Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotations on Liberty

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

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 am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.
Mikhail Bakunin (1814–76) Russian Anarchist Philosopher

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

He who 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

What do we mean by setting a man free? You cannot free a man who dwells in a desert and is an unfeeling brute. There is no liberty except the liberty of some one making his way towards something. Such a man can be set free if you will teach him the meaning of thirst, and how to trace a path to a well. Only then will he embark upon a course of action that will not be without significance. You could not liberate a stone if there were no law of gravity—for where will the stone go, once it is quarried?
Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator

Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith

We are as great as our belief in human liberty—no greater. And our belief in human liberty is only ours when it is larger than ourselves.
Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982) American Poet, Dramatist

Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others.
William Allen White (1868–1944) American Editor, Politician, Author

If the true spark of religious and civil liberty be kindled, it will burn. Human agency cannot extinguish it. Like the earth’s central fire, it may be smothered for a time; the ocean may overwhelm it; mountains may press it down; but its inherent and unconquerable force will heave both the ocean and the land, and at some time or another, in some place or another, the volcano will break out and flame to heaven.
Daniel Webster (1782–1852) American Statesman, Lawyer

The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer

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

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

How false is the conception, how frantic the pursuit, of that treacherous phantom which men call Liberty: most treacherous, indeed, of all phantoms; for the feeblest ray of reason might surely show us, that not only its attainment, but its being, was impossible. There is no such thing in the universe. There can never be. The stars have it not; the earth has it not; the sea has it not; and we men have the mockery and semblance of it only for our heaviest punishment.
John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic

The true character of liberty is independence, maintained by force.
Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author

Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are 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

The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please: we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations.
Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman

Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments.
Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist

Where equality is undisputed, so also is subordination.
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright

When I see the spirit of liberty in action, I see a strong principle at work and this, for a while, is all I can possibly know of it. The wild gas, the fixed air, is plainly broke loose: but we ought to suspend our judgment until the first effervescence is a little subsided, till the liquor is cleared, and until we see something deeper than the agitation of a troubled and frothy surface. I must be tolerably sure, before I venture publicly to congratulate men upon a blessing, that they have really received one.
Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman

Oh, give me liberty! for even were paradise my prison, still I should long to leap the crystal walls.
John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright

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

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

The most essential mental quality for a free people, whose liberty is to be progressive, permanent, and on a large scale, is much stupidity.
Walter Bagehot (1826–77) English Economist, Journalist

Though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Radical, Inventor

We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society.
Angela Davis (b.1944) American Political Activist, Academic

Liberty has no crueler enemy than license.
French Proverb

The basis of a democratic state is liberty.
Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
S. G. Tallentyre (Evelyn Beatrice Hall)

All government, of course, is against liberty.
H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic

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