Famous Quotations / Quotes
Famous Quotes about Liberty
 

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[The program of American disarmament outlined in State Department Paper 7277] is the fixed, determined and approved policy of the government of the United States.
-- Joseph S. Clark
 
The last damn thing blacks should do is get into the vanguard of banning books. The next step is banning blacks...
-- Dr. Kenneth Clark
 
Perhaps Communists had wormed their way so deeply into our government on both the working and planning levels that they were able to exercise an inordinate degree of power in shaping the course of America in the dangerous postwar era. I could not help wondering and worrying whether we were faced with open enemies across the conference table and hidden enemies who sat with us in our most secret councils.
-- General Mark Clark
 
A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from you.
-- Ramsey Clark
 
But we’re not a democracy. It’s a terrible misunderstanding and a slander to the idea of democracy to call us that. In reality, we’re a plutocracy: a government by the wealthy.
-- Ramsey Clark
 
Those who do not believe in the ideology of the United States, shall not be allowed to live in the United States.
-- Tom Clark
 
From the standpoint of freedom of speech and the press, it is enough to point out that the state has no legitimate interest in protecting any or all religions from views distasteful to them... It is not the business of government to suppress real or imagined attacks upon a particular religious doctrine.
-- Justice Tom C. Clark
 
Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence.
-- Justice Tom C. Clark
 
Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.
-- Arthur C. Clarke
 
Any smoothly functioning technology will have the appearence of magic.
-- Arthur C. Clarke
 
It is not uncommon for ignorant and corrupt men to falsely charge others with doing what they imagine they themselves, in their narrow minds and experience, would have done under the circumstances.
-- John Hessin Clarke
 
...there is no provision in the Charter itself that contemplates ending war. It is true the Charter provides for force to bring peace, but such use of force is itself war... The Charter is a war document not a peace document... Not only does the Charter Organization not prevent future wars, but it makes it practically certain that we shall have future wars, and as to such wars it takes from us the power to declare them, to choose the side on which we shall fight, to determine what forces and military equipment we shall use in the war, and to control and command our sons who do the fighting.
-- J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
 
He who wants peace must prepare for war.
-- Claudius
 
Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character.
-- Henry Clay
 
All religions united with government are more or less inimical to liberty. All, separated from government, are compatible with liberty.
-- Henry Clay
 
An oppressed people are authorized, whenever they can, to rise and break their fetters.
-- Henry Clay
 
I would rather be right than President.
-- Henry Clay
 
America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to denigration without the usual interval of civilization.
-- Georges Clemenceau
 
War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men.
-- Georges Clemenceau
 
I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the general government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood.
-- Grover Cleveland
 
I feel obliged to withhold my approval of the plan to indulge in benevolent and charitable sentiment through the appropriation of public funds... I find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution.
-- Grover Cleveland
 
I can find no warrant for such appropriation in the Constitution.
-- Grover Cleveland
 
Honor lies in honest toil.
-- Grover Cleveland
 
The best results in the operation of a government wherein every citizen has a share largely depend upon a proper limitation of the purely partisan zeal and effort and a correct appreciation of the time when the heat of the partisan should be merged in the patriotism of the citizen. ... At this hour the animosities of political strife, the bitterness of partisan defeat, and the exultation of partisan triumph should be supplanted by an ungrudging acquiescence in the popular will and a sober, conscientious concern for the general weal. ... Public extravagance begets extravagance among the people.
-- Grover Cleveland
 
A truly American sentiment recognizes the dignity of labor and the fact that honor lies in honest toil.
-- Grover Cleveland
 
When more of the people's sustenance is exacted through the form of taxation than is necessary to meet the just obligations of government, such exaction becomes ruthless extortion and a violation of the fundamental principles of a free government.
-- Grover Cleveland
 
For the problem of decision-making in our complicated world is not how to get the problem simple enough so that we can all understand it; the problem is how to get our thinking about the problem as complex as humanly possible--and thus approach (we can never match) the complexity of the real world around us.
-- Harlan Cleveland
 
It is wrong always, everywhere and for everyone to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.
-- William Kingdon Clifford
 
All our liberties are due to men who, when their conscience has compelled them, have broken the laws of the land.
-- William Kingdon Clifford
 
There is one thing in the world more wicked than the desire to command, and that is the will to obey.
-- William Kingdon Clifford
 
There is no reason for anyone in this country -- anyone except a police officer or military person -- to buy, to own, to have, to use a handgun. The only way to control handgun use in this country is to prohibit the guns.
-- Bill Clinton (False)
 
The purpose of government is to rein in the rights of the people.
-- Bill Clinton (Questionable)
 
Every time Bush talks about trust it makes chills run up and down my spine. The way he has trampled on the truth is a travesty of the American political system.
-- Bill Clinton
 
When we got organized as a country and we wrote a fairly radical Constitution with a radical Bill of Rights, giving a radical amount of individual freedom to Americans, it was assumed that the Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly.... [However, now] there's a lot of irresponsibility. And so a lot of people say there's too much freedom. When personal freedom's being abused, you have to move to limit it.
-- Bill Clinton
 
If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inhibit the government's ability to govern the people, we should look to limit those guarantees.
-- Bill Clinton
 
There's just no such thing as truth when it comes to him. He just says whatever sounds good and worries about it after the election.
-- Bill Clinton
 
When we got organized as a country and we wrote a fairly radical Constitution with a radical Bill of Rights, giving a radical amount of individual freedom to Americans ... And so a lot of people say there's too much personal freedom. When personal freedom's being abused, you have to move to limit it. That's what we did in the announcement I made last weekend on the public housing projects, about how we're going to have weapon sweeps and more things like that to try to make people safer in their communities.
-- Bill Clinton
 
