Famous Quotations / Quotes
Famous Quotes about Liberty
 

 
Famous quotes, quotations, sayings, phrases, idioms, proverbs, and axioms about Liberty and the Responsibility that comes with it. 
 


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

Quotes are organized by Name and Category.

If you'd like, join us on the Liberty Tree Daily Quotes emailing list for a daily dose of Liberty Quotes in your mail box. Leave us your email address to subscribe.
Email:

Here's the Daily Quotes Log to date.


Cryptograms!
Do you like cryptograms? We've got thousands!

Authors
Indexed quotes by Author or Speaker.

Categories
Browse quotes by category or select from the list below.

Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/authoritarian">Authoritarian Quotes</a>]Authoritarian Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/authority">Authority Quotes</a>]Authority Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/autocracy">Autocracy Quotes</a>]Autocracy Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/autonomy">Autonomy Quotes</a>]Autonomy Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/balance">Balance Quotes</a>]Balance Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/banking">Banking Quotes</a>]Banking Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/bankruptcy">Bankruptcy Quotes</a>]Bankruptcy Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/batf+">BATF  Quotes</a>]BATF Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/beauty">Beauty Quotes</a>]Beauty Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/behavior">Behavior Quotes</a>]Behavior Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/belief">Belief Quotes</a>]Belief Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/benevolence">Benevolence Quotes</a>]Benevolence Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/betrayal">Betrayal Quotes</a>]Betrayal Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/bias">Bias Quotes</a>]Bias Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/bible">Bible Quotes</a>]Bible Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/bigotry">Bigotry Quotes</a>]Bigotry Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/birth">Birth Quotes</a>]Birth Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/birth+control">Birth Control Quotes</a>]Birth Control Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/black">Black Quotes</a>]Black Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/blowback">Blowback Quotes</a>]Blowback Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/body">Body Quotes</a>]Body Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/bondage">Bondage Quotes</a>]Bondage Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/boycott">Boycott Quotes</a>]Boycott Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/bribery">Bribery Quotes</a>]Bribery Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/british">British Quotes</a>]British Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/brutality">Brutality Quotes</a>]Brutality Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/build">Build Quotes</a>]Build Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/bureaucracy">Bureaucracy Quotes</a>]Bureaucracy Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/business">Business Quotes</a>]Business Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/canada">Canada Quotes</a>]Canada Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/capitalism">Capitalism Quotes</a>]Capitalism Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/career">Career Quotes</a>]Career Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/censorship">Censorship Quotes</a>]Censorship Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/centralization">Centralization Quotes</a>]Centralization Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/cfr">CFR Quotes</a>]CFR Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/change">Change Quotes</a>]Change Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/character">Character Quotes</a>]Character Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/charity">Charity Quotes</a>]Charity Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/children">Children Quotes</a>]Children Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/china">China Quotes</a>]China Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/choice">Choice Quotes</a>]Choice Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/christianity">Christianity Quotes</a>]Christianity Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/cia">CIA Quotes</a>]CIA Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/citizenship">Citizenship Quotes</a>]Citizenship Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/civilization">Civilization Quotes</a>]Civilization Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/civil+rights">Civil Rights Quotes</a>]Civil Rights Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/class">Class Quotes</a>]Class Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/climate+change">Climate Change Quotes</a>]Climate Change Quotes
Show details for [<a href="/quotes_about/coercion">Coercion Quotes</a>]Coercion Quotes
Hide details for [<a href="/quotes_about/collectivism">Collectivism Quotes</a>]Collectivism Quotes
Lord ActonBy liberty I mean the assurance that every man shall be protected in doing what he believes his duty against the influence of authority and majorities, custom and opinion.
John AdamsGovernment is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.
Hannah ArendtThe moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie -- a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days -- but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please.
Hannah ArendtThe main characteristic of any event is that it has not been foreseen. We don’t know the future but everybody acts into the future. Nobody knows what he is doing because the future is being done, action is being done by a “we” and not an “I.” Only if I were the only one acting could I foretell the consequences of what I’m doing. What actually happens is entirely contingent, and contingency is indeed one of the biggest factors in all history. Nobody knows what is going to happen because so much depends on an enormous number of variables, on simple hazard. On the other hand if you look at history retrospectively, then, even though it was contingent, you can tell a story that makes sense…. Jewish history, for example, in fact had its ups and downs, its, enmities and its friendships, as every history of all people has. The notion that there is one unilinear history is of course false. But if you look at it after the experience of Auschwitz it looks as though all of history -- or at least history since the Middle Ages -- had no other aim than Auschwitz…. This, is the real problem of every philosophy of history how is it possible that in retrospect it always looks as though it couldn’t have happened otherwise?
Hannah ArendtTotalitarianism begins in contempt for what you have. The second step is the notion: “Things must change—no matter how, Anything is better than what we have.” Totalitarian rulers organize this kind of mass sentiment, and by organizing it articulate it, and by articulating it make the people somehow love it. They were told before, thou shalt not kill; and they didn’t kill. Now they are told, thou shalt kill; and although they think it’s very difficult to kill, they do it because it’s now part of the code of behavior. They learn whom to kill and how to kill and how to do it together. This is the much talked about Gleichschaltung—the coordination process. You are coordinated not with the powers that be, but with your neighbor—coordinated with the majority. But instead of communicating with the other you are now glued to him. And you feel of course marvelous. Totalitarianism appeals to the very dangerous emotional needs of people who live in complete isolation and in fear of one another.
AristotleWhat is common to many is least taken care of, for all men have greater regard for what is their own than what they possess in common with others.
