Free Government Quotes - Page 6

• Political agitation, by the passions it arouses or the convictions it engenders, may in fact stimulate men to the violation of the law. Detestation of existing policies is easily transformed into forcible resistance of the authority which puts them in execution, and it would be folly to disregard the causal relation between the two. Yet to assimilate agitation, legitimate as such, with direct incitement to violent resistance, is to disregard the tolerance of all methods of political agitation which in normal times is a safeguard of free government.

  Learned Hand

  Passion, Men, Law

  Learned Hand (1968). “The art and craft of judging: the decisions of Judge Learned Hand”

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• It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even his personal services to the defence of it, and consequently that the Citizens of America (with a few legal and official exceptions) from 18 to 50 Years of Age should be borne on the Militia Rolls, provided with uniform Arms, and so far accustomed to the use of them, that the Total strength of the Country might be called forth at a Short Notice on any very interesting Emergency.

  George Washington

  Country, Military, Years

  "Sentiments on a Peace Establishment". Letter to Alexander Hamilton on May 02, 1783. "The Writings of George Washington", edited by John C. Fitzpatrick, Volume 26, p. 289, 1938.

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• In all ages of the world, priests have been enemies to liberty; and it is certain, that this steady conduct of theirs must have been founded on fixed reasons of interest and ambition. Liberty of thinking, and of expressing our thoughts, is always fatal to priestly power, and to those pious frauds, on which it is commonly founded; and, by an infallible connexion, which prevails among all kinds of liberty, this privilege can never be enjoyed, at least has never yet been enjoyed, but in a free government.

  David Hume

  Ambition, Thinking, Government

  David Hume (2016). “Essays Moral, Political, Literary: Revision of Great Book”, p.50, VM eBooks

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• By this action, the Government has proved that so long as it exists, none of us are truly free. Government and freedom are mutually exclusive. So if we value freedom, there's only one conclusion. It's time to get rid of this leftover relic we call Government.

  Max Barry

  Government, Long, Action

  "Jennifer Government". Book by Max Barry, 2003.

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• In a free government almost all other rights would become worthless if the government possessed power over the private fortune of every citizen.

  John Marshall

  Rights, Government, Citizens

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• We must settle this question now -- whether in a free government the minority have the right to break it up whenever they choose. If we fail, it will go far to prove the incapability of the people to govern themselves.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Government, People, Minorities

  Abraham Lincoln, Mario Matthew Cuomo, G. S. Boritt (2004). “Lincoln on Democracy”, p.185, Fordham Univ Press

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• Beneath a free government there is nothing but the intelligence of the people to keep the people's peace. Order must be preserved, not by a military police or regiments of horse-guards, but by the spontaneous concert of a well-informed population, resolved that the rights which have been rescued from despotism shall not be subverted by anarchy.

  Edward Everett

  Horse, Military, Order

  Edward Everett (1850). “Orations and speeches on various occasions”, p.609

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• In a free Government, the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. It consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other in the multiplicity of sects. The degree of security in both cases, will depend on the number of interests and sects; and this may be presumed to depend on the extent of country and number of People comprehended under the same Government.

  James Madison

  Country, Religious, Rights

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, J.R. Pole (2005). “The Federalist”, p.283, Hackett Publishing

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