The road to tyranny, we must never forget, begins with the destruction of the truth.
-- Bill Clinton
 
No one wants to get this (Lewinsky) matter behind us more than I do, except maybe all the rest of the American people,
-- Bill Clinton
 
It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is.
-- Bill Clinton
 
There are a lot of very brilliant people who believe that the nation-state is fast becoming a relic of the past.
-- Bill Clinton
 
We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans...
-- Bill Clinton
 
You can't say you love your country and hate your government.
-- Bill Clinton
 
I've said I've never broken the drug laws of my country, and that is the absolute truth.
-- Bill Clinton
 
A lot of wonderful people love their country and hate the military.
-- Bill Clinton
 
It depends on what the meaning of the word is. If the– if he– if "is" means is and never has been, that is not– that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement.... Now, if someone had asked me on that day, are you having any kind of sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky, that is, asked me a question in the present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely true.
-- Bill Clinton
 
I am here because I want to redefine the meaning of citizenship in America... If you’re asked in school ‘What does it mean to be a good citizen?’ I want the answer to be, ‘Well, to be a good citizen, you have to obey the law, you’ve got to go to work or be in school, you’ve got to pay your taxes and, oh, yes, you have to serve in your community to help make it a better place.’
-- Bill Clinton
 
Q.- "If you had it to do over again, would you inhale?" A.- "Sure, if I could... I tried before!
-- Bill Clinton
 
You know, by the time you become the leader of a country, someone else makes all the decisions. ... You may find you can get away with virtual presidents, virtual prime ministers, virtual everything.
-- Bill Clinton
 
African-Americans watch the same news at night that ordinary Americans do.
-- Bill Clinton
 
The road to tyranny, we must remember, begins with the destruction of the truth.
-- Bill Clinton
 
The Bush administration continues to coddle China, despite its continuing crackdown on democratic reform, its brutal subjugation of Tibet, its irresponsible export of nuclear and missile technology... Such forbearance on our part might have made sense during the Cold War when China was the counterweight to Soviet power. It makes no sense to play the China card now when our opponents have thrown in their hand.
-- Bill Clinton
 
You know the one thing that's wrong with this country? Everyone gets a chance to have their fair say.
-- Bill Clinton
 
The other thing we have to do is to take seriously the role in this problem of...older men who prey on underage women...There are consequences to decisions and...one way or the other, people always wind up being held accountable.
-- Bill Clinton
 
We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans...
-- Bill Clinton
 
Nothing in the First Amendment converts our public schools into religion-free zones or requires all religious expression to be left behind at the schoolhouse door. … Government’s schools also may not discriminate against private religious expression during the school day.
-- Bill Clinton
 
The First Amendment does not require students to leave their religion at the schoolhouse door. … If students can wear T-shirts advertising sports teams, rock groups or politicians, they can also wear T-shirts that promote religion. … Religion is too important to our history and our heritage for us to keep it out of our schools.
-- Bill Clinton
 
Think! It ain't illegal 'yet.'
-- George Clinton
 
I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president.
-- Hillary Clinton
 
Many 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.
-- Hillary Clinton
 
We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society.
-- Hillary Clinton
 
God bless the America we are trying to create.
-- Hillary Clinton
 
We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.
-- Hillary Clinton
 
This is a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.
-- James Clyburn
 
This is revolution in reaction, as well as in radicalism, and Toryism speaking a jargon of law and order may often be a graver menace to liberty than radicalism bellowing the empty phrases of the soapbox demagogue.
-- Frank I. Cobb
 
The Bill of Rights is a born rebel. It reeks with sedition. In every clause it shakes its fist in the face of constituted authority... It is the one guarantee of human freedom to the American people.
-- Frank I. Cobb
 
If the author of the Declaration of Independence were to utter such a sentiment today, the Post Office Department could exclude him from the mail, grand juries could indict him for sedition and criminal syndicalism, legislative committees could seize his private papers ... and United States Senators would be clamoring for his deportation that he... should be sent back to live with the rest of the terrorists.
-- Frank I. Cobb
 
The tendency of taxation is to create a class of persons who do not labor, to take from those who do labor the produce of that labor, and to give it to those who do not labor.
-- William Cobbett
 
A committee can make a decision that is dumber than any of its members.
-- David B. Coblitz
 
The right of a citizen to bear arms, in lawful defense of himself or the State, is absolute. He does not derive it from the State government. It is one of the "high powers" delegated directly to the citizen, and 'is excepted out of the general powers of government.' A law cannot be passed to infringe upon or impair it, because it is above the law, and independent of the lawmaking power.
-- Cockrum v. State
 
The right of a citizen to bear arms, in lawful defense of himself or the State, is absolute. He does not derive it from the State government. It is one of the high powers delegated directly to the citizen, and is excepted out of the general powers of government. A law cannot be passed to infringe upon or impair it, because it is above the law, and independent of the lawmaking power.
-- Cockrum v. State
 
Absolute freedom does not exist; what does exist is the freedom to choose anything you like and then commit yourself to that decision.
-- Paulo Coelho
 
The person who is right is the person who is the strongest, in this case, paradoxically, it's the cowards who are the brave ones, and they manage to impose their ideas on everyone else.
-- Paulo Coelho
 
I join others who throughout history have recognized that an individual in this country has a protected right, within the confines of the criminal law, to guard his or her home or place of business from unlawful intrusions. ... Surely nothing could be more fundamental to the “concept of ordered liberty” than the basic right of an individual, within the confines of the criminal law, to protect his home and family from unlawful and dangerous intrusions.
-- John Louis Coffey
 
It has been said that the greatest threat to our liberty is from well-meaning, and almost imperceptible encroachments upon our personal freedom.
-- John Louis Coffey
 


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