Limited Freedom Quotes - Page 4

• 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 Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people.

  William O. Douglas

  Government, Libertarian Party, America

  "The Court years, 1939-1975: The Autobiography of William O. Douglas‎". Book by William O. Douglas, 1980.

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• Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.

  Albert Einstein

  Love, Life, God

  Albert Einstein (1949). “The World as I See it”, Citadel Press

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• Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.

  Milton Friedman

  Power, Liberty, Libertarian

  Milton Friedman (2009). “Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition”, p.201, University of Chicago Press

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• We Americans have no commission from God to police the world.

  Benjamin Harrison

  War, Presidential, Police

  Benjamin Harrison, United States. President (1889-1893 : Harrison) (1969). “Benjamin Harrison, 1833-1901: chronology, documents, bibliographical aids”

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• Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

  Patrick Henry

  Death, Sweet, Freedom

  Speech in Virginia Convention, Richmond, Va., 23 Mar. 1775.

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• Talk is cheap - except when Congress does it.

  Cullen Hightower

  Government, Political, Liberty

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• If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought, not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

  Freedom, Hate, Attachment

  United States v. Schwimmer (dissenting opinion) (1929)

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• One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

  Plato

  Plato, War, Government

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• Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.

  Mark Twain

  Funny, Life, Sarcastic

  Quoted in Albert B. Paine, Mark Twain: A Biography (1912)

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• None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Wisdom, Powerful, Freedom

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1853). “Goethe's Opinions on the World, Mankind, Literature, Science, and Art”, p.3

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• Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Tyrants, Libertarian Party, Thought Provoking

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.94, Beacon Press

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• An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.

  Thomas Jefferson

  4th Of July, Government, Liberty

  Thomas Jefferson, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”

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• It is not the function of government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.

  Robert H. Jackson

  Fall, Errors, Government

  American Communications Ass'n v. Douds (1950)

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• I have sworn upon the altar of god.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Government, Faith Religion

  Letter to Benjamin Rush, 23 Sept. 1800

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• It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be tomorrow.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Men, Law, People

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Quentin P. Taylor, John Jay (1998). “The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers”, p.79, Rowman & Littlefield

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• Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.

  William O. Douglas

  Teaching, Rights In America, Political Revolution

  "The One Un-American Act". William O. Douglas' speech to the Author's Guild Council in New York on receiving the 1951 Lauterbach Award, December 3, 1952.

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• It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.

  C. S. Lewis

  Libertarian Party, Democracies Have, Government

  C. S. Lewis (2014). “God in the Dock”, p.324, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

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• In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

  James Madison

  Power, Men, Liberty

  The Federalist no. 51 (1788)

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• Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Inspirational, Funny, Money

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government”, p.24, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Inspirational, Freedom, Fear

  Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists: Liberty and Equality"

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• The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government.

  Tacitus

  Peace, Freedom, War

  "Annals". Book by Tacitus, Book III, 27,

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• That government is best which governs least.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Government

  Civil Disobedience (1849) See Ralph Waldo Emerson 29; O'Sullivan 1; Shipley 1

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• If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Inspirational, Humor, Thinking

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut”, p.228, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters

  Daniel Webster

  Mean, Men, Gun

  Daniel Webster, James Rees (1839). “The beauties of the Hon. Daniel Webster: selected and arranged, with a critical essay on his genius and writings”, p.30

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