Famous Quotations / Quotes
Famous Quotes about Liberty
 
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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		 
The right to privacy is one of the most cherished rights an American citizen has; the right to privacy sets America apart from totalitarian states in which the interests of the state prevail over individual rights. A fundamental part of our concept of ordered liberty is the right to protect one’s home and family against dangerous intrusions subject to the criminal law.
-- John Louis Coffey		 
Prohibition ended in 1933 because the nation’s most influential people, as well as the general public, acknowledged that it had failed. It had increased lawlessness and drinking and aggravated alcohol abuse.
-- Thomas M. Coffey		 
Tolerance implies a respect for another person, not because he is wrong or even because he is right, but because he is human.
-- John Cogley		 
We must realize that our Party's most powerful weapon is racial tension. By propounding into the consciousness of the dark races, that for centuries have been oppressed by the Whites, we can mold them to the program of the Communist Party ... In America, we will aim for subtle victory. While enflaming the Negro minority against the Whites, we will instill in the Whites, a guilt complex for the exploitation of the Negroes. We will aid the Negroes to rise to prominence in every walk of life, in the professions, and in the world of sports and entertainment. With this prestige, the Negroes will be able to intermarry with the Whites, and begin a process which will deliver America to our cause.
-- Israel Cohen (Questionable)		 
Nothing can so alienate a voter from the political system as backing a winning candidate.
-- Mark B. Cohen		 
The business of the philosopher is well done if he succeeds in raising genuine doubt.
-- Morris R. Cohen		 
Small groups or communities may be far more oppressive to the individual than larger ones. Men are in many ways freer in large cities than in small villages.
-- Morris R. Cohen		 
We are going to impose our agenda on the coverage by dealing with the issues and subjects we choose to deal with.
-- Richard M. Cohen		 
Terrorism is escalating to the point that Americans soon may have to choose between civil liberties and more intrusive means of protection.
-- William S. Cohen		 
We have to yet really seriously debate the constitutional issues and whether or not we're willing to give up more freedom in order to have more security.
-- William S. Cohen		 
The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.
-- Jean Baptiste Colbert		 
I have found some of the best reasons I ever had for remaining at the bottom simply by looking at the men at the top.
-- Frank Moore Colby		 
The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media.
-- William Colby		 
The Latin American drug cartels have stretched their tentacles much deeper into our lives than most people believe. It’s possible they are calling the shots at all levels of government.
-- William Colby		 
But what is Freedom? Rightly understood, A universal licence to be good.
-- Hartley Coleridge		 
Our own heart, and not other men's opinions form our true honor.
-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge		 
I have seen gross intolerance show in support of tolerance.
-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge		 
Every reform, however necessary, will by weak minds be carried to an excess, that itself will need reforming.
-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge		 
A people are free in proportion as they form their own opinions.
-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge		 
If a man is not rising upwards to be an angel, depend upon it, he is sinking downwards to be a devil.
-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge		 
Two hundred ten years ago, the people who drafted our Bill of Rights decided that banning books wasn't the way to handle disagreements. They thought the best thing was more speech. It is a pity that county commissioners in 2002 don't agree.
-- Matt Coles		 
The core issue here is not whether you agree or disagree with the commissioners about gay people. It is whether you think the answer to a disagreement is to yank the words of anyone who disagrees with them out of the library.
-- Matt Coles		 
While the people have property, arms in their hands, and only a spark of noble spirit, the most corrupt Congress must be mad to form any project of tyranny.
-- Rev. Nicholas Collin		 
Perfect freedom is reserved for the man who lives by his own work and in that work does what he wants to do.
-- Robin George Collingwood		 
Perfect Freedom is reserved for the man who lives by his own work, and in that work does what he wants to do.
-- R. G. Collingwood		 
By freethinking I mean the use of the understanding in endeavoring to find out the meaning of any proposition whatsoever, in considering the nature of the evidence for or against, and in judging of it according to the seeming force or weakness of the evidence.
-- Anthony Collins		 
The right of no person to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person and property, or in aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned, shall be called in question; but nothing herein contained shall be construed to justify the practice of carrying concealed weapons.
