Liberty Quotes - Page 36

• 

  Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Freedom, Independent, Science

  Andrew M. Allison, Willard Cleon Skousen, M. Richard Maxfield, Benjamin Franklin (1982). “The Real Benjamin Franklin”

  551 Copy quote

  Show source

• What is liberty? The measure of dignity.

  Giannina Braschi

  Dignity

  46 Copy quote

• [That form of] eloquence, the foster-child of licence, which fools call liberty.
  [Lat., Eloquentia, alumna licentiae, quam stulti libertatem vocabant.]

  Tacitus

  Children, Fool, Form

  8 Copy quote

• Contrary to popular opinion, the Constitution was not - and is not - a grant of rights to the citizenry. Instead, the Constitution is a "barbed-wire entanglement" designed to interfere with, restrict, and impede government officials in the exercise of political power.

  Jacob G. Hornberger

  Exercise, Rights, Government

  31 Copy quote

• Say what you like about my bloody murderous government,' I says, 'but don't insult me poor bleedin' country.

  Edward Abbey

  Country, Government, Comeback

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.23, RosettaBooks

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).

  Ayn Rand

  Freedom, Rights, Political

  Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.100, Penguin

  51 Copy quote

  Show source

• The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced.

  Frank Zappa

  Funny, Sarcastic, Sarcasm

  "W. C. Privy's Original Bathroom Companion". Book by Erin Barrett and Jack Mingo (p. 134), 2003.

  179 Copy quote

  Show source

• Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority.

  Ayn Rand

  Rights, Majority, Minorities

  Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.100, Penguin

  57 Copy quote

  Show source

• To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government Debt, Independence, Libertarian

  Thomas Jefferson, Jean M. Yarbrough (1963). “The Essential Jefferson”, p.242, Hackett Publishing

  57 Copy quote

  Show source

• Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

  Honore de Balzac

  Giants, Libertarian, Bureaucracy

  52 Copy quote

• Everything government touches turns to crap.

  Ringo Starr

  Libertarian Party, Government, Drummer

  79 Copy quote

• God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.

  Daniel Webster

  Veterans Day, Memorial Day, 4th Of July

  Daniel Webster, Edward Everett (1860). “The Works of Daniel Webster”, p.47

  77 Copy quote

  Show source

• In our desire to have government become our benefactor and sustainer, we have allowed it to become our taskmaster and overlord. As a result, we have become little more than well-fed, well-entertained slaves to the state. Freedom, as envisioned by our forefathers, is gone.

  Chuck Baldwin

  Freedom, Government, Desire

  50 Copy quote

• Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all . . . . It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain

  Frederic Bastiat

  Spring, Ideas, Libertarian Party

  Frederic Bastiat (2006). “The Law”, p.26, Cosimo, Inc.

  175 Copy quote

  Show source

• The early American knew that freedom was nothing more than the absence of external restraint on behavior; the government could not give you freedom, it could only take it away.

  Frank Chodorov

  Government, Giving, Politics

  20 Copy quote

• Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Men

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1793-1798”, p.238, Cosimo, Inc.

  34 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

  Winston Churchill

  Funny, Trust, Witty

  Winston S. Churchill (2013). “Churchill By Himself”, p.1079, RosettaBooks

  431 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is easy to be conspicuously 'compassionate' if others are being forced to pay the cost.

  Murray Rothbard

  Cost, Libertarian, Pay

  Murray Rothbard (2009). “Review of Austrian Economics, Volume 8”, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  122 Copy quote

  Show source

• I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.

  Aldous Huxley

  Change, Life Changing, Yoga

  42 Copy quote

• If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may be even a worse fate, you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

  Winston Churchill

  Peace, Freedom, War

  Winston Churchill (1986). “The Gathering Storm”, p.312, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  695 Copy quote

  Show source

• No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.

  Douglas MacArthur

  Inspirational, Freedom, Patriotic

  Title of speech to the people of Japan, May 3, 1948, upon the first anniversary of the Japanese constitution. MacArthur, A Soldier Speaks (1965), p. 194. Francis T. Miller, General Douglas MacArthur, Fighter for Freedom, p. 1, 1942.

  402 Copy quote

  Show source

• When goods do not cross borders, soldiers will.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Soldier, Borders, Libertarian

  10 Copy quote

• Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

  James Bovard

  Humor, Two, Democracies Have

  James Bovard (2016). “Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty”, p.333, St. Martin's Griffin

  36 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.

  Albert Einstein

  Love, Life, God

  Albert Einstein (1949). “The World as I See it”, Citadel Press

  57 Copy quote

  Show source

• Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Inspirational, Gun, British Rule In India

  Mahatma Gandhi, General Press (2014). “My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi”, p.681, GENERAL PRESS

  37 Copy quote

  Show source