Quotes about liberty

"Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is responsible to himself."

Adams, Henry Brooks on liberty   

"Liberty can not be preserved without a general knowledge among the people."

Adams, John on liberty
4 fans of this quote   

"The ingrained idea that, because there is no king and they despise titles, the Americans are a free people is pathetically untrue. There is a perpetual interference with personal liberty over there that would not be tolerated in England for a week."

Asquith, Margot on liberty   

"I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation."

Bakunin, Mikhail on liberty   

"You cannot have Liberty in this world without what you call Moral Virtue, and you cannot have Moral Virtue without the slavery of that half of the human race who hate what you call Moral Virtue."

Blake, William on liberty   

"The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal -- well-meaning but without understanding."

Brandeis, Louis D. on liberty   

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

Breton, Andre on liberty   

"The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts."

Burke, Edmund on liberty   

"Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed."

Burke, Edmund on liberty   

"The people never give up their liberties, but under some delusion."

Burke, Edmund on liberty   

"The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please: we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations."

Burke, Edmund on liberty   

"It is not one man nor a million, but the spirit of liberty that must be preserved. The waves which dash upon the shore are, one by one, broken, but the ocean conquers nevertheless. It overwhelms the Armada, it wears out the rock. In like manner, whatever the struggle of individuals, the great cause will gather strength."

Byron, Lord on liberty   

"Peace is liberty in tranquillity."

Cicero, Marcus T. on liberty   

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"The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime, and the punishment of his guilt."

Curran, John Philpot on liberty   

"We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society."

Davis, Angela Y. on liberty   

"One's liberty should end when it becomes the curse of his neighbor."

Farrar, Frederick on liberty   

"Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have."

Fosdick, Harry Emerson on liberty   

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Franklin, Benjamin on liberty
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"They who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Franklin, Benjamin on liberty
4 fans of this quote   

"Where liberty is, there is my country."

Franklin, Benjamin on liberty
9 fans of this quote   

"The liberty of the individual is no gift of civilization. It was greatest before there was any civilization."

Freud, Sigmund on liberty   

"Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty."

Gibbon, Edward on liberty   

"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue."

Goldwater, Barry on liberty
3 fans of this quote   

"Show me the country that has no strikes and I'll show you the country in which there is no liberty."

Gompers, Samuel on liberty   

"It is easy to take liberty for granted when you have never had it taken from you."

Grundler, M. on liberty   

"Abuse is the very hallmark of liberty."

Hailsham, Lord Quintin Hogg on liberty   

"The slaves of power mind the cause they have to serve, because their own interest is concerned; but the friends of liberty always sacrifice their cause, which is only the cause of humanity, to their own spleen, vanity, and self-opinion."

Hazlitt, William on liberty   

"When liberty is mentioned, we must always be careful to observe whether it is not really the assertion of private interests which is thereby designated."

Hegel, Georg on liberty   

"I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death."

Henry, Patrick on liberty   

"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."

Hume, David on liberty   

"What light is to the eyes -- what air is to the lungs -- what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man."

Ingersoll, Robert Green on liberty   

"The more liberty you give away the more you will have."

Ingersoll, Robert Green on liberty   

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"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground."

Jefferson, Thomas on liberty
3 fans of this quote   

"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."

Jefferson, Thomas on liberty
4 fans of this quote   

"The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time."

Jefferson, Thomas on liberty   

"The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave."

Jefferson, Thomas on liberty   

"It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own."

Jefferson, Thomas on liberty   

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

Jefferson, Thomas on liberty   

"The deadliest foe of democracy is not autocracy but liberty frenzied."

Kahn, Otto Herman on liberty   

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

Kennedy, John F. on liberty