Quotes About Liberty

Liberty is an affair of laws and institutions which bring rights and duties into equilibrium. It is not at all an affair of selecting the proper class to rule.

We shall find that every effort to realize equality necessitates a sacrifice of liberty.

But there is no reason to doubt that it will continue as a vital and uniquely American institutional participant in the everlasting search of civilized society for the proper balance between liberty and authority, between the state and the individual.

The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves. (1778 - 1830)

James Madison takes up the question of whether a relatively small number of legislators can be trusted to safeguard the public liberty. Such a system can work, Madison argues, as long as the political and moral responsibilities of the people remain intact. Democracy presupposes the virtue of its individual citizens.

The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it might cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it. . . .

Liberation was fucked up.

Despite the daunting problems of identity that beset our contemporary society, we can see in the horizon the beginnings of a new relationship between artist and community which will not flourish like the mango-trick in the twinkling of an eye but will rather, in the hard and bitter manner of David Diop's young tree, grow patiently and obstinately to the ultimate victory of liberty and fruition.

Now, do I think there has to be shared sacrifice among other nations in the world who want a stable and secure world? Absolutely, there has to be. But I don't think that America can ever abdicate its leadership role in the world because of who we are and where we've come from. We are the symbol for the world for freedom and liberty.

To be well in your mind you have first to be free.

the most fatal plan that could possibly be conceived to enslave a free people.

We shall again be able not to declare, that 'all States as States, are equal,' nor yet that 'all citizens as citizens are equal,' but to renew the broader, better declaration, including both these and much more, that 'all men are created equal.

It was right then that I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence and the part about our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I remember thinking how did he know to put the pursuit part in there? That maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it. No matter what. How did he know that?

Truth is, I cut my hair for freedom, not for beauty.

Our work is a scream of freedom.

The work of art is a scream of freedom.

I therefore beg that you would indulge me with the liberty of declining the arduous trust.

Since the Exodus, freedom has always spoken with a Hebrew accent.

Without the possibility of error and real indeterminacy implied by the quantum theory, human liberty is meaningless.

I shall act always so as to increase the total number of choices.

a pardon did not mean a simple return to society, it meant entry to another penal regime, that of conditional liberty (libertad vigilada) – an exceptionally punitive form of parole via which the regime's control was extended further.

If you wish to be truly free, you must love no one.

it's a free country, a woman can drink-garden if she wants to…