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Famous Quotes about Liberty
 
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Laws are maintained in credit, not because they are essentially just, but because they are laws. It is the mystical foundation of their authority; they have none other.
-- Michel de Montaigne		 
Those who give the first shock to a state are the first overwhelmed in its ruin; the fruits of public commotion are seldom enjoyed by him who was the first mover; he only beats the water for another's net.
-- Michel De Montaigne		 
I am further of opinion that it would be better for us to have [no laws] at all than to have them in so prodigious numbers as we have.
-- Michel de Montaigne		 
A man must keep a little back shop where he can be himself without reserve. In solitude alone can he know true freedom.
-- Michel De Montaigne		 
If falsehood, like truth, had but one face, we would be more on equal terms. For we would consider the contrary of what the liar said to be certain. But the opposite of truth has a hundred thousand faces and an infinite field.
-- Michel De Montaigne		 
Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.
-- Michel de Montaigne		 
I quote others only the better to express myself.
-- Michel De Montaigne		 
There is no man so good that if he placed all his actions and thought under the scrutiny of the laws, he would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.
-- Michel de Montaigne		 
I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.
-- Michel de Montaigne		 
If falsehood like truth had only one face, we would be in better shape. For we would take as certain the opposite of what the liar said. But the reverse of truth has a hundred thousand shapes and a limitless field.
-- Michel de Montaigne		 
Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul.
-- Michel De Montaigne		 
I see men ordinarily more eager to discover a reason for things than to find out whether things are so.
-- Michel De Montaigne		 
He who is not sure of his memory, should not undertake the trade of lying.
-- Michel de Montaigne		 
It is unreasonable ... to oblige a man not to attempt the defense of his own life.
-- Charles de Montesquieu		 
The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.
-- Charles de Montesquieu		 
Republics end through luxury; monarchies through poverty. [Fr., Les republiques finissent par le luxe; les monarchies, par la pauvrete.]
-- Charles de Montesquieu		 
In the state of nature...all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the law.
-- Charles de Montesquieu		 
There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.
-- Charles de Montesquieu		 
Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free.
-- Charles de Montesquieu		 
Few persons enjoy real liberty; we are all slaves to ideas or habits.
-- Louis Charles Alfred de Musset		 
The most extravagant idea that can be born in the head of a political thinker is to believe that it suffices for people to enter, weapons in hand, among a foreign people and expect to have its laws and constitution embraced. No one loves armed missionaries; the first lesson of nature and prudence is to repulse them as enemies.
-- Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre		 
The secret of liberty is to enlighten men, as that of tyranny is to keep them in ignorance.
-- Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre		 
The evil of democracy is not the triumph of quantity, but the triumph of bad quality.
-- Guido De Ruggiero		 
I know of but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind.
-- Antoine De Saint-Exupery		 
People haven't time to learn anything. They buy things ready-made in stores. But since there are no stores where you can buy friends, people no longer have friends.
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry		 
True, it is evil that a single man should crush the herd, but see not there the worse form of slavery, which is when the herd crushes out the man.
-- Antoine De Saint-Exupery		 
There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.
-- Charles-Louis De Secondat		 
But constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go.
-- Charles-Louis de Secondat		 
Useless laws weaken necessary laws.
-- Charles-Louis de Secondat		 
In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything; in the latter, because they are nothing.
-- Charles-Louis de Secondat		 
What orators lack in depth they make up for in length.
-- Charles-Louis de Secondat		 
The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.
-- Charles-Louis De Secondat		 
We ought to be very cautious in the prosecution of magic and heresy. The attempt to put down these two crimes may be extremely perilous to liberty, and may be the origin of a number of petty acts of tyranny if the legislator be not on his guard; for as such an accusation does not bear directly on the overt acts of a citizen, but refers to the idea we entertain of his character.
-- Charles-Louis De Secondat		 
There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.
-- Charles-Louis de Secondat		 
Moral indignation is in most cases 2% moral, 48% indignation and 50% envy.
-- Vittorio de Sica		 
It is within the police power of the state to prohibit public use of fighting words that create a danger of breach of the peace, but simply to prohibit public use of fighting words is too broad. Those words may sometimes be used in situations where there is no danger.
-- Ithiel De Sola Pool		 
It [government] covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting: such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to be nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
I know of no other country where love of money has such a grip on men's hearts or where stronger scorn is expressed for the theory of permanent equality of property.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
A man's admiration for absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
Where are we then? The religionists are the enemies of liberty, and the friends of liberty attack religion; the high-minded and the noble advocate subjection, and the meanest and most servile minds preach independence; honest and enlightened citizens are opposed to all progress, whilst men without patriotism and without principles are the apostles of civilization and intelligence. Has such been the fate of the centuries which have preceded our own? and has man always inhabited a world like the present, where nothing is linked together, where virtue is without genius, and genius without honor; where the love of order is confounded with a taste for oppression, and the holy rites of freedom with a taste for law; where the light thrown by conscience on human actions is dim, and where nothing seems to be any longer forbidden or allowed, honorable or shameful, false or true?
