Quotes About Rights

A heavily armed citizenry is not about overthrowing the government; it is about preventing the government from overthrowing liberty.

Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

Individual liberty depends upon keeping government under control.

You can not possibly have a broader basis for government than that which includes all the people, with all their rights in their hands, and with an equal power to maintain their rights.

As long as women consent to be unjustly governed, they will be; but directly women say: "We withhold our consent," we will not be governed any longer as long as government is unjust.

The most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens.

The very reason for the First Amendment is to make the people of this country free to think, speak, write and worship as they wish, not as the Government commands.

... happily the Government of the United States... gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.

The American Constitution was designed to make it hard to have too much government.

The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.

Every segment of our population, and every individual, has a right to expect from his government a fair deal.

The Masonic fraternity tramples upon our rights, defeats the administration of justice, and bids defiance to every government which it cannot control.

Liberty is always freedom from the government.

Do you know what I think white people wholly own? I think freedom of speech is a white thing. This is something that white people do. I think governments, this is a white thing.

The true foundation of republican government is the equal right of every citizen in his person and property and in their management.

Women ought to have representatives, instead of being arbitrarily governed without any direct share allowed them in the deliberations of government.

Every State is known by the rights it maintains.

Freedom is the default position. Everything the government does takes away some of our freedom... That's why we have a constitution, to restrain the government.

The rights of conscience, of bearing arms, of changing the government, are declared to be inherent in the people.

Well, I'm a libertarian conservative, so I believe in limited government/maximum individual freedom.

A just government maintains a healthy tension between the claims of authority and the claims of liberty.

The Bill of Rights was not written to protect governments from trouble. It was written precisely to give the people the constitutional means to cause trouble for governments they no longer trusted.

We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans.

The early American knew that freedom was nothing more than the absence of external restraint on behavior; the government could not give you freedom, it could only take it away.