Liberty Quotes - Page 2

• The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools.

  Herbert Spencer

  Silly, Humor, Men

  'Essays' (1891) vol. 3 'State Tamperings with Money and Banks'

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• The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.

  John Stuart Mill

  Motivational, Freedom, Names

  John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, John Troyer (2003). “The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill”, p.160, Hackett Publishing

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• Economic freedom is an essential requisite for political freedom. By enabling people to cooperate with one another without coercion or central direction, it reduces the area over which political power is exercised.

  Milton Friedman

  People, Political, Essentials

  Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman (1990). “Free to Choose: A Personal Statement”, p.20, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Every coercive monopoly was created by government intervention into the economy: by special privileges, such as franchises or subsidies, which closed the entry of competitors into a given field, by legislative action.

  Ayn Rand

  Government, Special, Subsidies

  "The Voice of Reason" by Ayn Rand, 1989.

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• I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Presidential, Political, Storm

  Letter to James Madison, 30 Jan. 1787

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• The last hope of human liberty in this world rests on us. we ought, for so dear a stake, to sacrifice every attachment & every enmity.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Sacrifice, Attachment, Enmity

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.234, Rowman & Littlefield

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• It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The freemen of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much ... to forget it

  James Madison

  Exercise, America, Waiting

  James Madison (1999). “Writings”

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• The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.

  Edmund Burke

  Libertarian, Internet, Terrorism

  Edmund Burke (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Edmund Burke (Illustrated)”, p.3631, Delphi Classics

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• The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.

  Edmund Burke

  Wisdom, Freedom, Giving Up

  Speech at County Meeting of Buckinghamshire, 1784

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• The true test of liberty is the right to test it, the right to question it, the right to speak to my neighbors, to grab them by the shoulders and look into their eyes and ask, “Are we free?” I have thought that if we are free, the answer cannot hurt us. And if we are not free, must we not hear the answer?

  Gerry Spence

  Hurt, Eye, Looks

  Gerry Spence (1999). “Give Me Liberty: Freeing Ourselves in the Twenty-First Century”, p.19, Macmillan

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• I never hurt nobody but myself and that's nobody's business but my own.

  Billie Holiday

  Hurt, Mind Your Own Business, Libertarian

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• This country is a one-party country. Half of it is called Republican and half is called Democrat. It doesn't make any difference. All the really good ideas belong to the Libertarians.

  Hugh Downs

  Country, Party, Ideas

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• To tax the larger incomes at a higher percentage than the smaller, is to lay a tax on industry and economy; to impose a penalty on people for having worked harder and saved more than their neighbors.

  John Stuart Mill

  People, Libertarian, Income

  John Stuart Mill (1866). “Principles of Political Economy: With Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy”, p.487

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• The true test of one's commitment to liberty and private property rights doesn't come when we permit people to be free to do those voluntary things with which we agree. The true test comes when we permit people to be free to do those voluntary things with which we disagree.

  Walter E. Williams

  Commitment, Rights, People

  Walter E. Williams (2013). “More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well”, p.203, Hoover Press

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• Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.

  John Adams

  Education, Freedom, Knowledge

  'A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law' (1765)

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• Liberty doesn't work as well in practice as it does in speeches.

  Will Rogers

  Freedom, Patriotic, Practice

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• The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.

  Thomas Sowell

  Inspirational, Libertarian, Economic

  Thomas Sowell (1996). “Knowledge And Decisions”, p.79, Basic Books

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• We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Encouragement, Difficult And Easy, Political

  Letter to Marquis de Lafayette, 2 Apr. 1790

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• It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Government, Effort, Sloth

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government”, p.36, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Truth, War, Heart

  Mahatma Gandhi (2005). “All Men Are Brothers”, p.68, A&C Black

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• Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Inspirational, Motivational, Freedom

  Du Contrat Social bk. 1, ch. 1 (1762)

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• Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.

  Baron de Montesquieu

  Philosophical, Law, Useless

  "The Spirit of the Laws". Treatise by Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, Book XXIX: Of the Manner of Composing Laws, Ch. 16: Things to be Observed in the Composing of Laws, 1748.

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• The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation – enlightened as it is – if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of designing men.

  Samuel Adams

  Country, Struggle, Patriotic

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• The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.

  William O. Douglas

  Freedom, Libertarian

  "Public Utilities Commission v. Pollak, 343 U.S. 451". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. May 26, 1952.

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• The patriot's blood is the seed of Freedom's tree.

  Thomas Campbell

  Uplifting, Memorial Day, Freedom

  Thomas Campbell, J. Logie Robertson (1884). “The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell”, p.215, Ardent Media

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