Quotes About Liberty

What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment and death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment . . . inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose.

Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.

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

I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and opressions of the body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.

no people can be both ignorant and free.

When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.

We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.

In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.

I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.

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

The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrant. It is its natural manure.

Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion.

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.

We must make our choice between economy and liberty or confusion and servitude...If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and comforts, in our labor and in our amusements...if we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.

No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.

The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bonds.

No people who are ignorant can be truly free.

This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.

If a nation expects to be ignorant & free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what never was & never will be. The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty & property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.

Enlighten the people, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.