Civil Liberties Quotes - Page 8

• It is still in the lap of the gods whether a society can succeed which is based on "civil liberties and human rights" conceived as I have tried to describe them; but of one thing at least we may be sure: the alternatives that have so far appeared have been immeasurably worse.

  Learned Hand

  Rights, Liberty, Alternatives

  Learned Hand (1955). “A fanfare for Prometheus”

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• The whole freedom of man consists either in spiritual or civil liberty.

  John Milton

  Spiritual, Freedom, Men

  John Milton, James Augustus St. John (1871). “The Prose Works of John Milton ...: With a Preface, Preliminary Remarks, and Notes”, p.133

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• One of the most clearly marked trends for over twenty years has been the decline in civil liberties.

  Charles A. Reich

  Years, Liberty, Twenties

  Charles A. Reich (1970). “The Greening of America”

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• And I hear from time to time people say, hey, wait a second, we have civil liberties we have to worry about. But don't forget the most important civil liberty I expect from my government is my right to be kept alive, and that's what we're going to have to do.

  Mitt Romney

  Government, People, Worry

  Mitt Romney at GOP primary debate at the University of New Hampshire's Whittemore Center in Durham, New Hampshire, www.nytimes.com. September 5, 2007.

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• We must continue to be diligent in protecting Americans' civil liberties while preserving critical law enforcement tools we need to keep America safe.

  Debbie Stabenow

  Law, America, Liberty

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• America stands strongest in challenging terrorism when we do not give up an inch of our civil liberties.

  Dennis Kucinich

  Giving Up, America, Challenges

  Formal Announcement Speech, Cleveland, Ohio, www.4president.org. October 13, 2003.

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• I believe in civil liberties for homosexuals. I guess I'd have to say I'd draw the line at letting them teach in the schools.

  Jack Kemp

  Believe, School, Liberty

  "In His Own Words: Jack Kemp And The Issues", www.nytimes.com. August 11, 1996.

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• Recall that the United Nations commissioned Arab scholars and analysts to publish the Arab Human Development Report. What causes the backwardness, the scholars wondered, of 22 Arab states, covering nearly 300 million people? Their conclusion? Of all world regions, the Arab countries scored the lowest in freedom, media independence, civil liberties, political process and political rights.

  Larry Elder

  Country, Media, Rights

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• The civil liberties types who are fighting this issue have to fight it, owing to the nature of the laws, as a matter of freedom of speech and stifling of free expression and so on. But we know what's really involved, dirty books are fun. That's all there is to it. But you can't get up in a court and say that.

  Tom Lehrer

  Fun, Dirty, Book

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• For far too long the American public and business sector have kept their silence as civil liberties have been whittled away by statutory and regulatory measures.

  Bob Barr

  Long, Silence, Liberty

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• The threats are coming to this country, which will, of course, increase the massive industry known as the anti-terrorism industry, and crush our civil liberties and civil rights, And it's devouring our priorities here in communities all over the country which are in such disrepair and are so neglected in terms of public works and public services.

  Ralph Nader

  Crush, Country, Rights

  Source: www.cpa-connecticut.com

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• President Obama continues to support war. He continues to remove many basic civil liberties and human rights. He continues to condone drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan that kill women and children. He meets with his advisers every Tuesday morning and signs extrajudicial killings. To me, those are not the actions of a peace person.

  Mairead Corrigan

  Morning, Children, War

  Source: www.progressive.org

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• I believe in a relatively equal society, supported by institutions that limit extremes of wealth and poverty. I believe in democracy, civil liberties, and the rule of law. That makes me a liberal, and I’m proud of it.

  Paul Krugman

  Believe, Law, Political

  "The Conscience of a Liberal: Reclaiming America From The Right". Book by Paul Krugman, October 1, 2007.

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• Civil liberties victories never stay won, but must be fought for over and over again.

  Ira Glasser

  Victory, Liberty, Civil Rights

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• To me the Nobel Peace laureates should not be hosted by a State Department that is continuing with war, removing basic civil liberties and human rights and international law and then talking about peace to young people. That's a double standard.

  Mairead Corrigan

  War, Talking, Law

  Source: www.progressive.org

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• I can say across Europe that many principles that have been taken for granted here around free speech, and around civil liberties and an independent judiciary, and fighting corruption, those are principles that, you know, not perfectly but generally, we have tried to apply not just in our own country but also with respect to our foreign policy.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Taken, Independent

  Source: time.com

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• You have to have a multipronged approach and a significant part of that is educating the public and change the culture so that people are less afraid of Arabs or Muslims, more attuned to civil rights and civil liberties issues that are presented, more aware of the security costs of some of the kinds of choices the Bush administration had made, and more committed to the values that America was founded upon.

  David D. Cole

  People, Choices, Liberty

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• It is easy to make light of insistence on scrupulous regard for the safeguards of civil liberties when invoked on behalf of the unworthy. It is too easy. History bears testimony that by such disregard are the rights of liberty extinguished, heedlessly at first, then stealthily, and brazenly in the end.

  Felix Frankfurter

  Rights, Light, Political

  Davis v. United States, 328 U.S. 582, 597, 1946.

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• Those who would give up their civil liberties for security deserve neither.

  Larry Flynt

  Giving Up, Liberty, Security

  "George Bush paid for an illegal abortion" by David Bowman, www.blacklistedjournalist.com. August 1, 2004.

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• Of course, the new domestic paramilitary forces will also undermine free speech and dissent with the threat of force while simultaneously threatening core civil liberties, rights and civic responsibilities.

  Henry Giroux

  Responsibility, Rights, Liberty

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• If you see the rhetoric from coming out of the Democrats is that they're pro-civil liberties, and an important part of civil liberties is respect for the First Amendment and the rule of law, and that has broken down under the Obama administration, and Hillary Clinton was part of that process.

  Julian Assange

  Law, Broken, Important

  "Sean Hannity Is Now a Big Julian Assange Fan". Interview, www.slate.com. September 7, 2016.

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• Terrorism has replaced Communism as the rationale for the militarization of the country [America], for military adventures abroad, and for the suppression of civil liberties at home. It serves the same purpose, serving to create hysteria.

  Howard Zinn

  Country, Military, Home

  Howard Zinn (2011). “Terrorism and War”, p.38, Seven Stories Press

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• Whatever else the religious Right may be, it is a bonanza for its opponents... Reports of the great terror that is upon us are raising millions of dollars in fund appeals by Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Organization for Women, Norman Lear's People for the American Way, and others who claim to believe that the religious Right is the greatest peril to American democracy since Joe McCarthy.

  Richard John Neuhaus

  Christian, Religious, Believe

  Richard John Neuhaus, Michael Cromartie, Ethics and Public Policy Center (Washington, D.C.) (1987). “Piety and politics: evangelicals and fundamentalists confront the world”, Ethics & Public Policy Center

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• Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement. No sound ought to be heard in the church but the healing voice of Christian charity. The cause of civil liberty and civil government gains as little as that of religion by this confusion of duties. Those who quit their proper character to assume what does not belong to them are, for the greater part, ignorant both of the character they leave and of the character they assume.

  Edmund Burke

  Christian, Character, Healing

  Edmund Burke (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Edmund Burke (Illustrated)”, p.1388, Delphi Classics

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• I am ... a realist. The magnitude of what one terms license or civil liberties or personal freedom has got to be adjusted to the circumstances.

  Lee Kuan Yew

  Freedom, Liberty, Realist

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