality, Men

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• The preservation of a free government requires not merely that the metes and bounds which separate each department of power be invariably maintained; but more especially that neither of them be suffered to overleap the great Barrier which defends the rights of the people. The Rulers who are guilty of such an encroachment, exceed the commission from which they derive their authority and are Tyrants. The people who submit to it are governed by laws made neither by themselves nor by an authority derived from them, and are slaves.

  James Madison

  Rights, Government, Law

  James Madison (1867). “1769-1793”, p.163

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• Local assemblies of the people constitute the strength of free nations. Municipal institutions are to liberty what primary schools are to science: they bring it within the people's reach, and teach them how to use and enjoy it. A nation may establish a system of free government, but without the spirit of municipal institutions it cannot have the spirit of liberty.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  School, Government, People

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1851). “The Republic of the United States of America: And Its Political Institutions, Reviewed and Examined”, p.62

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• Free government cannot long endure if property is largely in a few hands, and large masses of people are unable to earn homes, education, and a support in old age.

  Rutherford B. Hayes

  Home, Government, Hands

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

  Calvin Coolidge

  Government, Order, Liberty

  Calvin Coolidge (2001). “The Price of Freedom: Speeches and Addresses”, p.350, The Minerva Group, Inc.

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• That public virtue which among the ancients was denominated patriotism, is derived from a strong sense of our own interest in the preservation and prosperity of the free government of which we are members. Such a sentiment, which had rendered the legions of the republic almost invincible, could make but a very feeble impression on the mercenary servants of a despotic prince; and it became necessary to supply that defect by other motives, of a different, but not less forcible nature; honour and religion.

  Edward Gibbon

  Strong, Government, History

  Edward Gibbon (2009). “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition”, p.15, Modern Library

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• Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Parent, Libertarian

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1793-1798”, p.474, Cosimo, Inc.

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• When more of the people's sustenance is exacted through the form of taxation than is necessary to meet the just obligations of government and expenses of its economical administration, such exaction becomes ruthless extortion and a violation of the fundamental principles of free government.

  Grover Cleveland

  Patriotic, Government, People

  Second Annual Message, December 1886.

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• To give freedom is still more easy. It is not necessary to guide; it only requires to let go the rein. But to form a free government; that is, to temper together these opposite elements of liberty and restraint in one work, requires much thought, deep reflection, a sagacious, powerful, and combining mind.

  Edmund Burke

  Letting Go, Powerful, Reflection

  Edmund Burke (1912). “Reflections on the French Revolution”, p.251, CUP Archive

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• In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed.

  Noah Webster

  Christian, Children, Government

  Noah Webster (1843). “A Collection of Papers on Political, Literary, and Moral Subjects”, p.291

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• In a free government, the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. It consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other in the multiplicity of sects.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Religious, Rights, Government

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.241

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• Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Liberty, Constitution

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1793-1798”, p.474, Cosimo, Inc.

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• It yet remains a problem to be solved in human affairs, whether any free government can be permanent, where the public worship of God, and the support of religion, constitute no part of the policy or duty of the state in any assignable shape. The future experience of Christendom, and chiefly of the American states, must settle this problem, as yet new in the history of the world, abundant, as it has been, in experiments in the theory of government.

  Joseph Story

  Religious, Government, Support

  Joseph Story (1833). “Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States, Before the Adoption of the Constitution”, p.700

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