100+ Liberty Quotes | InspiringQuotes.us

source: "Paroles d'un sage: Choix de pensées d'African Spir" ("Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir") by Hélène Claparède-Spir, (p. 46), 1937.

topic: Justice, Liberty, May

By sowing frugality we reap liberty, a golden harvest.

- Agesilaus II

topic: Simplicity, Liberty, Golden, Frugality, Thrift

We prefer poverty in liberty than riches in slavery.

- Ahmed Sekou Toure

topic: Liberty, Slavery, Riches

Liberty is about our rights to question everything.

- Ai Weiwei

topic: Rights, Liberty

Christian liberty is freedom from sin, not freedom to sin.

- Aiden Wilson Tozer

topic: Christian, Liberty, Sin, Christian Ethics, Sins Not

The Founders who crafted our Constitution and Bill of Rights were careful to draft a Constitution of limited powers - one that would protect Americans' liberty at all times - both in war, and in peace.

- Al Franken

topic: War, Rights, Liberty

The notion that the church, the press, and the universities should serve the state is essentially a Communist notion. In a free society these institutions must be wholly free - which is to say that their function is to serve as checks upon the state.

- Alan Barth

source: "The Rights of Free Men: An Essential Guide to Civil Liberties". Book by Alan Barth, 1984.

topic: Church, Liberty, Communist

Our First Amendment expresses a far different calculus for regulating speech than for regulating nonexpressive conduct and that is as it should be. The right to swing your fist should end at the tip of my nose, but your right to express your ideas should not necessarily end at the lobes of my ears.

- Alan Dershowitz

topic: Ideas, Swings, Liberty

Every time one of us starts talking about more effective immigration controls, somebody else throws up the Statue of Liberty, how we're a nation of immigrants and all of that. The debate takes on tinges of racism, emotion.

- Alan K. Simpson

topic: Talking, Racism, Liberty, Statue Of Liberty

How does it secure the blessings of liberty to our posterity, to those generations yet unborn, to kill them, aborting them in the womb?

- Alan Keyes

topic: Blessing, Liberty, Doe

Anything the government gives you is just another link in the chains that destroy your liberty.

- Alan Keyes

source: Rally for the Ten Commandments, Hillsdale, Michigan, www.ontheissues.org. February 7, 2004.

topic: Government, Giving, Liberty

From the time of the Revolutionary War, when citizens stood forward to defend their liberties against the depredations of tyranny, all the way through Civil War, through the great World Wars, this nation has been defended by the tradition of common ordinary folks who come from behind the plow, come from the store-clerking, come from the classrooms to get on the battlefields - ordinary citizens turned into heroes in defense of their liberty, because that's the potential of freedom.

- Alan Keyes

topic: War, Hero, Liberty, Ordinary Citizens

The dimension of cultural equity needs to be added to the humane continuum of liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and social justice.

- Alan Lomax

topic: Justice, Freedom Of Speech, Liberty

Liberty is the right not to lie.

- Albert Camus

topic: Lying, Liberty

Outside of that single fatality of death, everything, joy or happiness, is liberty.

- Albert Camus

topic: Joy, Liberty, Sisyphus, Myth Of Sisyphus, Fatality

Liberty is dangerous.

- Albert Camus

topic: Liberty, Dangerous

The world is unimportant and whoever recognizes this conquers his liberty.

- Albert Camus

topic: Liberty, World, Conquer

Ah! my friend, for whomever is alone, without a god and without a master, the weight of time is terrible. One must then choose a master, God being out of style.

- Albert Camus

topic: Time, Style, Liberty

A tyranny based on ... deception and maintained by terror must inevitably perish from the poison it generates within itself.

- Albert Einstein

topic: Deception, Liberty, Poison

It's no accident that capitalism has brought with it progress, not merely in production but also in knowledge. Egoism and competition are, alas, stronger forces than public spirit and sense of duty.

- Albert Einstein

topic: Competition, Progress, Liberty, Egoism

For the majority of people liberty means only the system and the administrators they are used to.

- Albert J. Nock

topic: Mean, People, Liberty, Administrators

When politicians say "I'm in politics," it may or may not be possible to trust them, but when they say, "I'm in public service," you know you should flee.

- Albert J. Nock

topic: Liberty, May, Politician

The sovereignty of one's self over one's self is called Liberty.