Marcus AureliusThe object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
Frederic BastiatIf every person has the right to defend -- even by force -- his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly. Thus the principle of collective right -- its reason for existing, its lawfulness -- is based on individual right. And the common force that protects this collective right cannot logically have any other purpose or any other mission than that for which it acts as a substitute. Thus, since an individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of another individual, then the common force -- for the same reason -- cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property of individuals or groups.
Frederic BastiatWhen plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.
Frederic BastiatWhat, then, is the law? It is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense. ... since an individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of another individual, then the common force -- for the same reason -- cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property of individual groups. ... But, unfortunately, law by no means confines itself to its proper functions. And when it has exceeded its proper functions, it has not done so merely in some inconsequential and debatable matters. The law has gone further than this; it has acted in direct opposition to its own purpose. The law has been used to destroy its own objective: It has been applied to annihilating the justice that it was supposed to maintain; to limiting and destroying rights which its real purpose was to respect. The law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty, and property of others. It has converted plunder into a right, in order to protect plunder. And it has converted lawful defense into a crime, in order to punish lawful defense.
Andrew BernsteinCollectivism is the political theory that states that the will of the people is omnipotent, an individual must obey; that society as a whole, not the individual, is the unit of moral value. ... Collectivism is the application of the altruist ethics to politics.
Judge Robert BorkAs government regulations grow slowly, we become used to the harness. Habit is a powerful force, and we no longer feel as intensely as we once would have [the] constriction of our liberties that would have been utterly intolerable a mere half century ago.
Linda BowlesThe task of weaning various people and groups from the national nipple will not be easy. The sound of whines, bawls, screams and invective will fill the air as the agony of withdrawal pangs finds voice.
William BradfordIf all were to share alike, and all were to do alike, then all were on an equality throughout, and one was as good as another; and so, if it did not actually abolish those very relations which God himself has set among men, it did at least greatly diminish the mutual respect that is so important should be preserved amongst them. Let none argue that this is due to human failing, rather than to this communistic plan of life in itself....
William BradfordThe experience that was had in ... the taking away of private property, and the possession of it in community, by a commonwealth ... was found to breed much confusion and discontent; and retard much employment which would have been to the general benefit.... For the young men that were most able and fit for labor and service objected that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children, without any recompense.... The strong man or the resourceful man had no more share of food, clothes, etc., than the weak man who was not able to do a quarter the other could; this was thought injustice. The aged and graver men, who were ranked and equalized in labor, food, clothes, etc., with the meaner and younger ones, thought it some indignity and disrespect to them.
Edmund BurkeThe tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.
Major General Smedley Darlington ButlerMy mental faculties remained in suspended animation
while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups.
This is typical with everyone in the military.
Sir Roy Yorke CalneIt would not be unreasonable, by analogy with a motor vehicle licence, that a permit to reproduce should also be needed with a minimum age of, for example, twenty-five, and a proof required that the parents are of sufficient maturity and financial resource to take proper care of the child. Young, sexually active, but emotionally immature teenagers would need help.
Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications CommissionThe regulation prohibiting abusive comment that tends or is likely to expose a person or a group to hatred or contempt is necessary not only to avoid harm to the persons targeted, but also to ensure that Canadian values are respected for all Canadians. The broadcast of remarks that could expose individuals or groups to hatred or contempt can attract individuals to its cause and in the process create serious discord between various groups in Canadian society to the detriment of all of Canadian society. This harm undermines the cultural, political and social fabric of Canada which the Canadian broadcasting system is expressly meant to safeguard, enrich and strengthen. It also undermines the multicultural and multiracial nature of Canadian society, which the programming of the Canadian broadcasting system should reflect. Protection from the harms of abusive comment is for the benefit of all Canadians.
Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications CommissionAfter listening to the recordings containing the remarks made by on-air personalities on 10 and 27 September and 8 October and reading the stenographic notes, the Commission identified several remarks about the complainant related to her physical attributes, and sexual attributes in particular. There are multiple references to the size of her breasts; [translation] 'her incredible set of boobs' ... The Commission considers that the remarks made about Ms. Chiasson were abusive and tended to expose her, and women in general, to contempt on the basis of sex, in contravention of section 3(b) of the Regulations. Further, the remarks do not meet the objectives of the broadcasting policy for Canada set out in the Act. The remarks did not meet the objective of high standard of programming required by section 3(1)(g) of the Act.
Hillary ClintonMany of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you. We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.
William Comer[W]e are living in a sick Society filled with people who would not directly steal from their neighbors but who are willing to demand that the government do it for them.
Auguste ComteSocial positivism only accepts duties, for all and towards all. Its constant social viewpoint cannot include any notion of rights, for such notion always rests on individuality. We are born under a load of obligations of every kind, to our predecessors, to our successors, to our contemporaries. These obligations then increase or accumulate, for it is some time before we can return any service. ... Any human right is therefore as absurd as immoral. Since there are no divine rights anymore, this concept must therefore disappear completely as related only to the preliminary regime and totally inconsistent with the final state where there are only duties based on functions.
Council on Foreign RelationsThe sovereignty fetish is still so strong in the public mind, that there would appear to be little chance of winning popular assent to American membership in anything approaching a super-state organization. Much will depend on the kind of approach which is used in further popular education.
e. e. cummingsTo be nobody but yourself -- in a world which is doing it's best, night and day, to make you like everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting.


(c) Copyright 1999-2024
Privacy Policy and Terms of Use