Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
The spirit of liberty is not, as multitudes imagine, a jealousy of our own particular rights, but a respect for the rights of others, and an unwillingness that any one, whether high or low, should be wronged or trampled under foot.
—William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) American Unitarian Theologian, Poet
Then we are assured by Sartre that owing to the final disappearance of God our liberty is absolute! At this the entire audience waves its hat or claps its hands. But this natural enthusiasm is turned abruptly into something much less buoyant when it is learnt that this liberty weighs us down immediately with tremendous responsibilities. We now have to take all God’s worries on our shoulders—now that we are become men like gods. It is at this point that the Anxiety and Despondency begin, ending in utter despair.
—Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957) English Novelist, Painter, Critic
Some folks believe liberty is doing as they please, but with controls on others.
—Arnold Glasow (1905–98) American Businessman
Liberty is obedience to the law which one has laid down for oneself.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put chains upon their own appetites; in proportion as their love of justice is above their rapacity; in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption; in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon the will and appetite is placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be of it without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate habits cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Where liberty dwells, there is my country.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
Liberty is the great parent of science and of virtue; and a nation will be great in both always in proportion as it is free.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Liberty is God’s gift, liberties the devil s.
—German Proverb
The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist, American, Poet, Essayist, Journalist
Safe popular freedom consists of four things, the diffusion of liberty, of intelligence, of property, and of conscientiousness, and cannot be compounded of any three out of the four.
—Joseph Cook
Nothing can be unconditional: consequently nothing can be free.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Life, faculties, production- in other words, individuality, liberty, property- this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it. Life, liberty and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.
—Frederic Bastiat (1801–50) French Political Economist
Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.
—George Washington (1732–99) American Head of State, Military Leader
We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.
—James Madison (1751–1836) American Founding Father, Statesman, President
What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
The only rational liberty is that which is born of subjection, reared in the fear of God and love of man, and roads courageous in the defense of a trust, and the prosecution of a duty.
—William Gilmore Simms (1806–70) American Poet, Novelist, Historian
It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.
—David Hume (1711–76) Scottish Philosopher, Historian
If you take a worm’s eye view of the ills in American life and our foreign relations; you may worry that we are entering the decline and fall of the greatest nation in history. If you take a bird’s eye view you will see the increasing skills, growing productivity, and the expansion of education and understanding, with improving health and growing strength all over our nation. And from whence came this strength? It lies in freedom of men’s initiative and the rewards of their efforts. It comes from our devotion to liberty and religious faith. We will have no decline and fall of this nation, provided we stand guard against the evils which would weaken these forces.
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) 31st American President
A nation may lose its liberties in a day, and not miss them in a century.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
Personal liberty is the paramount essential to human dignity and human happiness.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
The more liberty you give away the more you will have.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–99) American Lawyer, Orator, Agnostic
The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it comes stronger than their democratic state itself.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
It is foolish to strive with what we cannot avoid; we are born subjects, and to obey God is perfect liberty; he that does this, shall be free, safe, and quiet; all his actions shall succeed to his wishes.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
The principle of liberty and equality, if coupled with mere selfishness, will make men only devils, each trying to be independent that he may fight only for his own interest.—And here is the need of religion and its power, to bring in the principle of benevolence and love to men.
—John Randolph (1773–1833) American Politician
But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
It is not one man nor a million, but the spirit of liberty that must be preserved. The waves which dash upon the shore are, one by one, broken, but the ocean conquers nevertheless. It overwhelms the Armada, it wears out the rock. In like manner, whatever the struggle of individuals, the great cause will gather strength.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
—Barry Goldwater (1909–98) American Elected Representative, Businessperson, Politician
It is impossible to mentally or socially enslave a Bible-reading people. The principles of the Bible are the ground work of human freedom.
—Horace Greeley (1811–72) American Elected Rep, Politician, Reformer, Editor
The way to secure liberty is to place it in the people’s hands, that is, to give them the power at all times to defend it in the legislature and in the courts of justice.
—John Adams (1735–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
What light is to the eyes—what air is to the lungs—what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–99) American Lawyer, Orator, Agnostic
Liberty is to be free from restraint and violence from others
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
Man’s liberty ends, and it ought to end, when that liberty becomes the curse of his neighbors.
—Frederic William Farrar (1831–1903) English Clergyman, Writer
There are two freedoms—the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where he is free to do what he ought.
—Charles Kingsley (1819–75) English Clergyman, Academic, Historian, Novelist
Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purpose is beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.
—Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) American Jurist
Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
Liberty consists in wholesome restraint.
—Daniel Webster (1782–1852) American Statesman, Lawyer
Liberty of speech inviteth and provoketh liberty to be used again, and so bringeth much to a man’s knowledge.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
When liberty is mentioned, we must always be careful to observe whether it is not really the assertion of private interests which is thereby designated.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) German Philosopher
License they mean, when they cry liberty.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
The slaves of power mind the cause they have to serve, because their own interest is concerned; but the friends of liberty always sacrifice their cause, which is only the cause of humanity, to their own spleen, vanity, and self-opinion.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Radical, Inventor
They who are in the highest places, and have the most power, have the least liberty, because they are the most observed.
—John Tillotson
It has long been a grave question whether any government, not too strong for the liberties of its people, can be strong enough to maintain its existence in great emergencies.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is responsible to himself.
—Henry Adams (1838–1918) American Historian, Man of Letters
It would seem that man was born a slave, and that slavery is his natural condition. At the same time nothing on earth can stop man from feeling himself born for liberty. Never, whatever may happen, can he accept servitude; for he is a thinking creature.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
Easier were it to hurl the rooted mountain from its base, than force the yoke of slavery upon men determined to be free.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher