Famous Quotations / Quotes
Famous Quotes about Liberty
 
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Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.
-- Aesop		 
The shaft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagle's own plumes. We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction.
-- Aesop		 
Better to starve free than be a fat slave.
-- Aesop		 
The smaller the mind the greater the conceit.
-- Aesop		 
The gods help them that help themselves.
-- Aesop		 
Any excuse will serve a tyrant.
-- Aesop		 
Familiarity breeds contempt.
-- Aesop		 

-- Aesop		 
Be content with your lot; one cannot be first in everything.
-- Aesop		 
Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties.
-- Aesop		 
Do not count your chickens before they are hatched.
-- Aesop		 
Self-conceit may lead to self-destruction.
-- Aesop		 
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
-- Aesop		 
While I see many hoof marks going in, I see none coming out. It is easier to get into the enemy's toils than out again.
-- Aesop		 
Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own.
-- Aesop		 
Union gives strength.
-- Aesop		 
I will have nought to do with a man who can blow hot and cold with the same breath.
-- Aesop		 
Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth.
-- Aesop		 
Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.
-- Aesop		 
Vices are their own punishment.
-- Aesop		 
A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety.
-- Aesop		 
Appearances often are deceiving.
-- Aesop		 
Slow and steady wins the race.
-- Aesop		 
We would often be sorry if our wishes were gratified.
-- Aesop		 
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
-- Aesop		 
People often grudge others what they cannot enjoy themselves.
-- Aesop		 
Thinking to get at once all the gold the goose could give, he killed it and opened it only to find - nothing.
-- Aesop		 
In fact, nothing is said that has not been said before.
-- Publius Terentius Afer		 
I bid him look into the lives of men as though into a mirror, and from others to take an example for himself.
-- Publius Terentius Afer		 
Charity begins at home.
-- Publius Terentius Afer		 
Moderation in all things.
-- Publius Terentius Afer		 
Fortune helps the brave.
-- Publius Terentius Afer		 
I have everything, yet have nothing; and although I possess nothing, still of nothing am I in want.
-- Publius Terentius Afer		 
Don't look where you fall, but where you slipped.
-- African Proverb		 
Only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet.
-- African Proverb		 
The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.
-- Herbert Sebastien Agar		 
The American people should be made aware of the trend toward monopolization of the great public information vehicles and the concentration of more and more power over public opinion in fewer and fewer hands.
-- Spiro Agnew		 
If you've seen one city slum, you've seen them all.
-- Spiro Agnew		 
Every time I criticize what I consider to be excesses or faults in the news business, I am accused of repression, and the leaders of various media professional groups wave the First Amendment as they denounce me. That happens to be my amendment, too. It guarantees my free speech as it does their freedom of the press… There is room for all of us – and for our divergent views – under the First Amendment.
-- Spiro Agnew		 
[A] deep-rooted culture of incompetence and corruption has made it virtually impossible for government to function fairly and efficiently. And because most government employees are shielded by layers of protection, they couldn't care less. Never before in the history of this nation has there been a greater divide between a self-serving federal leviathan and millions of Americans... 'Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem,' Ronald Reagan reminded us during his inaugural address in 1981. Nothing's changed since then, with one exception: It's gotten far worse.
-- Arnold Ahlert		 
From a “pragmatic” point of view, political philosophy is a monster, and whenever it has been taken seriously, the consequence, almost invariably, has been revolution, war, and eventually, the police state.
-- Henry David Aiken		 
The news is like a ship. If you take hands off the wheel, it pulls hard to the left.
-- Roger Ailes		 
That the sole object and only legitimate end of government is to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, and when the government assumes other functions it is usurpation and oppression.
-- Alabama, Declaration of Rights Article I Section 35		 
Flowers don't open to the clock but to the sunshine spontaneous;for modern humans that manner of instinct is now extraneous.
-- Astrid Alauda		 
People have become as processed as food.
-- Astrid Alauda		 
The possession of unlimited power will make a despot of almost any man. There is a possible Nero in the gentlest human creature that walks.
-- Thomas Bailey Aldrich		 
We now have so many regulations that everyone is guilty of some violation.
-- Donald Alexander		 
Chief among the spoils of victory is the privilege of writing the history.
-- Mark Alexander		 
It is precisely this clinging to victimhood as a means of demonstrating one’s virtue and advancing one’s well-being that has led us into a society in which welfare and quotas are “civil rights,” government handouts are “entitlements,” and payment to girls having babies out of wedlock are “compassionate,” while hard-working, ambitious people are “greedy,” punishment of crime is “oppression,” and an independent thinker who stands for courage and self-reliance is dismissed as an “Uncle Tom.”
-- J. Tucker Alford		 
It is precisely this clinging to victimhood as a means of demonstrating one’s virtue and advancing one’s well-being that has led us into a society in which welfare and quotas are “civil rights,” government handouts are “entitlements,” and payment to girls having babies out of wedlock are “compassionate,” while hard-working, ambitious people are “greedy,” punishment of crime is “oppression,” and an independent thinker who stands for courage and self-reliance is dismissed as an “Uncle Tom.”
-- J. Tucker Alford		 
The man who has no imagination has no wings.
-- Mohammed Ali		 
The man who views the world at 50 the same way he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.
-- Mohammed Ali		 
Mankind is at its best when it is most free. This will be clear if we grasp the principle of liberty. We must recall that the basic principle is freedom of choice, which saying many have on their lips, but few in their mind.
-- Dante Alighieri		 
For what is liberty but the unhampered translation of will into act?
-- Dante Alighieri		 
Mankind is at its best when it is most free. This will be clear if we grasp the principle of liberty. We must recall that the basic principle is freedom of choice, which saying many have on their lips but few in their minds.
-- Dante Alighieri		 
How to create a socialist state by Saul Alinsky:\\ There are 8 levels of control that must be obtained before you are able to create a socialist state. The first is the most important.\\\\ 1) Healthcare — Control healthcare and you control the people.\\ 2) Poverty — Increase the Poverty level as high as possible, poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live.\\ 3) Debt — Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty.\\ 4) Gun Control — Remove the ability to defend themselves from the Government. That way you are able to create a police state.\\ 5) Welfare — Take control of every aspect of their lives (Food, Housing, and Income).\\ 6) Education — Take control of what people read and listen to — take control of what children learn in school.\\ 7) Religion — Remove the belief in the God from the Government and schools.\\ 8) Class Warfare — Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to take (Tax) the wealthy with the support of the poor.\\
-- Saul Alinksy		 
A free and open society is an ongoing conflict, interrupted periodically by compromises.
-- Saul Alinsky		 
Do whatever you can to capture, or recapture, your life spark - unless it harms others, in which case suffer with as much happiness as you can muster.  Your nobility of spirit will spark itself.
-- Corri Alius		 
There is not anything, which has contributed so much to delude mankind in religious matters, as mistaken apprehensions concerning supernatural inspiration or revelation; not considering that all true religion originates from reason, and cannot otherwise be understood, but by the exercise and improvement of it.
-- Ethan Allen		 
Liberty cannot be caged into a charter or handed on ready-made to the next generation. Each generation must recreate liberty for its own times. Whether or not we establish freedom rests with ourselves.
-- Florence Ellinwood Allen		 
We believe the picture painters of the mass media are artfully creating landscapes for us which deliberately hide the real picture. In this book we will show you how to discover the "hidden picture" in the landscapes presented to us daily through newspapers, radio and television.
-- Gary Allen		 
After the insiders have established the United Socialist States of America (in fact if not in name), the next step is the Great Merger of all nations of the world into a dictatorial world government. … The Insiders’ code word for the world superstate is “new world order,” a phrase often used by Richard Nixon. The Council on Foreign Relations states in its Study No. 7: “The U.S. must strive to: A. BUILD A NEW INTERNATIONAL ORDER.” … A world government has always been the object of the Communists.
-- Gary Allen		 
By the time the (16th) Amendment had been approved by the states, the Rockefeller Foundation was in full operation...about the same time that Judge Kenesaw Landis was ordering the breakup of the Standard Oil monopoly...John D...not only avoided taxes by creating four great tax-exempt foundations; he used them as repositories for his 'divested' interests...made his assets non-taxable so that they might be passed down through generations without...estate and gift taxes...Each year the Rockefellers can dump up to half their incomes into their pet foundations and deduct the "donations" from their income tax.
-- Gary Allen		 
If one understands that Socialism is not a “share the wealth” program but is in reality a method to consolidate and control the wealth, then the seeming paradox of super rich men promoting Socialism becomes no paradox at all. Instead it becomes logical, even the perfect tool of power-seeking megalomaniacs. Communism, or more accurately Socialism, is not a movement of the down-trodden masses but of the economic elite.
-- Gary Allen		 
Reporters today are far removed from America's founding values and are alarmed and contemptuous of gun owners as dangerous lower classes.
-- Henry Allen		 
Circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him.
-- James Allen		 
Our life is what our thoughts make it. A man will find that as he alters his thoughts toward things and other people, things and others will alter towards him.
-- James Allen		 
The burning of an author’s books, imprisonment for opinion’s sake, has always been the tribute that an ignorant age pays to the genius of its time.
-- Joseph Allen		 
Congress is continually appointing fact-finding committees, when what we really need are some fact-facing committees.
-- Roger Allen		 
If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss Bank.
-- Woody Allen		 
I call the mind free which jealously guards its intellectual rights and powers, which calls no man master [and] receives new truth as an angel from Heaven.
-- Woody Allen		 
We stand today at a crossroads: One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other leads to total extinction. Let us hope we have the wisdom to make the right choice.
-- Woody Allen		 
The lion and the calf shall lie down together, but the calf won't get much sleep.
-- Woody Allen		 
The artist, viewing his fellows through his personal vision, has through the ages attempted to portray what he sees and to present his understanding of it. Censorship in his case has perpetrated heavy and sometimes reprehensible blunders.
-- Hollis Alpert		 
History is replete with examples of empires mounting impressive military campaigns on the cusp of their impending economic collapse.
-- Eric Alterman		 
Freedom of thought and freedom of speech in our great institutions are absolutely necessary for the preservation of our country. The moment either is restricted, liberty begins to wither and die...
-- John Peter Altgeld		 
I’ve always felt that a person’s intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.
-- Lisa Alther		 
The ultimate right to keep and bear arms belongs to “the people,” not the “states.” As the language of the Tenth Amendment shows, these two are of course not identical and when the Constitution means “states” it says so. Thus, ... “the people” at the core of the Second Amendment are the same “people” at the heart of the Preamble and the First Amendment, namely Citizens.... Nowadays, it is quite common to speak loosely of the National Guard as “the state militia,” but ... the “militia” is identical to “the people” in the core sense described above.
-- Akhil Reed Amar		 
It is the duty of the officials to prevent or suppress the threatened disorder with a firm hand instead of timidly yielding to threats…. Surely a speaker ought not to be suppressed because his opponents propose to use violence. It is they who should suffer from their lawlessness, not he.
-- American Bar Association		 
I shall not counsel or maintain any suit or proceeding which shall appear to me to be unjust, nor any defense except such as I believe to be honestly debatable under the law of the land.
-- American Bar Association		 
Liberty is always unfinished business.
-- American Civil Liberties Union		 
There are many Americans who fear for their lives. They know that at some point, they will have to protect themselves, their own families, and their own property. Should these people be disarmed? No, we don’t need to disarm our loyal citizens, our friends, and our neighbors.
-- American Federation of Police		 
The International government of the United Nations, stripped of its legal trimming, then, is really the International Government of the United States and the Soviet Union acting in unison.
-- American Jewish Committee’s Magazine		 
Daniel Webster, James Otis, and Sir Edward Coke all pointed out that the mere fact of enactment does not and cannot raise mere statutes to the standing of law. Not everything can be considered the Law of the Land.
-- American Jurisprudence (Second)		 
No one is bound to obey an unconstitutional law, and no courts are bound to enforce it.
-- American Jurisprudence, 2nd Edition		 
We believe that free communication is essential to the preservation of a free society and a creative culture.
-- American Library Association		 
Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access of all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored.
-- American Library Association		 
The freedom to read is essential to our democracy. It is continuously under attack… These actions apparently arise from a view that our national tradition of free expression is no longer valid; that censorship and suppression are needed to avoid the subversion of politics and the corruption of morals.
-- American Library Association		 
Why is Intellectual Freedom Important? Intellectual freedom is the basis of our democratic system. We expect our people to be self-governors. But to do so responsibly, our citizenry must be well informed. Libraries provide the ideas and information, in a variety of formats, to allow people to inform themselves.
-- American Library Association		 
We trust Americans to recognize propaganda and misinformation, and to make their own decisions about what they read and believe.
-- American Library Association		 
The invisible Money Power is working to control and enslave mankind. It financed Communism, Fascism, Marxism, Zionism and Socialism. All of these are directed to making the United States a member of World Government.
-- American Mercury Magazine		 
Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.
-- Oscar Ameringer		 
We are, heart and soul, friends to the freedom of the press. It is however, the prostituted companion of liberty, and somehow or other, we know not how, its efficient auxiliary. It follows the substance like its shade; but while a man walks erect, he may observe that his shadow is almost always in the dirt. It corrupts, it deceives, it inflames. It strips virtue of her honors, and lends to faction its wildfire and its poisoned arms, and in the end is its own enemy and the usurper's ally, It would be easy to enlarge on its evils. They are in England, they are here, they are everywhere. It is a precious pest, and a necessary mischief, and there would be no liberty without it.
-- Fisher Ames		 
Liberty has never lasted long in a democracy, nor has it ever ended in anything better than despotism.
-- Fisher Ames		 
Mr. Madison has introduced his long expected amendments... The rights of conscience, of bearing arms, of changing the government, are declared to be inherent in the people.
-- Fisher Ames		 
I am commonly opposed to those who modestly assume the rank of champions of liberty, and make a very patriotic noise about the people. It is the stale artifice which has duped the world a thousand times, and yet, though detected, it is still successful. I love liberty as well as anybody. I am proud of it, as the true title of our people to distinction above others; but ... I would guard it by making the laws strong enough to protect it.
-- Fisher Ames		 
The happiness of a people, and the good order and preservation of civil government, essentially depend on piety, religion, and morality.
-- Fisher Ames		 
We are not to consider ourselves, while here, as at church or school, to listen to the harangues of speculative piety; we are here to talk of the political interests committed to our charge.
-- Fisher Ames		 
[O]ur sages in the great [constitutional] convention... intended our government should be a republic which differs more widely from a democracy than a democracy from a despotism. The rigours of a despotism often... oppress only a few, but it is the very essence and nature of a democracy, for a faction claiming to oppress a minority, and that minority the chief owners of the property and truest lovers of their country.
-- Fisher Ames		 
Liberty is not to be enjoyed, indeed it cannot exist, without the habits of just subordination; it consists, not so much in removing all restraint from the orderly, as in imposing it on the violent.
-- Fisher Ames		 


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