Quotes About Liberty

When the people are afraid of the government, that's tyranny. But when the government is afraid of the people, that's liberty.

If the individual has a right to govern himself, all external government is tyranny. Hence the necessity of abolishing the State.

It is with government as with medicine, its only business is the choice of evils. Every law is an evil, for every law is an infraction of liberty.

Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent.

The fundamental force behind the Second Amendment is to empower the people and give them the greatest measure of authority over the tyranny of runaway government.

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

That government is best which governs least.

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

Individual liberty depends upon keeping government under control.

We prefer self-government with danger to servitude in tranquility.

I am running for president to return our country to the principles of liberty and limited government.

For liberty to expand, government must shrink. For the economy to grow, government must get out of the way.

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.

The greatest calamity which could befall us would be submission to a government of unlimited powers.

Peaceful secession and nullification are the only means of returning to a system of government that respects rather than destroys individual liberty.

You cannot preach self-government and liberty to people in a starving land.

Liberty is always freedom from the government.

The greater the share the people have in government, the less liberty, civil or religious, does a nation enjoy.

Government is best which governs least

The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost.

No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue.

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.