- Albert Pike

topic: Self, Liberty, Sovereignty

Less glory is more liberty. When the drum is silent, reason sometimes speaks.

- Albert Pike

topic: Liberty, Sometimes, Speak

If humans were in fact the members of a truly social species, and if their individual differences were trifling and could be completely ironed out by appropriate conditioning, then, obviously, there would be no need for liberty and the State would be justified in persecuting the heretics who demanded it.

- Aldous Huxley

topic: Differences, Liberty, Facts

Morality is always the product of terror; its chains and strait-waistcoats are fashioned by those who dare not trust others, because they dare not trust themselves, to walk in liberty.

- Aldous Huxley

topic: Liberty, Morality, Chains, Trust Others

Liberty? Why it doesn't exist. There is no liberty in this world, just gilded cages.

- Aldous Huxley

topic: Liberty, World, Cages, Gilded

This growing poverty in the midst of growing population constitutes a permanent menace to peace. And not only to peace, but also to democratic institutions and personal liberty For overpopulation is not compatible with freedom.

- Aldous Huxley

topic: Liberty, Poverty, Population, Overpopulation, Personal Liberty

Remember, when you hear them beginning to say "freedom" look carefully-. see who it is they want you to butcher.

- Alex Comfort

source: Alex Comfort, John Bayliss (1969). “New Road ...: New Directions in European Art and Letters”

topic: Freedom, Liberty, Looks

It seems to me that the price of eternal vigilance is liberty.

- Alex Tabarrok

topic: Liberty, Vigilance

The cure for evil and disorder is more liberty, not suppression.

- Alexander Berkman

source: Alexander Berkman (2003). “What is Anarchism?”, p.234, AK Press

topic: Evil, Liberty, Disorder, Suppression

The instrument by which it [government] must act are either the AUTHORITY of the laws or FORCE. If the first be destroyed, the last must be substituted; and where this becomes the ordinary instrument of government there is an end to liberty!

- Alexander Hamilton

topic: Government, Law, Liberty

Hence, in a state of nature, no man had any moral power to deprive another of his life, limbs, property, or liberty; nor the least authority to command or exact obedience from him, except that which arose from the ties of consanguinity.

- Alexander Hamilton

topic: Men, Ties, Liberty

Good constitutions are formed upon a comparison of the liberty of the individual with the strength of government: If the tone of either be too high, the other will be weakened too much. It is the happiest possible mode of conciliating these objects, to institute one branch peculiarly endowed with sensibility, another with knowledge and firmness. Through the opposition and mutual control of these bodies, the government will reach, in its regular operations, the perfect balance between liberty and power.

- Alexander Hamilton

topic: Government, Perfect, Liberty, Perfect Balance, Separation Of Powers

No man in his senses can hesitate in choosing to be free, rather than a slave.

- Alexander Hamilton

topic: Men, Liberty, Slave, American Revolution

It may safely be received as an axiom in our political system, that the state governments will in all possible contingencies afford complete security against invasions of the public liberty by the national authority.

- Alexander Hamilton

topic: Government, Political, Liberty, Political Systems

I would die to preserve the law upon a solid foundation; but take away liberty, and the foundation is destroyed.

- Alexander Hamilton

topic: Law, Liberty, Foundation, Solid Foundation

The civil jury is a valuable safeguard to liberty.

- Alexander Hamilton

topic: Liberty, Valuable, Jury

Schemes to subvert the liberties of a great community require time to mature them for execution.

- Alexander Hamilton

topic: Community, Liberty, Execution

[T]hough individual oppression may now and then proceed fro the courts of justice, the general liberty of the people can never be endangered from that quarter . . .

- Alexander Hamilton

topic: People, Justice, Liberty, Judiciary, Executive Power

How can you trust people who are poor and own no property? ... Inequality of property will exist as long as liberty exists.

- Alexander Hamilton

topic: Long, People, Liberty

The loss of liberty to a generous mind is worse than death.

- Alexander Hamilton

topic: Loss, Mind, Liberty

The true principle of a republic is that the people should choose whom they please to govern them. Representation is imperfect, in proportion as the current of popular favor is checked. The great source of free government, popular election, should be perfectly pure, and the most unbounded liberty allowed.

- Alexander Hamilton

topic: Government, People, Liberty

The institution of delegated power implies that there is a portion of virtue and honor among mankind which may be a reasonable foundation of confidence.

