Quotes About Liberty

It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in cases involving not very nice people.

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.

Man was born free and everywhere he is in shackles.

By physical liberty I mean the right to do anything which does not interfere with the happiness of another. By intellectual liberty I mean the right to think wrong.

Liberty, as it is conceived by current opinion, has nothing inherent about it; it is a sort of gift or trust bestowed on the individual by the state pending good behaviour.

If liberty has any meaning it means freedom to improve.

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, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

The greatest right in the world is the right to be wrong.

The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no domination. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely give. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and freedom of nations can make them.

A free man is as jealous of his responsibilities as he is of his liberties.

Once freedom lights its beacon in a man's heart, the gods are powerless against him.

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

We are in bondage to the law in order that we may be free.

The tree of liberty grows only when watered by the blood of tyrants.

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

Liberty's in every blow! Let us do or die.

Give me the liberty to know, to think, to believe, and to utter freely according to conscience, above all other liberties.

Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others.

1 have always in my own thought summed up individual liberty, and business liberty, and every other kind of liberty, in the phrase that is common in the sporting world, "A free field and no favor."

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.

A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty is worth a whole eternity in bondage.

Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better, whereas enslavement is a certainty of the worst.

When liberty destroys order, the hunger for order will destroy liberty.

The people are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.