Famous Quotations / Quotes
Famous Quotes about Liberty
 

Click on the name to open the full quote and the details about the quote's origin. Quotes are also grouped by Category and Author.  
 
For the Order wishes to be secret, and to work in silence, for thus it is better secured from the oppression of the ruling powers, and because this secrecy gives a greater zest to the whole.
-- Adam Weishaupt
 
By establishing reading societies, and subscription libraries, and taking these under our direction, and supplying them through our labors, we may turn the public mind which way we will.
-- Adam Weishaupt
 
The great strength of our Order lies in its concealment; let it never appear in any place in its own name, but always concealed by another name, and another occupation. None is fitter than the lower degrees of Freemasonry; the public is accustomed to it, expects little from it, and therefore takes little notice of it. Next to this, the form of a learned or literary society is best suited to our purpose, and had Freemasonry not existed, this cover would have been employed; and it may be much more than a cover, it may be a powerful engine in our hands. … A Literary Society is the most proper form for the introduction of our Order into any state where we are yet strangers.
-- Adam Weishaupt
 
Of all the means I know to lead men, the most effectual is a concealed mystery. The hankering of the mind is irresistible.
-- Adam Weishaupt
 
I am proud to be known to the world as the founder of the Illuminati.
-- Adam Weishaupt
 
We must win the common people in every corner. This will be obtained chiefly by means of the schools; and by open, hearty behavior, show condescension, popularity, and toleration of their prejudices, which we shall at leisure root out and dispel.
-- Adam Weishaupt
 
The most wonderful thing of all is that the distinguished Lutheran and Calvinist theologians who belong to our order really believe that they see in it (Illuminati) the true and genuine sense of Christian Religion. Oh mortal man, is there anything you cannot be made to believe?
-- Adam Weishaupt
 
I want for our country enough laws to restrain me from injuring others, so that these laws will also restrain others from injuring me. I want enough government, with enough constitutional safeguards, so that this necessary minimum of laws will be applied equitably to everybody, and will be binding on the rulers as well as those ruled. Beyond that I want neither laws nor government to be imposed on our people as a means or with the excuse of protecting us from catching cold, or of seeing that we raise the right kind of crops, or of forcing us to live in the right kind of houses or neighborhoods, or of compelling us to save money or to spend it, or of telling us when or whether we can pray. I do not want government or laws designed for any other form of welfarism or paternalism, based on the premise that government knows best and can run our lives better than we can run them ourselves. And my concept of freedom, and of its overwhelming importance, is implicit in these aspirations and ideals.
-- Robert Welch
 
The real freedom of any individual can always be measured by the amount of responsibility which he must assume for his own welfare and security.
-- Robert Welch
 
Only in a police state is the job of a policeman easy.
-- Orson Welles
 
For every action there is an equal and opposite government program.
-- Bob Wells
 
Moral indignation: jealousy with a halo.
-- H. G. Wells
 
Heresies are experiments in man’s unsatisfied search for truth.
-- H. G. Wells
 
The great trouble with you Americans is that you are still under the influence of that second-rate -- shall I say third-rate? -- mind, Karl Marx.
-- H. G. Wells
 
... when the struggle seems to be drifting definitely towards a world social democracy, there may still be very great delays and disappointments before it becomes an efficient and beneficent world system. Countless people ... will hate the new world order ... and will die protesting it. When we attempt to evaluate its promise, we have to bear in mind the distress of a generation or so of malcontents, many of them quite gallant and graceful-looking people.
-- H. G. Wells
 
... when the struggle seems to be drifting definitely towards a world social democracy, there may still be very great delays and disappointments before it becomes an efficient and beneficent world system. Countless people ... will hate the new world order ... and will die protesting against it. When we attempt to evaluate its promise, we have to bear in mind the distress of a generation or so of malcontents, many of them quite gallant and graceful-looking people.
-- H. G. Wells
 
