Quotes on Limiting Government

Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail.

A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.

The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

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

When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered.

There is nothing new in the realization that the Constitution sometimes insulates the criminality of a few in order to protect the privacy of us all.

The struggle between Liberty and Authority is the most conspicuous feature in the portions of history with which we are earliest familiar; particularly in that of Greece, Rome, and England

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.

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

Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education.

Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

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

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

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.

Those (who) seek to establish systems of Government based on the regimentation of all Human Beings by a handful of individual rulers...call this a new order. It is not new and it is not order.

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