- Alexander Hamilton

topic: Honor, Liberty, Foundation

Laws to suppress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit. This is the fine point on which all legal professions of history have based their job security.

- Alexander Herzen

topic: Jobs, Law, Liberty, Legal Profession, Drug Prohibition

The liberty of the individual is the greatest thing of all, it is on this and this alone that the true will of the people can develop.

- Alexander Herzen

topic: People, Liberty, Individual, Great Libertarian

Give me again my hollow tree A crust of bread, and liberty!

- Alexander Pope

topic: Giving, Tree, Liberty

Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.

- Alexis de Tocqueville

source: Alexis de Tocqueville (1847). “Democracy in America”, p.11

topic: Pregnancy, Liberty, Ethics, Democracy In America, American Liberty

I should have loved freedom, I believe, at all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it.

- Alexis de Tocqueville

topic: Believe, Liberty, Worship

Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.

- Alexis de Tocqueville

topic: Government, Liberty, Details, Uniformity, Central Government

It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights - the "right" to education, the "right" to health care, the "right" to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery - hay and a barn for human cattle.

- Alexis de Tocqueville

topic: Rights, Liberty, Barns

The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.

- Alexis de Tocqueville

topic: Mind, Liberty, Impossible

The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave.

- Alexis de Tocqueville

topic: Men, Liberty, Slave

Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts, the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims.

- Alexis de Tocqueville

topic: Liberty, Conflict, Christianity

Few persons enjoy real liberty; we are all slaves to ideas or habits.

- Alfred de Musset

topic: Real, Ideas, Liberty

Laws and constitutions ought to be weighed... to constitute that which is most conducing to the establishment of justice and liberty.

- Algernon Sidney

source: Algernon Sidney (1751). “Discourses Concerning Government”, p.366

topic: Law, Justice, Liberty

[L]iberty cannot be preserved, if the manners of the people are corrupted . . .

- Algernon Sidney

source: Algernon Sidney (1750). “Discourses Concerning Government”, p.363

topic: People, Liberty, Virtue

[I]f vice and corruption prevail, liberty cannot subsist; but if virtue have the advantage, arbitrary power cannot be established.

- Algernon Sidney

topic: Liberty, Vices, Arbitrary, Vice And Virtue

All the higher forms of life have evolved from some one's ideal of justice, liberty or beauty; and the belief that nothing is too good to be true.

- Alice Hegan Rice

source: Alice Hegan Rice (2013). “My Pillow Book”, p.59, Read Books Ltd

topic: Justice, Liberty, Belief

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of property were just what Aristotle did not talk about. They are the conditions of happiness; but the essence of happiness, according to Aristotle, is virtue. So the moderns decided to deal with the conditions and to let happiness take care of itself.

- Allan Bloom

source: Ibn Warraq (2013). “Why the West is Best: A Muslim Apostate's Defense of Liberal Democracy”, p.15, Encounter Books

topic: Essence, Liberty, Care

Freedom of the mind requires not only, or not even especially the absence of legal constraints but the presence of alternative thoughts.

- Allan Bloom

topic: Mind, Liberty, Alternatives

Capitalism without failure is like religion without sin. Bankruptcies and losses concentrate the mind on prudent behavior.

- Allan H. Meltzer

topic: Loss, Mind, Liberty

God leaves to our conscience the choice of the road we decide to follow, and the liberty of yielding to one or another of the opposing influences that act upon us.

- Allan Kardec

source: Allan Kardec (2016). “The Spirits’ Book: The Principles of Spiritist Doctrine”, p.241, Secret Master eBooks

topic: Choices, Liberty, Influence

The message for the American youth is that this is a great country and we need to make sure that we pass on a heritage, a lineage and a legacy of American exceptionalism to each and everyone of you so that you can enjoy all the great liberties and freedoms that all the previous generations have had.

- Allen West

source: Source: wethekids.us

topic: Country, Liberty, Legacy, Previous Generations, American Exceptionalism

The place whereon the priest formerly raveled out the small intestine of the sacrificial victim for purposes of divination and cooked its flesh for the gods. The word is now seldom used, except with reference to the sacrifice of their liberty and peace by a male and a female fool.

- Ambrose Bierce

topic: Sacrifice, Atheism, Liberty, Intestines

You cannot adopt politics as a profession and remain honest.

