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Freedom

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“Many evils, no doubt, were produced by the civil war. They were the price of our liberty.”
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Liberty, as it is conceived by current opinion, has nothing inherent about it; it is a sort of gift or trust bestowed on the individual by the state pending good behavior.”
Mary McCarthy (1912–1989) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Contagion of Ideas", p. 44. A speech delivered to a group of teachers (Summer 1952); not previously published
“The notion that the Constitution of the United States, designed, among other things, 'to establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, . . . and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,' prohibits the States from simply banning this visibly brutal means of eliminating our half-born posterity is quite simply absurd.”
Antonin Scalia (1936–2016) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Stenberg v. Carhart (2000) (dissenting).
“Liberty is on the march, and this year promises to be a great year in European history. Our Government is blind enough, and the Parliamentary majorities are more regarded than opinion out of doors. We must have another League of some kind, and our aristocracy must be made to submit again.”
John Bright (1811–1889) first seen 1848 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Jonathan Priestman (26 March 1848) on the Revolutions of 1848, quoted in G. M. Trevelyan, The Life of John Bright (1913), p. 183
“I think it is so glorious," said the American. "There is no such mischievous nonsense in all the world as equality. That is what father says. What men ought to want is liberty.”
Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yesterday, here in Philadelphia, at the Liberty Bell, I met a lot of Americans who do have the will. From arch-religious conservatives to young secular radicals, I just felt an incredible overpowering sense that this was possible. We're calling it the ONE campaign, to put an end to AIDS and extreme poverty in Africa. They believe we can do it, so do I.”
Bono (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Liberty is the right of every man to be honest, to think and to speak without hypocrisy.”
José Martí (1853–1895) said by 1895 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Liberty the essence of life. Whatever is done without it is imperfect.”
José Martí (1853–1895) said by 1895 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Man loves liberty, even if he does not know that he loves it. He is driven by it and flees from where it does not exist.”
José Martí (1853–1895) said by 1895 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For the majority of contemporary Americans, the essence of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness centers on a relentless personal quest to acquire, to consume, to indulge, and to shed whatever constraints might interfere with those endeavors.”
Andrew Bacevich (born 1947) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (2008).
“I'm writing my 5th . It's called the Liberty Symphony. ...It will be rah, rah optimism, but it will also be movements like, "This you did, despite the word of the Lord." ...I take all this very seriously.”
Wynton Marsalis (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What produces the general good is always terrible or seems bizarre when begun too soon ... The Revolution must stop itself at the perfection of public happiness and liberty through the laws.”
Louis Antoine de Saint-Just (1767–1794) first seen 1794 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fragment 3 (1794). [Source: Saint-Just, Fragments sur les institutions républicaines]
“I am now here in Congress... I am at liberty to vote as my conscience and judgment dictates to be right, without the yoke of any party on me, or the driver at my heels, with his whip in hand, commanding me to ge-wo-haw, just at his pleasure. Look at my arms, you will find no party hand-cuff on them!”
Davy Crockett (1786–1836) first seen 1834 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter (28 January 1834), reported in A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett (1834), p. 113, final paragraph.
“Pop, pop, pop! Bom, bom, bom! throughout the day. No time for memorandums now. Go ahead! Liberty and Independence forever.”
Davy Crockett (1786–1836) first seen 1836 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Last entry in his diary, (5 March 1836)
“Americans want to defeat terrorism and they want the basic character of this country to survive and prosper. They want both security and liberty, and unless we give them both, and we can if we try, we have failed.”
Russ Feingold (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here sits the Unicorn; Leashed by a chain of gold To the pomengranate tree. So light a chain to hold So fierce a beast; Delicate as a cross at rest On a maiden's breast. He could snap the golden chain With one toss of his mane, If he chose to move, If he chose to prove His liberty. But he does not choose What choice would lose. He stays, the Unicorn, In captivity.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them...”
Richard Henry Lee (1732–1794) first seen 1788 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Additional Letters From The Federal Farmer, 53 (1788); although generally attributed to Lee, his authorship of these letters is disputed in "The Authorship of the Letters from the Federal Farmer" by Gordon S. Wood, in T…
“People who make excuses for or actively advocate closed-source OSs and network software (and yes, Apple/iOS fanboys, I'm looking at you) are not merely harmlessly misguided cultists. They are enemies of liberty – enablers and accomplices before the fact in vendor schemes to spy on you, control you, and imprison you. Treat them, and the vendors they worship, accordingly.”
Eric S. Raymond (born 1957) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cisco provides a lesson" (5 July 2012)
“You only need fear the bees if you’ve broken the law.” That familiar phrase was used to justify every encroachment on citizens’ liberty.”
Michael Moorcock (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Entitle us to the Liberty of proving the Truth of the Papers, which in the Information are called false, malicious, seditious and scandalous.”
John Peter Zenger (1697–1746) said by 1746 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the information by which to detect lies.”
Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Socrates was ennobled by the hemlock draught. Wrench from Cato's hand his sword, the vindicator of liberty, and you deprive him of the greatest share of his glory.”
Seneca the Younger (5 BC–65) said by 65 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Great also are the souls of the defenders—men who know that, as long as the path to death lies open, the blockade is not complete, men who breathe their last in the arms of liberty.”
