Liberty Quotes - Page 21

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  Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

  Lord Acton

  Inspirational, Leadership, Work

  Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, 3 April 1887, in Louise Creighton 'Life and Letters of Mandell Creighton' (1904) vol. 1, ch. 13.

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• But when no risk is taken there is no freedom. It is thus that, in an industrial society, the plethora of laws made for our personal safety convert the land into a nursery, and policemen hired to protect us become selfserving busybodies.

  Alan Watts

  Taken, Law, Land

  Alan Watts (2010). “Tao: The Watercourse Way”, p.43, Souvenir Press

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• An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Motivational, Respect, Kings

  "Letter from Birmingham Jail," 16 Apr. 1963

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• [E]conomic history is a long record of government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for the laws of economics

  Ludwig von Mises

  Government, Law, Long

  Ludwig Von Mises (1963). “Human action: a treatise on economics”

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• By virtue of exchange, one man's prosperity is beneficial to all others.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Men, Wealth, Prosperity

  "Harmonies economiques". Book by Frederic Bastiat, 1850.

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• There is no greater fallacy than the belief that aims and purposes are one thing, while methods and tactics are another ... All human experience teaches that methods and means cannot be separated from the ultimate aim.

  Emma Goldman

  Mean, Purpose, Tactics

  Emma Goldman (2003). “My Disillusionment in Russia”, p.260, Courier Corporation

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• Liberty is the prevention of control by others. This requires self-control and, therefore, religious and spiritual influences; education, knowledge, well-being.

  Lord Acton

  Spiritual, Wisdom, Religious

  "Faith in Freedom: Libertarian Principles and Psychiatric Practices". Book by Thomas Stephen Szasz, 2004.

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• Shame on the men who can court exemption from present trouble and expense at the price of their own posterity's liberty!

  Samuel Adams

  Men, Trouble, Shame

  Samuel Adams (1968). “The Writings of Samuel Adams: 1773-1777: 1773-1777”

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• It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Law, Government, Evil

  Frederic Bastiat (2006). “The Law”, p.10, Cosimo, Inc.

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• A true libertarian supports free enterprise, opposes big business; supports local self-government, opposes the nation-state; supports the National Rifle Association, opposes the Pentagon.

  Edward Abbey

  Business, Government, Self

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.21, RosettaBooks

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• No legal plunder: This is the principle of justice, peace, order, stability, harmony, and logic. Until the day of my death, I shall proclaim this principle with all the force of my lungs (which alas! is all too inadequate).

  Frederic Bastiat

  Order, Justice, Principles

  Frederic Bastiat (2006). “The Law”, p.19, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Kings or parliaments could not give the rights essential to happiness... We claim them from a higher source - from the King of kings, and Lord of all the earth. They are not annexed to us by parchments and seals. They are created in us by the decrees of Providence, which establish the laws of our nature. They are born with us; exist with us; and cannot be taken from us by any human power, without taking our lives.

  John Dickinson

  Kings, Taken, Rights

  John Dickinson (2009). “The Writings of John Dickinson”, p.262, Applewood Books

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• The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Freedom, People

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, 2: Correspondence and Private Papers”, p.268

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• Collectivism doesn't work because it's based on a faulty economic premise. There is no such thing as a person's "fair share" of wealth. The gross national product is not a pizza that must be carefully divided because if I get too many slices, you have to eat the box. The economy is expandable and, in any practical sense, limitless.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Libertarian, Wealth, Limitless

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• There is surely no contradiction in saying that a certain section of the community may be quite competent to protect the persons and property of the rest, yet quite unfit to direct our opinions, or to superintend our private habits.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Government, Community, May

  "Southey's Colloquies on Society". Book by Thomas B. Macaulay, 1830.

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• The freedom of speech and the freedom of the press have not been granted to the people in order that they may say things which please, and which are based upon accepted thought, but the right to say the things which displease, the right to say the things which convey the new and yet unexpected thoughts, the right to say things, even though they do a wrong.

  Samuel Gompers

  Order, People, Freedom Of Speech

  Samuel Gompers (1967). “Seventy Years of Life and Labour: An Autobiography”

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• Government should be weak, amateurish and ridiculous. At present, it fulfills only a third of the role.

  Edward Abbey

  Government, Roles, Ridiculous

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.22, RosettaBooks

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• When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Law, Government, Citizens

  Frederic Bastiat (2006). “The Law”, p.10, Filiquarian Publishing, LLC.

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• Civil liberty is only natural liberty, modified and secured by the sanctions of civil society.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Natural, Sanctions, Civil Liberties

  Alexander Hamilton, John Church Hamilton (1850). “The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Miscellanies, 1774-1789: A full vindication; The farmer refuted; Quebec bill; Resolutions in Congress; Letters from Phocion; New-York Legislature, etc”, p.61

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• Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds.

  Thurgood Marshall

  Men, Giving, Freedom Of Speech

  Thurgood Marshall, Mark V. Tushnet (2001). “Thurgood Marshall: His Speeches, Writings, Arguments, Opinions, and Reminiscences”, p.11, Chicago Review Press

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• If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of Almighty God, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.

  Samuel Adams

  Giving Up, Mistake, Men

  John White, Cecil Calvert Baltimore (2d Baron), Charles Hudson, Harriet Jane Hanson Robinson, Massachusetts Historical Society (1904). “The planting of colonies in New England”

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• People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Security And Freedom, People, Trade

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• Democracy is the road to socialism.

  Karl Marx

  Historical, Democracy, Libertarian

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• Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched.

  Guy de Maupassant

  War, Patriotic, Eggs

  Guy de Maupassant (1926*). “The Novels and Tales of Guy de Maupassant”

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• Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.

  H. L. Mencken

  Auctions, Politics, Election

  "Prejudices: First Series". Book by H. L. Mencken, 1919.

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