Liberty Quotes - Page 18

• If you make 10,000 regulations you destroy all respect for the law.

  Winston Churchill

  Respect, Not Giving Up, Law

  "Churchill By Himself".

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• It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Government, Libertarian Party, Important

  Calvin Coolidge (2001). “The Quotable Calvin Coolidge: Sensible Words for a New Century”, Images from the Past Incorporated

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• We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.

  William Faulkner

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Patriotic

  William Faulkner (2011). “Essays, Speeches & Public Letters”, p.151, Modern Library

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• The desire to rule is the mother of heresies.

  Saint John Chrysostom

  Mother, Desire, Libertarian

  Saint John Chrysostom, William John Copeland (1840). “Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians: And Homilies on the Epistle to the Ephesians, of S. John Chrysostom ...”, p.81

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• Individuality is the aim of political liberty. By leaving to the citizen as much freedom of action and of being as comports with order and the rights of others, the institutions render him truly a freeman. He is left to pursue his means of happiness in his own manner.

  James F. Cooper

  Mean, Rights, Government

  "The American Democrat: Or, Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America". Book by James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.

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• It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve.

  Henry George

  Religious, Men, Rights

  Henry George, A. C. Auchmuty (1908). “Gems from Henry George: being memorable passages from the writings and addresses of the author of "Progress and poverty"”

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• The only thing that saves us from bureaucracy is its inefficiency.

  Eugene McCarthy

  Politics, Libertarian, Bureaucracy

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• The standard of living of the common man is higher in those countries which have the greatest number of wealthy entrepreneurs.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Country, Men, Numbers

  Ludwig Von Mises (2008). “Planning for Freedom: Let the Market System Work : a Collection of Essays and Addresses”

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• First they came for the Jews, but I did nothing because I'm not a Jew. Then they came for the socialists, but I did nothing because I'm not a socialist. Then they came for the Catholics, but I did nothing because I'm not a Catholic. Finally, they came for me, but by then there was no one left to help me.

  Martin Niemoller

  Libertarian Party, Poetry, Catholic

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• The proper and limited use of government is to invoke a common justice and keep the peace - and that is all.

  Leonard Read

  Government, Justice, Gold

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• Here's your enemy for this week, the government says. And some gullible Americans click their heels and salute - often without knowing who or even where the enemy of the week is.

  Charley Reese

  Government, Knowing, Libertarian Party

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• In order to get the power and retain it, it is necessary to love power; but love of power is not connected with goodness, but with qualities which are the opposite of goodness, such as pride, cunning, cruelty.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Pride, Order, Opposites

  "The Complete Works of Leo Tolstoy".

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• My vigour relents. I pardon something to the spirit of liberty.

  Edmund Burke

  Spirit, Pardon

  Edmund Burke (1948). “Selected Prose”

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• The purpose of government is to rein in the rights of the people.

  William J. Clinton

  Rights, Government, People

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• Freedom is not a luxury that we can indulge in when at last we have security and prosperity and enlightenment; it is, rather, antecedent to all of these, for without it we can have neither security nor prosperity nor enlightenment.

  Henry Steele Commager

  Indulge In, Luxury, Enlightenment

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• Then liberty, like day, Breaks on the soul, and by a flash from Heaven Fires all the faculties with glorious joy.

  William Cowper

  Fire, Joy, Heaven

  William Cowper (1874). “The poetical works of William Cowper, ed: with notes and biographical introd. by William Benham”, p.264

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• It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become prey to the active. The conditions upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime, and the punishment of his guilt.

  John Philpot Curran

  Fate, Men, Rights

  Speech on the right of election of the Lord Mayor of Dublin, 10 July 1790. Usually quoted as "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," which has been attributed to Thomas Jefferson, but no one has ever found this in his writings. Atkinson's Casket, Sept. 1833, has "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." See Andrew Jackson 5

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• The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Libertarian, Slave

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1978). “The old régime and the French Revolution”, Peter Smith Pub Inc

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• It is better, so the Fourth Amendment teaches us, that the guilty sometimes go free than the citizens be subject to easy arrest.

  William O. Douglas

  Citizens, Libertarian, Sometimes

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• The love of liberty with life is given, And life itself the inferior gift of Heaven.

  John Dryden

  Heaven, Life Is, Given

  John Dryden, George Gilfillan (1857). “Poetical Works: With Life, Critical Dissertation and Explanatory Notes”

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• There can be no freedom without freedom to fail.

  Eric Hoffer

  Libertarian, Failing, Libertarianism

  "The Ordeal of Change". Book by Eric Hoffer, 1963.

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• Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers (adminstrators) too plainly proves a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing us to slavery.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Slavery, May

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• Any time we deny any citizen the full exercise of his constitutional rights, we are weakening our own claim to them.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Freedom, Exercise, Rights

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• Private property was the original source of freedom. It still is its main bulwark.

  Walter Lippmann

  Freedom, Libertarian, Source

  Walter Lippmann (1934). “The method of freedom”

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• When liberty comes with hands dabbled in blood it is hard to shake hands with her.

  Oscar Wilde

  Blood, Hands, Violence

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