Seneca the Younger (5 BC–65) said by 65 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you set a high value on liberty, you must set a low value on everything else.”
Seneca the Younger (5 BC–65) said by 65 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Men fight for liberty, and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves.”
D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) first seen 1929 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Poem, "Liberty's old story" in Pansies (Third typing, ribbon copy - 231 poems, c. 11-28 February 1929)
“We must fight again for a government founded on individual liberty and opportunity that was the American vision. If we lose we will continue down this New Deal road to some sort of personal government based upon collectivist theories. Under these ideas ours can become some sort of Fascist government.”
Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Addresses Upon the American Road, Charles Scribber’s Son, New York (1938) p. 160
“Indian religion has always felt that since the minds, the temperaments and the intellectual affinities of men are unlimited in their variety, a perfect liberty of thought and of worship must be allowed to the individual in his approach to the Infinite.”
Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Foundations of Indian Culture (1953), p. 147
“It is when the commercial factor enters into the situation that the possibility of genuine individual liberty arises.”
Celia Green (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It gives liberty and breadth to thought, to learn to judge our own epoch from the point of view of universal history, history from the point of view of geological periods, geology from the point of view of astronomy.”
Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881) first seen 1848 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 20 July 1848
“We must learn to look upon life as an apprenticeship to progressive renunciation, a perpetual diminution in our pretensions, our hopes, our powers, and our liberty.”
Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881) first seen 1856 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 22 October 1856
“Liberty, equality — bad principles! The only true principle for humanity is justice; and justice to the feeble becomes necessarily protection or kindness.”
Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881) first seen 1863 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Undated entry of December 1863 or early 1864
“If ignorance and passion are the foes of popular morality, it must be confessed that moral indifference is the malady of the cultivated classes. The modern separation of enlightenment and virtue, of thought and conscience, of the intellectual aristocracy from the honest and common crowd is the greatest danger that can threaten liberty.”
Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881) first seen 1870 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 25 October 1870
“Liberty, equality,—bad principles! The only true principle for humanity is justice, and justice towards the feeble becomes necessarily protection or kindness.”
Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881) first seen 1863 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 4 December 1863
“In health there is liberty. Health is the first of all liberties, and happiness gives us the energy which is the basis of health.”
Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881) first seen 1865 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 3 April 1865
“If we want to be honest, we can ship the Statue of Liberty back to France or replace the outdated verse with new lines, "America the closed preserve/ That dirty foreigners don't deserve". (p.71)”
David Friedman (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The men of the future will yet fight their way to many a liberty that we do not even miss.”
Max Stirner (1806–1856) said by 1856 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cambridge 1995, p. 114
“Democracy is in the blood of Musalmans who look upon complete equality of manhood, Musalmans (Muslims) believe in fraternity, equality and liberty.”
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876–1948) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Kingsway Hall, London, 13 December 1946
“It should be our aim not only to remove want and fear of all types, but secure liberty, fraternity and equality as enjoined upon us by Islam.”
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876–1948) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address, Karachi Municipal Corporation, 25 August 1947
“Jesus is magic, you know, because he turned water to wine, and, um … he, um … I think he made the Statue of Liberty disappear in the 80's.”
Sarah Silverman (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My aversion to them...springs from the perniciousness of that sect to society—I hate Papists, as a man, not as a Protestant. If Papists were only enemies to the religion of other men, I should overlook their errors. As they are foes to liberty, I cannot forgive them.”
Horace Walpole (1717–1797) first seen 1746 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Memoirs from the Declaration of the War with Spain (1746)
“What are the American ideals? They are the development of the individual for his own and the common good; the development of the individual through liberty, and the attainment of the common good through democracy and social justice.”
Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: True Americanism” (1915).
“At the foundation of our civil liberty lies the principle which denies to government officials an exceptional position before the law and which subjects them to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen.”
Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dissent, Burdeau v. McDowell, 256 U.S. 465, 477 (1921).
“[O]nly through participation by the many in the responsibilities and determinations of business can Americans secure the moral and intellectual development which is essential to the maintenance of liberty.”
Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dissent, Liggett Co. v. Lee, 288 U.S. 517 (1933), at 580.
“The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”
Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Chivalry!-why, maiden, she is the nurse of pure and high affection-the stay of the oppressed, the redresser of grievances, the curb of the power of the tyrant-Nobility were but an empty name without her, and liberty finds the best protection in her lance and her sword.”
Walter Scott (1771–1832) said by 1832 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.”
Harry Blackmun (1908–1999) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Writing for the court, Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 153 (1973)
“The greatest liberty is born of the greatest rigor.”
Paul Valéry (1871–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself in acts of bravery and heroism.”
Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The visas came through in 1955, when I was 15. That June, we sailed for New York aboard the Conte Biancamano. When we passed the Statue of Liberty, Anna Maria [my sister] tried to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner".”
Mario Andretti (born 1940) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Coming to America -- In the Fast Lane," "House Call," "Mansion," The Wall Street Journal (3 August 2018), M1
“It was the advent of the second plane, sharking in low over the Statue of Liberty: that was the defining moment. Until then, America thought she was witnessing nothing more serious than the worst aviation disaster in history; now she had a sense of the fantastic vehemence ranged against her.”
Martin Amis (1949–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source