Liberty Quotes

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have?Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775

He who confuses political liberty with freedom and political equality with similarity has never thought for five minutes about either.

George Bernard Shaw

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.

Thomas Jefferson

We have already found a high degree of personal liberty, and we are now struggling to enhance equality of opportunity. Our commitment to human rights must be absolute, our laws fair, our natural beauty preserved; the powerful must not persecute the weak, and human dignity must be enhanced.

Jimmy Carter

The Warrior Ethos emphasizes placing the mission first, not accepting defeat, and being disciplined physically and mentally. Why? Because an American Soldier is a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.

Dan Smee

The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to.

Thomas Jefferson

Human progress having reached a high level through respect for the liberty and dignity of men, it has become desirable to re-affirm these evident truths:

Will Durant

I was not designed to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.

Henry David Thoreau

A troubled and afflicted mankind looks to us, pleading for us to keep our rendezvous with destiny; that we will uphold the principles of self-reliance, self-discipline, morality, and, above all, responsible liberty for every individual that we will become that shining city on a hill.

Ronald Reagan

No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.

Gideon Tucker

Liberty is the right to do what I like; license, the right to do what you like.

Bertrand Russell

Liberty is the great parent of science and of virtue; and a nation will be great in both always in proportion as it is free.

Thomas Jefferson

Do you wish to be free? Then above all things, love God, love your neighbor, love one another, love the common weal; then you will have true liberty.

Girolamo Savonarola

Perfect Liberty follows no rules, law, or any virtue for that matter. It disregards respect, courteousness, and love.

Veronica Mist

How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?

Samuel Johnson

leave him free, and the mere sense of liberty would content him, joined to the knowledge that his presence was dear to those whom he loved best.

Louisa May Alcott

The evidence of the natural rights of expatriation, like that of our right to life, liberty, the use of our faculties, the pursuit of happiness, is not left to the feeble and sophistical

Thomas Jefferson

Life and liberty can be as much endangered from illegal methods used to convict those thought to be criminals as from the actual criminals themselves.

Earl Warren

Irreverence is the champion of liberty and its only sure defense

Mark Twain

Why do they want to disarm the people? Well, they want to disarm the people on the assumption that we are not responsible enough to be trusted with the means to defend ourselves--regardless of the truth that our Founders thought that this is an essential prerequisite and precondition of liberty.

Alan Keyes