- Ambrose Bierce

topic: Liberty, Honest, Profession

If the charter of your liberties entails death and despair for untold multitudes, then it is nothing but a license for slaughter.

- Amitav Ghosh

source: "River of Smoke". Book by Amitav Ghosh, 2011.

topic: Despair, Liberty, Slaughter

There is nothing with which it is so dangerous to take liberties as liberty itself.

- Andre Breton

topic: Liberty, Danger, Dangerous

To know how to free oneself is nothing; the arduous thing is to know what to do with one's freedom.

- Andre Gide

source: Andre Gide (2015). “The Immoralist”, p.8, Lulu Press, Inc

topic: Liberty, Oneself, Freedom Of Choice

Liberals want the government to be your Mommy. Conservatives want government to be your Daddy. Libertarians want it to treat you like an adult.

- Andre Marrou

topic: Government, Daddy, Liberty

Republicans don't want anyone having more fun than they do, and the Democrats don't want anyone making more money than they do. Libertarians want you to make money and have fun.

- Andre Marrou

topic: Fun, Liberty, Want

Government . . . is a reflection of us. It is up to us to earn a better reflection.

- Andrew Horning

topic: Reflection, Government, Liberty

There is nothing that I shudder at more than the idea of a separation of the Union. Should such an event ever happen, which I fervently pray God to avert, from that date I view our liberty gone.

- Andrew Jackson

topic: Views, Ideas, Liberty

Outside of the Constitution we have no legal authority more than private citizens, and within it we have only so much as that instrument gives us. This broad principle limits all our functions and applies to all subjects.

- Andrew Johnson

source: Andrew Johnson, Paul H. Bergeron (1967). “The Papers of Andrew Johnson: February-August 1867”, p.86, Univ. of Tennessee Press

topic: Government, Giving, Liberty

A traffic jam is a collision between free enterprise and socialism. Free enterprise produces automobiles faster than socialism can build roads and road capacity.

- Andrew Joseph Galambos

topic: Liberty, Jam, Socialism, Traffic Jam, Collision

The Freedom Bell in Berlin is, like the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, a symbol which reminds us that freedom does not come about of itself. It must be struggled for and then defended anew every day of our lives.

- Angela Merkel

topic: Philadelphia, Liberty, Doe, Liberty Bell

I think we recognize as Americans there are certain things that are just primary to the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy here and religious freedom is one of the most important things we as Americans cherish.

- Ann Romney

topic: Religious, Thinking, Liberty, Primaries

You gain and lose different things in different mediums or different sectors of different mediums. There are liberties you get on tiny indie films in terms of not having to be designed toward a marketing demographic.

- Anna Paquin

source: Interview with Michael Martin, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 25, 2008.

topic: Marketing, Liberty, Different, Indie Films

In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity.

- Anne Baxter

topic: Unity, Liberty, Charity, Doubtful, Necessary Things

All Politeness is owing to Liberty. We polish one another, and rub off our Corners and rough Sides by a sort of amicable Collision. To restrain this, is inevitably to bring a Rust upon Mens Understandings.

- Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 10th Earl of Shaftesbury

source: "Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times". Book by Anthony Ashley-Cooper; Edition by Philip Ayres (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999) Vol. 1, pp. 39-40; "Sensus Communis", 1711.

topic: Understanding, Liberty, Rust

Self-imposed limits on sovereign power can disarm mistrust, but provide no guarantee of liberty and property beyond those afforded by the balance between state and private force.

- Anthony de Jasay

topic: Self, Balance, Liberty

At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.

- Anthony Kennedy

source: "Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833". A joint opinion coauthored with Justices Souter and O'Connor, caselaw.findlaw.com. 1992.

topic: Freedom, Heart, Liberty, Roe V Wade

When a juvenile commits a heinous crime, the State can exact forfeiture of some of the most basic liberties, but the State cannot extinguish his life and his potential to attain a mature understanding of his own humanity.

- Anthony Kennedy

topic: Humanity, Understanding, Liberty

There is no liberty except the liberty of some one making his way towards something. Such a man can be set free if you will teach him the meaning of thirst, and how to trace a path to a well. Only then will he embark upon a course of action that will not be without significance. You could not liberate a stone if there were no law of gravity - for where will the stone go, once it is quarried?