Quotes About Liberty

L'homme est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers.

Aristotle . . . said that men were not at all euqal by nature, since some were born for slavery and others born to be masters. Aristotle was right; but he mistook the effect for the cause . . . if there are slaves by nature, it is only because there has been slavery against nature. Force made the first slaves; and their cowardice perpetuates their slavery.

The former breathes only peace and liberty; he desires only to live and be free from labor; even the ataraxia of the Stoic falls far short of his profound indifference to every other object.

La liberté n'est dans aucune forme de gouvernement, elle est dans le coeur de l'homme libre ; il la porte partout avec lui. L'homme vil porte partout la servitude. L'un serait esclave à Genève, et l'autre libre à Paris.

From this it follows that, the larger the State, the less the liberty.

Even the soberest judged it requisite to sacrifice one part of their liberty to ensure the other, as a man, dangerously wounded in any of his limbs, readily parts with it to save the rest of his body.

Les peuples une fois accoutumés à des maîtres ne sont plus en état de s'en passer. S'ils tentent de secouer le joug, ils s'éloignent d'autant plus de la liberté, que, prenant pour elle une licence effrénée qui lui est opposée, leurs révolutions les livrent presque toujours à des séducteurs qui ne font qu'aggraver leurs chaînes.

What man loses by the social contract is his natural liberty and an unlimited right to everything he tries to get and succeeds in getting; what he gains is civil liberty and the proprietorship of all he possesses.

Renoncer à sa liberté c'est renoncer à sa qualité d'homme

l'impulsion du seul appétit est esclavage, et l'obéissance à la loi qu'on s'est prescrite est liberté.

mientras que un pueblo se ve forzado a obedecer, hace bien, si obedece; tan pronto como puede sacudir el yugo, si lo sacude, obra mucho mejor; pues recobrando su libertad por el mismo derecho con que se la han quitado, o tiene motivos para recuperarla, o no tenían ninguno para privarle de ella los que tal hicieron. Pero el orden social es un derecho sagrado que sirve de base a todos los demás. Este derecho, sin embargo, no viene de la naturaleza; luego se funda en convenciones.

Mis sentimientos se acomodaron con una rapidez inconcebible al tono de mis ideas. El entusiasmo por la verdad, la libertad y la virtud ahogó todas mis pequeñas pasiones; y lo mas sorprendente es que esta efervescencia subsistió en mi corazón durante más de cuatro o cinco años, llegando a tan alto grado como jamás haya existido en otro corazón humano. Escribí

Todo hombre nacido en la esclavitud, nace para la esclavitud; nada

Todo hombre nacido en la esclavitud, nace para la esclavitud; nada más cierto.

El mismo que se considera señor de los demás no por esto deja de ser menos esclavo que los demás.

on peut acquérir la liberté; mais on ne la recouvre jamais

I ask: which of the two, civil or natural life, is more likely to become insufferable to those who live it? We see about us practically no people who do not complain about their existence; many even deprive themselves of it to the extent they are able, and the combination of divine and human laws is hardly enough to stop this disorder. I ask: has anyone ever heard of a savage man who was living in liberty ever dreaming of complaining about his life and of killing himself?

No hay derecho a matar al enemigo sino en el caso de no poderle hacer esclavo. Luego, el derecho de hacerle esclavo no viene del derecho de matarle. Por lo tanto, es un cambio inicuo hacerle comprar a costa de su libertad una vida sobre la cual nadie tiene derecho.

Trouver une forme d'association qui défende et protège de toute la force commune la personne et les biens de chaque associé, et par laquelle chacun s'unissant à tous n'obéisse pourtant qu'à lui-même et reste aussi libre qu'auparavant. Tel est le problème fondamental dont le contrat social donne la solution.

Bu ortakça özgürlük insan yarad?l???n?n bir sonucudur.

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others, but remains more of a slave than they are.

L'argent qu'on possède est l'instrument de la liberté ; celui qu'on pourchasse est celui de la servitude.

Abandoned to themselves, they soon weary of disorder, and instinctively turn to servitude. It was the proudest and most untractable of the Jacobins who acclaimed Bonaparte with greatest energy when he suppressed all liberty and made his hand of iron severely felt. It

So long as government and law provide for the security and well-being of men in their common life, the arts, literature and the sciences, less despotic though perhaps more powerful, fling garlands of flowers over the chains which weight them down. They stifle in men's breasts that sense of original liberty, for which they seem to have been born; cause them to love their own slavery, and so make of them what is called a civilized people.