-- Colorado Constitution		 
A governmental purpose to control or prevent certain activities, which may be constitutionally subject to state or municipal regulation under the police power, may not be achieved by means which sweep unnecessarily broadly and thereby invade the area of protected freedoms. Even though the governmental purpose may be legitimate and substantial, that purpose cannot be pursued by means that broadly stifle fundamental personal liberties when the end can be more narrowly achieved.
-- Colorado Supreme Court		 
The 1st Amendment embraces the individual's right to purchase and read whatever books she wishes to, without fear the government will take steps to discover which books she buys, reads, and intends to read.
-- Colorado Supreme Court		 
[The state] cannot disarm any class of persons or deprive them of the right guaranteed under section 13, article 2 of the Constitution, to bear arms in defense of home, person, and property. The guaranty thus extended is meaningless if any person is denied the right to possess arms for such protection....
-- Colorado Supreme Court		 
To know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who are seeking it.
-- Charles Caleb Colton		 
Precisely in proportion to our own intellectual weakness will be our credulity as to those mysterious powers assumed by others.
-- Charles Caleb Colton		 
He that is good, will infallibly become better, and he that is bad, will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue and time are three things that never stand still.
-- Charles Caleb Colton		 
Liberty will not descend to a people, a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.
-- Charles Caleb Colton		 
The victim to too severe a law is considered as a martyr rather than a criminal.
-- Charles Caleb Colton		 
[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.
-- William Comer		 
America was born of revolt, flourished on dissent, became great through experimentation.
-- Henry Steele Commager		 
Every effort to confine Americanism to a single pattern, to constrain it to a single formula, is disloyalty to everything that is valid in Americanism.
-- Henry Steele Commager		 
Censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion... In the long run it will create a generation incapable of appreciating the difference between independence of thought and subservience.
-- Henry Steele Commager		 
Our tradition is one of protest and revolt, and it is stultifying to celebrate the rebels of the past while we silence the rebels of the present.
-- Henry Steele Commager		 
Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive.
-- Henry Steele Commager		 
A free society cherishes nonconformity. It knows from the non-conformist, from the eccentric, have come many of the great ideas.
-- Henry Steele Commager		 
Freedom is not a luxury that we can indulge in when at last we have security and prosperity and enlightenment; it is, rather, antecedent to all of these, for without it we can have neither security nor prosperity nor enlightenment.
-- Henry Steele Commager		 
The justification and the purpose of freedom of speech is not to indulge those who want to speak their minds. It is to prevent error and discover truth. There may be other ways of detecting error and discovering truth than that of free discussion, but so far we have not found them.
-- Henry Steele Commager		 
Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive.
-- Henry Steele Commager		 
Lawyers are being graduated from our law schools by the thousands who have little knowledge of the Constitution. When  organizations seek a lawyer to instruct them on the Constitution, they find it nearly impossible to secure one competent.
-- Committee on American Citizenship		 
We must create out of the younger generation a generation of Communists. We must turn children, who can be shaped like wax, into real, good Communists.... We must remove the children from the crude influence of their families. We must take them over and, to speak frankly, nationalize them. From the first days of their lives they will be under the healthy influence of Communist children's nurseries and schools. There they will grow up to be real Communists.
-- Communist Party Education Workers Congress		 
Communist Rules for Revolution...
-- Communist Rules for Revolution (Questionable)		 
[When] Men are not allowed to think freely about chemistry and biology, why should they be allowed to think freely about political philosophy?
-- Auguste Comte		 
Social 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.
-- Auguste Comte		 
Diversity of opinion within the framework of loyalty to our free society is not only basic to a university but to the entire nation.
-- James Bryant Conant		 
Eight days after taking over the reins of his country, a beloved leader urged everyone to turn in their arms - “There is no longer an enemy,” he said. A slogan, “Arms—What For?” appeared throughout the nation. Thirty days later he ordered his militia to turn in their arms. Promised elections are cancelled, the loved leader becomes a tyrant and his people lose all rights, including freedom of speech and press, becoming a totalitarian state for the next 35 years. For those Americans currently willing to agree to have some of their rights curtailed for temporary security, I’d urge them to look south -- to Cuba.
-- Yvonne M. Conde		 
Nobody should be compelled to respect an ideology that doesn’t respect them.
-- Pat Condell		 
He who will not economize will have to agonize.
-- Confucius		 
If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.
-- Confucius		 


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