Free Society Quotes - Page 6

• What [he] is apparently objecting to is that not everyone takes his beliefs seriously. Indeed, some don't seem to respect his beliefs at all, and actually poke fun at them. Well, I have news for [him]: that's the nature of a free society. Opinions don't necessarily merit respect; they must earn respect in the marketplace of ideas.

  Jeffrey Shallit

  Respect, Fun, Ideas

  4 Copy quote

• A free society that allows each individual to seek his or her own selfish ends (without deliberately trying to harm anyone else) will produce a state in which everyone's interest is optimized without any individual knowing in advance what that state might be.

  Stuart Kauffman

  Selfish, Knowing, Individuality

  6 Copy quote

• Our status as a free society and world power is not based on brute strength. When we've taken up arms, it has been for the defense of freedom for ourselves and for other peaceful nations who needed our help. But now, faced with the development of weapons with immense destructive power, we've no choice but to maintain ready defense forces that are second to none. Yes, the cost is high, but the price of neglect would be infinitely higher.

  Ronald Reagan

  Freedom, Taken, Choices

  United States. President (1981-1989 : Reagan), United States. President (1981-1989 : Reagan)., Ronald Reagan, United States. Office of the Federal Register (1983). “Ronald Reagan”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• If our free society is to endure, those who govern must recognize human dignity and accept the enforcement of constitutional limitations on their power conceived by the Framers . . . . Such recognition will not come from a technical understanding of the organs of government, or the new forms of wealth they administer. It requires something different, something deeper-a personal confrontation with the wellsprings of our society.

  William J. Brennan

  Government, Understanding, Different

  12 Copy quote

• We live in a democracy. We have this extraordinary opportunity to use our mind and say what we think, speak as we think. Sometimes what we say is objectionable to other people. But that is part of a free society

  Hal Holbrook

  Opportunity, Thinking, People

  7 Copy quote

• The Founders warned that a free society depends on a virtuous and moral people. The current crisis reflects that their concerns were justified.

  Ron Paul

  People, Moral, Justified

  Farewell Address to the U.S. Congress, delivered 14 November 2012

  31 Copy quote

  Show source

• The concept of equal pay for equal work is not only an impossible task, it can only be accomplished with the total rejection of the idea of the voluntary contract... The idea that a businessman must hire anyone and is prevented from firing anyone for any reason he chooses, and in the name of rights, is a clear indication that the basic concept of a free society has been lost.

  Ron Paul

  Equal Pay, Names, Ideas

  "Freedom Under Siege: The U.S. Constitution After 200 Years". Book by Ron Paul, 1987.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We must show that liberty is not merely one particular value but that it is the source and condition of most moral values. What a free society offers to the individual is much more than what he would be able to do if only he were free. We can therefore not fully appreciate the value of freedom until we know how a society of free men as a whole differs from one in which unfreedom prevails.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Men, Appreciate, Individuality

  52 Copy quote

• In a free society, one does not have to deal with those who are irrational. One is free to avoid them.

  Ayn Rand

  Freedom, Stupid People, Society

  Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.53, Penguin

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• In a free society, government reflects the soul of its people. If people want change at the top, they will have to live in different ways. Our major social problems are not the cause of our decadence. They are a reflection of it.

  Cal Thomas

  Change, Reflection, Government

  35 Copy quote

• Under the United States Constitution, the federal government has no authority to hold states "accountable" for their education performance...In the free society envisioned by the founders, schools are held accountable to parents, not federal bureaucrats.

  Ron Paul

  School, Government, Parent

  9 Copy quote

• The path towards a free society has not been simple. There are tragic and glorious pages in our history.

  Vladimir Putin

  Simple, Pages, Path

  11 Copy quote

• Can someone within that society walk into the town square and say what they want without fear of being punished for his or her views? If so, then that society is a free society. If not, it is a fear society.

  Natan Sharansky

  Squares, Views, Being Free

  11 Copy quote

• Free societies are societies in which the right of dissent is protected.

  Natan Sharansky

  Literature, Dissent, Protected

  14 Copy quote

• The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.

  Adlai E. Stevenson

  Freedom Of Speech, Society, Principles

  The New York Times, January 19, 1962.

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think the enemy is self-censorship. In a free society the biggest danger is that you're afraid to the point where you censor yourself.

  Tim Robbins

  Thinking, Self, Enemy

  9 Copy quote

• Free societies are societies in motion, and with motion comes friction.

  Salman Rushdie

  Friction

  "Joseph Anton: A Memoir". Book by Salman Rushdie, September 2012.

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Very few people really care about freedom, about liberty, about the truth, very few. Very few people have guts, the kind of guts on which a real democracy has to depend. Without people with that sort of guts a free society dies or cannot be born.

  Doris Lessing

  Real, Democracies Have, People

  Doris May Lessing (1994). “The Golden Notebook”, HarperCollins Publishers

  43 Copy quote

  Show source

• You can't ignore the reality that faith and family, those two things are integral parts of having limited government, lower taxes, and free societies.

  Rick Santorum

  Reality, Government, Two

  Interview with Rush Limbaugh, www.rushlimbaugh.com. June 8, 2011.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• If we wish to preserve a free society, it is essential that we recognize that the desirability of a particular object is not sufficient justification for the use of coercion.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Wish, Liberty, Essentials

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by F.A. Hayek, Chap. 6: "Equality, Value and Merit," Routledge (p. 77), 1960.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• In a free society, a large degree of human activity is none of the government's business. We should make criminal what's going to hurt other people and other than that we should leave it to people to make their own choices.

  Barney Frank

  Hurt, Government, People

  "CNN Newsroom" with Don Lemon, Kyra Phillips, transcripts.cnn.com. July 30, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Most of Roosevelt's innovations have been the law of the land for 70 years now, and yet we are still a free society free enough, that is, to allow tens of thousands of protesters to gather on the National Mall and to broadcast their slogans and speeches to the world via C-SPAN.

  Thomas Frank

  Years, Law, Land

  4 Copy quote

• It would be a sad thing if the religious and moral convictions upon which the American experiment was founded could now somehow be considered a danger to free society.

  Pope John Paul II

  Religious, Would Be, Moral

  4 Copy quote

• Because federal hate crime laws criminalize thoughts, they are incompatible with a free society.

  Ron Paul

  Hate, Law, Crime

  "Unconstitutional Legislation Threatens Freedoms" by Ron Paul, May 9, 2007.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I see the psychedelic experience as a birthright, and we can't have a free society until people are free to explore their own mind.

  Terence McKenna

  People, Mind, Psychedelic

  10 Copy quote