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
Quand donc je refuse d'obéir à une loi injuste, je ne dénie point à la majorité le droit de commander; j'en appelle seulement de la souveraineté du peuple à la souveraineté du genre humain. Il y a des gens qui n'ont pas craint de dire qu'un peuple, dans les objets qui n'intéressaient que lui-même, ne pouvait sortir entièrement des limites de la justice et de la raison, et qu'ainsi on ne devait pas craindre de donner tout pouvoir à la majorité qui le représente. Mais c'est là un langage d'esclave.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of the states; and these, in uniting together, have not forfeited their nationality, nor have they been reduced to the condition of one and the same people. If one of the states chooses to withdraw from the compact, it would be difficult to disapprove its right of doing so, and the Federal Government would have no means of maintaining its claims directly either by force or right.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
When, after having examined in detail the organization of the Supreme Court, one comes to consider in sum the prerogatives that have been given it, one discovers without difficulty that a more immense judicial power has never been constituted in any people.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
If there ever are great revolutions there, they will be caused by the presence of the blacks upon American soil. That is to say, it will not be the equality of social conditions but rather their inequality which may give rise thereto.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
[Tyrannical] power is absolute, minute, regular, provident and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living?
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
In towns it is impossible to prevent men from assembling, getting excited together and forming sudden passionate resolves. Towns are like great meeting houses with all the inhabitants as members. In them the people wield immense influence over their magistrates and often carry their desires into execution without intermediaries.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
... liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
By the side of these religious men I discern others whose looks are turned to the earth more than to Heaven; they are the partisans of liberty, not only as the source of the noblest virtues, but more especially as the root of all solid advantages; and they sincerely desire to extend its sway, and to impart its blessings to mankind. It is natural that they should hasten to invoke the assistance of religion, for they must know that liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith; but they have seen religion in the ranks of their adversaries, and they inquire no further; some of them attack it openly, and the remainder are afraid to defend it.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
In order to enjoy the inestimable benefits that the liberty of the press ensures, it is necessary to submit to the inevitable evils it creates…
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
I am far from denying that newspapers in democratic countries lead citizens to do very ill-considered things in common; but without newspapers there would be hardly any common action at all. So they mend many more ills than they cause.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
America is great because America is good. If America ever ceases to be good it will cease to be great.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville (False)		 
They certainly are not great writers, but they speak their country's language and they make themselves heard.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
Americans of all ages, all stations of life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations...In democratic countries knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends that of all the others.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
Americans are so enamored of equality, they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
If it be admitted that a man, possessing absolute power, may misuse that power by wronging his adversaries, why should a majority not be liable to the same reproach? Men are not apt to change their character by agglomeration; nor does their patience in the presence of obstacles increase with the consciousness of their strength. And for these reasons I can never willingly invest any number of my fellow creatures with that unlimited authority which I should refuse to any one of them.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
In America, more than anywhere else in the world, care has been taken constantly to trace clearly distinct spheres of action for the two sexes, and both are required to keep in step, but along paths that are never the same.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
[T]he main evil of the present democratic institutions of the united states does not raise, as is often asserted in Europe, from their weakness, but from their irresistible strength. I am not so much alarmed at the excessive liberty which reigns in that country as at the inadequate securities which one finds there against tyranny.
-- Alexis De Tocqueville		 
[Some people] have a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom. I believe that it is easier to establish an absolute and despotic government amongst a people in which the conditions of society are equal, than amongst any other; and I think that, if such a government were once established amongst such a people, it would not only oppress men, but would eventually strip each of them of several of the highest qualities of humanity. Despotism, therefore, appears to me peculiarly to be dreaded in democratic times.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
The electors see their representative not only as a legislator for the state but also as the natural protector of local interests in the legislature; indeed, they almost seem to think that he has a power of attorney to represent each constituent, and they trust him to be as eager in their private interests as in those of the country.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
There is hardly a congressman prepared to go home until he has at least one speech printed and sent to his constituents, and he won't let anybody interrupt his harangue until he has made all his useful suggestions about the 24 states of the Union, and especially the district he represents.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
The man who seeks freedom for anything but freedom's self is made to be a slave.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
...above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications, and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent, if, like that authority, its object was to prepare them for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood...
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville		 
In the end, the state of the Union comes down to the character of the people. ... I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors, her ample rivers, and it was not there. I sought for it in the fertile fields, and boundless prairies, and it was not there. I sought it in her rich mines, and vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville (Questionable)		 


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