The Communists could succeed if we ever let ourselves be lulled into thinking that they are no longer dangerous to us externally and internally. They would be victorious if we were ever duped by their own nationals or by foolish Americans -- if we were ever duped into believing that they are not aggressive, atheist socialist imperialists. They have proved they never sleep. They have never permanently retreated, and what seems at a particular time to be a cessation of their forward movement or a change in their designs is nothing more than a tactical maneuver on another front.
-- Kenneth D. Wells
 
When freedom prevails, the ingenuity and inventiveness of people creates incredible wealth. This is the source of the natural improvement of the human condition.
-- Brian S. Wesbury
 
Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.
-- John Wesley
 
The first of the dreams that [my parents] instilled in me was individual responsibility and accountability. They taught me that in life you have consequences to each and every decision that you make, and when you try to shy away from those decisions, when you try to shy away from those consequences then someone will come in and allow you to be seen as a victim, and when you become seen as a victim, it’s a spiraling slope downward and downward. Before the next thing you know, you become dependent upon something and right here in the United States of America this is one of the things that we combat against because too many Americans are being castigated as victims. Too many Americans are not being individually responsible and accountable. Too many Americans are becoming dependent upon government and therefore government continues to grow. My parents and their dream was to have a son that was not a victim, but a son that was a victor, and that enables me to stand here before you today.
-- Col. Allen West
 
When choosing between two evils I always like to take the one I've never tried before.
-- Mae West
 
I believe in censorship. After all, I made a fortune out of it.
-- Mae West
 
But once a culture develops sufficiently to become skeptical, the idea of censorship becomes less attractive. To suppress a book or a picture or a sculpture or a play or a film is a terrible act of aggression against the artist who created it. This is a miming of capital punishment; it destroys the life that has been emanated by a life.
-- Rebecca West
 
God forbid that any book should be banned. The practice is as indefensible as infanticide.
-- Rebecca West
 
There is a point, and it is reached more easily than is supposed, where interference with freedom of the arts and literature becomes an attack on the life of society.
-- Rebecca West
 
A person has the right to keep and bear arms for the defense of self, family, home and state, and for lawful hunting and recreational use.
-- West Virginia Constitution
 
Freedom of communication means, clearly and unquestionably, freedom to speak, debate, and write in privacy; to share confidence with intimates and confidants, and to prepare positions in groups and institutions for presentation to the public at a later point.
-- Alan Westin
 
The denial or revocation of a parenting license would be expected to be a painful experience, particularly for mothers. The overall importance of protecting innocent children from incompetent parenting justifies the inconvenience to a few parents and the inevitable imperfections of a licensing system.
-- Jack C. Westman
 
Vietnam was the first war ever fought without any censorship. Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind.
-- General William Westmoreland
 
There is plenty of law at the end of a nightstick.
-- Grover Whalen
 
We are only so free that others may be free as well as we.
-- Benjamin Whichcote
 
While the collateral consequences of drugs such as cocaine are indisputably severe, they are not unlike those which flow from the misuse of other, legal, substances.
-- Justice Byron R. White
 
The last great delusion is soon to open before us. Antichrist is to perform his marvelous works in our sight. So closely will the counterfeit resemble the true that it will be impossible to distinguish between them except by the Holy Scriptures.
-- Ellen G. White
 
It is labor that keeps the strong man strong. And spiritual labor, toil and burden-bearing, is what will give strength to the church of Christ.
-- Ellen G. White
 
I believe... that security declines as security machinery expands.
-- E. B. White
 
Liberty is never out of bounds or off limits; it spreads wherever it can capture the imagination of men.
-- E. B. White
 
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half the time.
-- E. B. White
 
Commuter - one who spends his life In riding to and from his wife; A man who shaves and takes a train, And then rides back to shave again.
-- E. B. White
 
The banks do create money. They have been doing it for a long time, but they didn't realise it, and they did not admit it. Very few did. You will find it in all sorts of documents, financial textbooks, etc. But in the intervening years, and we must be perfectly frank about these things, there has been a development of thought, until today I doubt very much whether you would get many prominent bankers to attempt to deny that banks create it.
-- H. W. White
 
History is a means of access to ourselves.
-- Lynn White, Jr.
 
The most difficult thing in the world is to know how to do a thing and to watch somebody else doing it wrong, without comment.
-- T. H. White
 
You can have no wise laws nor free enforcement of wise laws unless there is free expression of the wisdom of the people -- and, alas, their folly with it. But if there is freedom, folly will die of its own poison, and the wisdom will survive.
-- William Allen White
 
Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others.
-- William Allen White
 
You say that freedom of utterance is not for time of stress, and I reply with the sad truth that only in time of stress is freedom of utterance in danger… Only when free utterance is suppressed is it needed, and when it is needed it is most vital to justice.
-- William Allen White
 
There but for the grace of God go I.
-- Rev. George Whitefield
 
Democracy...is a society in which the unbeliever feels undisturbed and at home. If there were only a half dozen unbelievers in America, their well-being would be a test of our democracy.
-- Alfred North Whitehead
 
The creation of the world -- said Plato -- is the victory of persuasion over force... Civilization is the maintenance of social order, by its own inherent persuasiveness as embodying the nobler alternative. The recourse to force, however unavoidable, is a disclosure of the failure of civilization, either in the general society or in a remnant of individuals... Now the intercourse between individuals and between social groups takes one of these two forms: force or persuasion. Commerce is the great example of intercourse by way of persuasion. War, slavery, and governmental compulsion exemplify the reign of force.
-- Alfred North Whitehead
 
Every really new idea looks crazy at first.
-- Alfred North Whitehead
 
Whatever the issue might be, whether it’s mass surveillance, no-knock raids, or the right to freely express one’s views about the government, we’ve moved into a new age in which the rights of the citizenry are being treated as a secondary concern by the White House, Congress, the courts and their vast holding of employees, including law enforcement officials.
-- John W. Whitehead
 
In recent years we have witnessed numerous marches on Washington in which one group or another has demanded new “rights.” Frequently, such rights have not meant freedom from state control, but rather entitlement to state action, protection, or subsidy. In the process of yielding to the “will of the people” and creating new rights, the state invariably enlarges itself and its bureaucracy. Each new right seems to demand a new agency to guarantee it, administer it, or deliver it.
-- John W. Whitehead
 
The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise see in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws.
-- Walt Whitman
 
Freedom's soil hath only place For a free and fearless race!
-- John Greenleaf Whittier
 
The nations lift their right hands up and swear Their oath of freedom.
-- John Greenleaf Whittier
 
For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been!
-- John Greenleaf Whittier
 
The slave will be free. Democracy in America will yet be a glorious reality; and when the top-stone of that temple of freedom which our fathers left unfinished shall be brought forth with shoutings and cries of grace unto it, when our now drooping Liberty lifts up her head and prospers, happy will he be who can say, with John Milton, "Among those who have something more than wished her welfare, I, too, have my charter and freehold of rejoicing to me and my heirs."
-- John Greenleaf Whittier
 
You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common, they don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views, which can be uncomfortable, if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering.
-- Doctor Who
 
If the true freedom of the press is to decide for itself what to publish and when to publish it, the true responsibility of the press must be to assert and defend that freedom… What the press in America needs is less inhibition, not more restraint.
-- Tom Wicker
 
Progress imposes not only new possibilities for the future but new restrictions.
-- Norbert Wiener
 
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.
-- Elie Wiesel
 
Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself.
-- Elie Wiesel
 
The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
-- Elie Wiesel
 
Intelligence appears to be the thing that enables a man to get along without education. Education enables a man to get along without the use of his intelligence.
-- Albert Edward Wiggin
 
As one reads history, not in the expurgated editions written for schoolboys and passmen, but in the original authorities of each time, one is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalised by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime.
-- Oscar Wilde
 
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.
-- Oscar Wilde
 
I think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.
-- Oscar Wilde
 
I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber one has some day to cry aloud on the house-tops.
-- Oscar Wilde
 
Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. There lies its immense value. For what it seeks is to disturb monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine.
-- Oscar Wilde
 
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
-- Oscar Wilde
 
All authority is quite degrading.
-- Oscar Wilde
 
To believe is very dull. To doubt is intensely engrossing. To be on the alert is to live, to be lulled into security is to die.
-- Oscar Wilde
 
A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.
-- Oscar Wilde
 
The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.
-- Oscar Wilde
 
The form of government that is most suitable to the artist is no government at all. ... One might point out how the Renaissance was great, because it sought to solve no social problem, and busied itself not about such things, but suffered the individual to develop freely, beautifully, and naturally, and so had great and individual artists, and great, individual men. One might point out how Louis XIV, by creating the modern state, destroyed the individualism of the artist ...
-- Oscar Wilde
 
Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.
-- Oscar Wilde
 
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-- Oscar Wilde
 


Daily Quotes
Ready to be inspired?
Sign up for a daily dose of Liberty Quotes!
Leave us your email address to subscribe.
Email:

Here's the Daily Quote history.

Browse quotes by
Authors, Categories,
and Cryptograms!



The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

A classic since 1953 with over 20,000 quotes from over 3,000 authors.


Famous Last Words

Apt Observations, Pleas, Curses, Benedictions, Sour Notes, Bons Mots, and Insights from People on the Brink of Departure


Stretch Your Wings

Famous Black Quotations for the Young


American Quotations

An exhaustive collection of profound quotes from the founding fathers, presidents, statesmen, scientists, constitutions, court decisions


The Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations


Last Words of Saints and Sinners

700 Final Quotes from the Famous, the Infamous, and the Inspiring Figures of History


America's God and Country: Encyclopedia of Quotations

Contains over 2,100 profound quotations from founding fathers, presidents, constitutions, court decisions and more


The Law

This 1850 classic is an absolute must read for anyone interested in law, justice, truth, or liberty. A most compelling and revolutionary look at The Law.


Bartlett's Familiar Quotations

A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature (17th Edition)


The Stupidest Things Ever Said by Politicians

Rise up, America -- and laugh out loud at the greatest gaffes that no spin doctor could possibly fix!


The 776 Even Stupider Things Ever Said

Another great collection of stupidity


Quotable Quotes

Wit and Wisdom for All Occasions from America's Most Popular Magazine


The Most Brilliant Thoughts of All Time

You don't have to be a genius to sound like one. Here's a collection of the most profound and provocative wit and wisdom in the English language in two lines or less.


2,715 One-Line Quotations for Speakers, Writers & Raconteurs

Invaluable sampler of witticisms, epigrams, sayings, bon mots, platitudes and insights chosen for their brevity and pithiness.


Phillips' Book of Great Thoughts Funny Sayings

A stupendous collection of quotes, quips, epigrams, witticisms, and humorous comments for personal enjoyment and ready reference.


Quick Quips and Quotes; 532 Things I Wish I Had Said

Quick Quips and Quotes is the Ultimate Collection of one liners.


Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes

The ultimate anthology of anecdotes, now revised with over 700 new entries.


Quotations for Public Speakers

A Historical, Literary, and Political Anthology


Liberty - The American Revolution

This compelling series traces the events leading up to the war and America's fight for freedom.


Founding Fathers

The story of how these disparate characters fomented rebellion in the colonies, formed the Continental Congress, fought the Revolutionary War, and wrote the Constitution


Libertarianism: A Primer

David Boaz, director of the Cato Institute, has written a simple introduction to Libertarianism inteneded to appeal to disgruntled Democrats and Republicans everywhere.


The Libertarian Reader

Classic and Contemporary Writings from Lao-Tzu to Milton Friedman


Thomas Paine: Collected Writings

All the classics: Common Sense / The Crisis / Rights of Man / The Age of Reason / Pamphlets, Articles, and Letters


(c) Copyright 1999-2025