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Freedom

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“But you say, “by obedience to another he loses his liberty.” How then is it that children suffer the orders of their father and mother, and pupils the injunctions of their instructors?”
Philo (15 BC–50) said by 50 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We've shown the world that New York can never be defeated, because of its dynamic and diverse population and because it embodies the spirit of enterprise and the love of liberty. And because no matter who you are, if you believe in yourself and your dream, New York will always be the place for you.”
Michael Bloomberg (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) first seen 1774 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774); The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (19 Vols., 1905) edited by Andrew A. Lipscomb and Albert Ellery Bergh, Vol. 1, p. 211
“It is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the State to effect, and on a general plan.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) first seen 1786 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to George Washington (4 January 1786)
“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) first seen 1788 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Edward Carrington, Paris (27 May 1788)
“We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) first seen 1790 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette (2 April 1790)
“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) first seen 1796 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to his Italian friend, Philip Mazzei (1796)
“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty, than those attending too small a degree of it.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) first seen 1791 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Archibald Stuart [http://books.google.com/books?id=ZTIoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA837#v=onepage&q=&f=false, Philadelphia (23 December 1791)
“As pure a son of liberty as I have ever known.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) first seen 1798 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement about Tadeusz Kościuszko, in a letter to Horatio Gates (1798)
“And even should the cloud of barbarism and despotism again obscure the science and libraries of Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore light and liberty to them. In short, the flames kindled on the fourth of July, 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) first seen 1821 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to John Adams (12 September 1821)
“I have stated that the constitutions of our several States vary more or less in some particulars. But there are certain principles in which all agree, and which all cherish as vitally essential to the protection of the life, liberty, property, and safety of the citizen:”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) said by 1826 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Is Germany prepared not only to evacuate Belgium, not only to make full reparation for the colossal mischief and damage which have accompanied her devastating occupation of the country, and her practical enslavement, so far as she can carry it out, of large portions of the population...but to restore to Belgium not the pretence of liberty, but complete and unfettered and absolute independence?”
H. H. Asquith (1852–1928) first seen 1917 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (26 July 1917), quoted in The Times (27 July 1917), p. 10
“Military intervention is the most brutal and abusive act that can be committed against a nation and a people. We demanded then, as we do today, the retreat of United States armed forces from Puerto Rico in order to embrace the liberty we held all too briefly in 1868.”
Pedro Albizu Campos (1891–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The words we use are the most clumsy symbols for meanings, and to suppose that such words as ‘war,’ ‘glory,’ ‘justice,’ ‘liberty,’ ‘home,’ mean the same in two languages, is an error.”
Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A true conservative — who is, above all, an anti-ideologue — will often be attacked for alleged inconsistency, for changing positions, for promising change but not a radical break with the past, for pursuing two objectives — like liberty and authority, or change and continuity — that seem to all ideologues as completely contradictory.”
Andrew Sullivan (born 1963) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Necessary Contradictions of a Conservative", The Daily Dish (13 November 2013)
“I gave my smile its liberty, with no curfew nor bounds.”
Vanna Bonta (1958–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sin must be called by its name. Communism is one of the most dangerous sins in the world today. Every gospel that does not denounce it is not the pure gospel. The Underground Church denounces it, risking liberty and life. The less have we to be silent in the West.”
Richard Wurmbrand (1909–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Burke] emphasized that the new forms of politics, which hope to organize society around the rational pursuit of liberty, equality, fraternity, or their modernist equivalents, are actually forms of militant irrationality.”
Roger Scruton (1944–2020) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Why I became a conservative", The New Criterion (February 2003)
“Liberty is not the same thing as equality, and that those who call themselves liberals are far more interested in equalizing than in liberating their fellows.”
Roger Scruton (1944–2020) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Limits of Liberty", The American Spectator (December 2008)
“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 (1930–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The very names that ought to be held up as luminaries of honor have become bywords of villainy, and the foul stench of corruption fills our public offices. See how the Nation, in this the festal epoch of her marriage to Liberty, stands blackened with the crimes of her first dignitaries, and hides her head in shame before the nations!”
Felix Adler (1851–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where the Left imagine social justice to be the realization of certain abstract ideas — equality and emancipation — the Right see it as a system of naturally occurring and beneficial relationships. Social justice is the fulfilment of the individual's need for positive liberty through social membership.”
Danny Kruger (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The forests have taught man liberty.”
Paul Bourget (1852–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lift every voice and sing Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty. Let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies; Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.”
James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) first seen 1900 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lift Every Voice and Sing, st. 1 (1900).
“The history of liberty has largely been the history of the observance of procedural safeguards. And the effective administration of criminal justice hardly requires disregard of fair procedures imposed by law.”
Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Writing for the court, McNabb v. United States, 318 U.S. 332 (1943). The quote part "The history of liberty has largely been the history of the observance of procedural safeguards." was a "favorite quote" from U.S. Supr…
“It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people.”
Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 69 (1950).
“Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world that a Freeman, contending for liberty on his own ground, is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1776 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: General Orders, Headquarters, New York (2 July 1776)
“Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1783 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Circular to the States" (8 June 1783)
“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1788 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to James Madison (2 March 1788)
“So, there lies the brave de Kalb. The generous stranger, who came from a distant land to fight our battles and to water with his blood the tree of liberty. Would to God he had lived to share its fruits!”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Upon visiting the grave of Johann de Kalb, some years after his death, as quoted in "Baron De Kalb" (1827), by George R. Graham and Edgar Allan Poe, Graham's Illustrated Magazine of Literature, Romance, Art, and Fashion…
“It is necessary that the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity, eternal in their duration, be universal in their application, that being realized in institutions, law and customs, they spread over the surface of the globe and filter down to it's lowest strata. Only then shall the regeneration of man be accomplished.”
Francisco Luís Gomes (1829–1869) first seen 1866 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Os Brâmanes (1866). Quoted by Teotonio R. de Souza in Essays in Goan history (1989), p. 137
“An enactment for the favour and liberty of the subject ought to have a liberal construction.”
William Henry Maule (1788–1858) first seen 1854 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Johnson v. Harris (1854), 3 W.R. 104.
“The liberty of the individual to do as he pleases, even in innocent matters, is not absolute. It must frequently yield to the common good.”
George Sutherland (1862–1942) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Adkins v. Children's Hospital, 261 U.S. 560 (1923)
“At the moment of a revolution there is no question of setting up a democracy like that in America. If they accuse me of dictatorship, I accept. I am creating a nation. Liberty must be suppressed until the end of the war in Algeria—until the nation becomes homogeneous.”
Habib Bourguiba (1903–2000) said by 2000 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You are wrong. The state and its existence are essential before everything else. All this preoccupation with liberty is not serious.”
Habib Bourguiba (1903–2000) said by 2000 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Evil is retributive: every trespass slips fetters on the will, holds the soul in durance till contrition and repentance restore it to liberty.”
Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Say to the friends. Go on, go on, halt not and rest not. Remember that "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" and of right. Much has been achieved; but the main, the vital thing, has yet to come. The suffrage is the magic key to the statute-the insignia of citizenship in a republic.”
Ernestine Rose (1810–1892) first seen 1878 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: letter to the National Woman Suffrage Association Convention (July 19, 1878)
“Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty.”
John Basil Barnhill first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Indictment of Socialism (#3), transcript of Barnhill-Tichenor Debate on Socialism (1914)
“A reduction in the liberty of the least well off cannot be justified even if it is to their economic advantage.”
Nicholas Barr (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain; Here Patriot Truth her glorious precepts draw, Pledged to Religion, Liberty, and Law.”
Joseph Story (1779–1845) first seen 1802 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Motto of the Salem Register. Adopted 1802. Reported in William W. Story's Life of Joseph Story, Volume I, Chapter VI.
“The goal of the Libertarian Party is to get rid of big government, not find new ways of financing it. The most direct and effective way of ridding ourselves of the hundreds of federal programs intruding on our liberty is to cut off the means of funding them. Harry Browne said it best: “Abolish the income tax and replace it with nothing!”
R. Lee Wrights (1958–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As a third generation American I grew up with the obsessive idea of personal liberty which engrosses all Americans except the oldest and richest families.”
Karl Shapiro (1913–2000) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Poems of a Jew (1958)
“Both logically and historically the first point of attack is arbitrary government, and the first liberty to be secured is the right to be dealt with in accordance with law. A man who has no legal rights against another, but stands entirely at his disposal, to be treated according to his caprice, is a slave to that other.”
Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse (1864–1929) said by 1929 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If there is one law for the Government and another for it's subjects, one for noble and another for commoner, one for rich and another for poor, the law does not guarantee liberty for all.”
Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse (1864–1929) said by 1929 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The foundation of liberty is the idea of growth.”
Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse (1864–1929) said by 1929 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“… I hate them. Them and their false democracy, their false liberty, their imperialism conducted in the name of christian civilisation, their coups, like the coup which they started against me...”
Norodom Sihanouk (1922–2012) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the USA, said during his exile in Peking, as quoted by Oriana Fallaci (June 1973), Intervista con la Storia (sixth edition, 2011). page 112.
“If every one of those good words — liberty, equality, fraternity, democracy, human rights — has been called "bourgeois", what on earth does that leave for us?”
Fang Lizhi (1936–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The love of people goes far beyond liberty, rights, equality, and justice. It is something positive, seeks the fullest possible self-realization; it contemplates happiness, overflows all differences, and creates the kind of wealth that can be produced only by people who enjoy their common participation in a community.”
Elmer Eric Schattschneider (1892–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That existence has meaning, finally, only as the liberty to say No, and by saying No to create a world.”
William Barrett (philosopher) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Only the creatures of the earth take from one another, boy. All creatures, but men more than any. Life they take, and liberty, and all that another man may have—sometimes through greed, sometimes through stupidity, but never by any volition but their own. Beware your own race, Bran Davies—they are the only ones who will ever harm you, in the end.”
Susan Cooper (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source