quotations about liberty
Liberty is beyond all price.
JUSTINIAN II
attributed, Day's Collacon
I must have liberty
Withal, as large a charter as the wind,
To blow on whom I please.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
As You Like It
Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
Circular to the States, May 9, 1753
Every man derives his right to life and liberty from God.
H. BINGHAM
attributed, Day's Collacon
True liberty is not liberty to do evil as well as good.
JOHN WINTHROP
attributed, Day's Collacon
Liberty is not free. Our sons and daughters have answered the call again and again. They have done this without regard for sex, race or religion. We are the melting pot. This is what makes us strong. Many have given their all ... for the freedoms we enjoy.
DAN O'REILLY
speech at Memorial Day ceremony in Cannon Beach, The Daily Astorian, May 31, 2016
The men of the future will yet fight their way to many a liberty that we do not even miss.
MAX STIRNER
The Ego and Its Own
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
attributed, The Very Best of Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts of a Founding Father
May the Lord level in the dust those who would deprive the people of their liberty.
JOHN HAMPDEN
attributed, Day's Collacon
Liberty is so great a magician, endowed with so marvelous a power of productivity, that under the inspiration of this spirit alone, North America was able within less than a century to equal, and even surpass, the civilization of Europe.
MIKHAIL BAKUNIN
"Reasoned Proposal to the Central Committee of the League for Peace and Freedom", September 1867
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.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to Benjamin Rush, Apr. 21, 1803
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
Man and Superman
The framers of the constitution knew human nature as well as we do. They too had lived in dangerous days; they too knew the suffocating influence of orthodoxy and standardized thought. They weighed the compulsions for restrained speech and thought against the abuses of liberty. They chose liberty.
WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS
Beauharnais v. Illinois
Liberty, like health, appears most precious when lost.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections
Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to Isaac H. Tiffany, Apr. 4, 1819
The spirit of liberty is not merely, as multitudes imagine, a jealousy of our own particular rights, but a respect for the rights of others, and an unwillingness that any man, whether high or low, should be wronged and trampled under foot.
WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING
"Importance of Religion to Society", The Works of William E. Channing
Liberty is the soul's right to breathe, and when it cannot take a long breath, laws are girdled too tight.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.
BIBLE
Leviticus 25:10
I will fight the battle of liberty as long as there is a shot in the locker.
DAVID PAUL JONES
attributed, Day's Collacon
The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts.
EDMUND BURKE
letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, Apr. 3, 1777