Liberty Quotes - Page 11

• Republicans don't want anyone having more fun than they do, and the Democrats don't want anyone making more money than they do. Libertarians want you to make money and have fun.

  Andre Marrou

  Fun, Want, Libertarian

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• 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

  Sacrifice, Vanity, Self

  William Hazlitt, William Ernest Henley (1904). “The Collected Works of William Hazlitt: Fugitive writings”

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• There is nothing with which it is so dangerous to take liberties as liberty itself.

  Andre Breton

  Atheism, Danger, Dangerous

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• Liberty is the soul's right to breathe and, when it cannot take a long breath, laws are girdled too tight.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Law, Long, Soul

  Henry Ward Beecher (1858). “Life Thoughts”, p.42

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• Laws to suppress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit. This is the fine point on which all legal professions of history have based their job security.

  Alexander Herzen

  Jobs, Law, Fine

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• For libertarians, freedom entails the right of people to live their lives any way they choose, so long as their conduct is peaceful. For conservatives, freedom entails the right of government to do just about anything it wants, even if its conduct is violent.

  Jacob G. Hornberger

  Government, Libertarian Party, Long

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• A country can get more real joy out of just hollering for their freedom than they can if they get it.

  Will Rogers

  Country, Freedom, Real

  Will Rogers (1982). “The Writings of Will Rogers”

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• The old parties are husks, with no real soul within either, divided on artificial lines, boss-ridden and privilege-controlled, each a jumble of incongruous elements, and neither daring to speak out wisely and fearlessly on what should be said on the vital issues of the day.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Real, Party, Issues

  Theodore Roosevelt (2015). “Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century”, p.78, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• It ain't so much what a man doesn't know that causes him so many problems, but what he knows that ain't so.

  Will Rogers

  Men, Libertarian, Causes

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• In the United States we have, in effect, two governments ... We have the duly constituted Government ... Then we have an independent, uncontrolled and uncoordinated government in the Federal Reserve System, operating the money powers which are reserved to Congress by the Constitution.

  Wright Patman

  Independent, Government, Two

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• There can be no truly moral choice unless that choice is made in freedom; similarly, there can be no really firmly grounded and consistent defense of freedom unless that defense is rooted in moral principle.

  Murray Rothbard

  Choices, Principles, Defense

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• Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill it teaches the whole people by example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means - to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal - would bring terrible retributions.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Teacher, Mean, Men

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

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• Wise laws and just restraints are to a noble nation not chains, but chains of mail, -- strength and defense, though something of an incumbrance.

  John Ruskin

  Wise, Law, Defense

  John Ruskin (1900). “Complete Works”

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• Liberty knows nothing but victories. Soldiers call Bunker Hill a defeat; but liberty dates from it though Warren lay dead on the field.

  Wendell Phillips

  Soldier, Victory, Bunker Hill

  Wendell Phillips (1864). “Speeches, Lectures, and Letters”, p.274

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• Philosophy means the complete liberty of the mind.

  Henri Frederic Amiel

  Philosophy, Mean, Mind

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  If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Freedom, Patriotic, Vaccines

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• I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.

  John Adams

  Education, Philosophy, War

  John Adams (2003). “The Letters of John and Abigail Adams”, p.264, Penguin

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• Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Freedom, Mistake, Struggle

  Mahatma Gandhi (1947). “Teachings of Mahatma Gandhi”

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  Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

  James Madison

  Education, Wisdom, Freedom

  1822; cited in U.S. Senate, Alleged Assassination Plots (1975).

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• Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

  Henry David Thoreau

  War, Men, History

  Civil Disobedience (1849)

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• Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.

  George Washington

  Peace, War, 4th Of July

  George Washington (1783). “A circular Letter ... to ... W. Greene, Governor ... of Rhode Island”, p.11

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• Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint.

  Daniel Webster

  4th Of July, Wholesomeness, Proportion

  Speech at Charleston Bar Dinner, Charleston, S.C., 10 May 1847

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• The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.

  H. L. Mencken

  Time, Freedom, Fighting

  "Shut Down Chick-fil-A Properly" by James Peron, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 25, 2012.

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• The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Atheist, Government

  Notes on the State of Virginia, query 17 (1781 - 1785)

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• A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Life, Government, Political

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government”, p.25, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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