Civil Liberties Quotes

• Demanding domestic security in times of war invites carelessness in preserving civil liberties and the right of privacy. Frequently the people are only too anxious for their freedoms to be sacrificed on the altar of authoritarianism thought to be necessary to remain safe and secure.

  Ron Paul

  War, People, Liberty

  "Bush’s Wars". www.counterpunch.org. September 21, 2001.

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• Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Patriotic

  Letter to Henry L. Pierce and Others, 6 Apr. 1859

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• They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Inspirational, Happiness, Peace

  Benjamin Franklin, William-Temple Franklin (1818). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of (the Same), Continued to the Time of His Death by William Temple Franklin. - London, H. Colburn 1818”, p.270

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

  Alexander Hamilton

  Liberty, Natural, Sanctions

  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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• Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Direct Action

  "Letter from Birmingham Jail," 16 Apr. 1963

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• Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites.

  Edmund Burke

  Men, Liberty, Moral

  Edmund Burke (1828). “The Beauties of Burke: Consisting of Selections from His Works”, p.86

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• At the foundation of our civil liberties lies the principle that denies to government officials an exceptional position before the law and which subjects them to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Lying, Government, Law

  "Burdeau v. McDowell, 256 U.S. 465, 477". Dissenting opinion, 1921.

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  Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: First a right to life, secondly to liberty, and thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can.

  Samuel Adams

  Rights, Liberty, Together

  Samuel Adams (1946). “Samuel Adams: selections from his writings”

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• The government should always be the one defending civil liberties.

  Tim Cook

  Government, Liberty, Should

  Interview with Nancy Gibbs and Lev Grossman, time.com. March 17, 2016.

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• The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Peace, Freedom, War

  Olmstead v. United States (dissenting opinion) (1928)

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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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• Even though some in our government may claim that civil liberties must be compromised in order to protect the public, we must be wary of what we are giving up in the name of fighting terrorism.

  Lucille Roybal-Allard

  Giving Up, Fighting, Names

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• If we don't believe in free expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

  Noam Chomsky

  Inspirational, Relationship, Freedom

  Interview with John Pilger on BBC's "The Late Show", November 25, 1992.

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• The Bill of Rights should contain the general principles of natural and civil liberty. It should be to a community what the eternal laws and obligations of morality are to the conscience. It should be unalterable by any human power.

  Thomas Paine

  Rights, Law, Community

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• Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.

  John Milton

  Freedom, Giving, Liberty

  'Areopagitica' (1644) p. 34

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• We will not be led like sheep to the slaughter.

  Abba Kovner

  Freedom, Taken, Patriotic

  "Freedom fighters" by Andrew Pulver, www.theguardian.com. February 23, 2001.

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• Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

  Frederick Douglass

  Freedom, Power, Tyrants

  Speech, Canandaigua, N.Y., 4 Aug. 1857

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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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• Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Law Courts, Government, Libertarian Party

  Olmstead v. United States (dissenting opinion) (1928)

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  Enslave the liberty of but one human being and the liberties of the world are put in peril.

  William Lloyd Garrison

  Inspirational, Wisdom, Freedom

  Speech by minister Koenders at the presentation of the 2015 Human Rights Tulip, November 12, 2015.

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• I have very real concerns about the civil liberties implications of ultimately requiring every resident to submit themselves for compulsory fingerprinting or some other biometric test.

  Patricia Hewitt

  Real, Liberty, Biometrics

  "Reviving the love Labour's lost" by Jackie Ashley, www.theguardian.com. September 28, 2003.

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• If by a "Liberal," they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people - their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties - someone who believes that we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say that I'm a "Liberal."

  John F. Kennedy

  Jobs, Believe, School

  John F. Kennedy's Address upon Accepting the Liberal Party Nomination for President, New York, New York, www.jfklibrary.org. September 14, 1960.

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• The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.

  John Adams

  Freedom, Writing, Power

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

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• The privacy and dignity of our citizens is being whittled away by sometimes imperceptible steps. Taken individually, each step may be of little consequence. But when viewed as a whole, there begins to emerge a society quite unlike any we have seen - a society in which government may intrude into the secret regions of a life.

  William O. Douglas

  Taken, Government, Secret

  "Osborn v. United States, 385 U.S. 323". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. December 12, 1966.

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• When you couple this militarization of law enforcement with an erosion of civil liberties and due process that allows the police to become judge and jury - national security letters, no-knock searches, broad general warrants, pre-conviction forfeiture - we begin to have a very serious problem on our hands.

  Rand Paul

  Couple, Law, Erosion

  "We Must Demilitarize the Police" by Rand Paul, time.com. August 14, 2014.

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