Explore Quotes on Liberty

Giving a politician access to your wallet is like giving a dog access to your refrigerator.

Given man's nature, freedom will always be in jeopardy, and the only question that need concern each of us is if and how well we took our stand in its defense during the short period of time when we were potentially a part of the struggle.

Poverty is the greatest cause of terrorism.

The same government that brought you urban renewal is likely to make an even worse mess of suburban renewal.

The American Constitution is remarkable for its simplicity; but it can only suffice a people habitually correct in their actions, and would be utterly inadequate to the wants of a different nation. Change the domestic habits of the Americans, their religious devotion, and their high respect for morality, and it will not be necessary to change a single letter in the Constitution in order to vary the whole form of their government.

I consider the domestic virtue of the Americans as the principle source of all their other qualities. It acts as a promoter of industry, as a stimulus to enterprise and as the most powerful restraint of public vice. . . . No government could be established on the same principle as that of the United States with a different code of morals.

Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master.

In levying taxes and in shearing sheep, it is well to stop when you get down to the skin.

We simply do not catch a high enough percentage of users to make the law a real threat, although we do catch enough to seriously overburden our legal system.

Drug offenses ... may be regarded as the prototypes of non-victim crimes today. The private nature of the sale and use of these drugs has led the police to resort to methods of detection and surveillance that intrude upon our privacy, including illegal search, eavesdropping, and entrapment. Indeed, the successful prosecution of such cases often requires police infringement of the constitutional protections that safeguard the privacy of individuals.

Patterning your life around other's opinions is nothing more than slavery.

O liberty, Parent of happiness, celestial born When the first man became a living soul; His sacred genius thou.

Complete and accurate surveillance as a means of control is probably a practical impossibility. What is much more likely is a loss of privacy and constant inconvenience as the wrong people gain access to information, as one wastes time convincing the inquisitors that one is in fact innocent, or as one struggles to untangle the errors of the errant machine.

...[W]e insist on the principle that no danger or crisis, foreign or domestic, will be solved by Americans surrendering more of their constitutional liberties, in the foolish hope that a bigger government will provide greater security.

Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage._x000D_Minds innocent and quiet take that for a hermitage:_x000D_If I have freedom in my love, and in my Soul I am free,_x000D_Angels alone, that soar above, enjoy such liberty.

I know this was the soil on which I was born: but I have nothing to glorify this as my country. I have no pride of ancestry to point back to. Our forefathers did not come here as did the Pilgrim fathers, in search of a place where they could enjoy civil and religious liberties.

I believe in Liberty for all men: the space to stretch their arms and their souls; the right to breathe and the right to vote, the freedom to choose their friends, enjoy the sunshine, and ride on the railroads, uncursed by color; thinking, dreaming, working as they will in a kingdom of beauty and love.

I tell ye true, liberty is the best of all things; never live beneath the noose of a servile halter.

Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.

Many Muslims in Saudi Arabia believe that the core values of Islam, namely acknowledgement of God's sovereignty and basic human equality before God, are themselves compatible with liberty, equality and free political choice.

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.