Quotes on Freedom Liberty

The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.

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.

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.

The best road to progress is freedom's road.

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

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

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

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

America... goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.

A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.” Benjamin Franklin

On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit of the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.

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

Without Freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom;and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech.