Quotes on Freedom And Liberty

When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.

A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.

Fear is the foundation of most governments.

We've been blessed with the opportunity to stand for something - for liberty and freedom and fairness. And these are things worth fighting for, worth devoting our lives to.

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.

Learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty.

What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.

Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.

Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.

You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.

All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.

It is not the function of government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.

The man who produces while others dispose of his product is a slave.

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.

Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.

Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.