Famous Quotes / Quotations about Liberty

Famous Quotations / Quotes
Famous Quotes about Liberty

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Do not be merciful, but be just, for mercy is bestowed upon the guilty criminal, while Justice is all that the innocent man requires. -- Khalil Gibran

Some who are too scrupulous to steal your possessions nevertheless see no wrong in tampering with your thoughts. -- Khalil Gibran

You can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing? -- Khalil Gibran

If it’s a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed. -- Khalil Gibran

He who does not prefer exile to slavery is not free by any measure of freedom, truth or duty. -- Khalil Gibran

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it. -- Andre Gide

It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not. -- Andre Gide

Great authors are admirable in this respect: in every generation they make for disagreement. Through them we become aware of our differences. -- Andre Gide

Art begins with resistance - at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor. -- Andre Gide

One man can completely change the character of a country, and the industry of its people, by dropping a single seed in fertile soil. -- John C. Gifford

Indeed, the ABA [American Bar Association] is truly a creature of these post-modern times. Its governing members view the political sphere and judicial sphere as one in the same, and worship raw power as the ultimate and only currency in social transactions. The modern ABA thus has embraced an ideology that views the rule of law as a mere extension of politics, and in a self-fulfilling confirmation of that view, conflates law and politics with unashamedly liberal policy prescriptions. -- Ray Gifford

The fundamental fact in the lives of the poor in most parts of America is that the wages of common labor are far below the benefits of AFDC, Medicaid, food stamps, public housing, public defenders, leisure time and all the other goods and services of the welfare state. -- George Gilder

If government could create jobs and raise children, socialism would have worked. -- Gerald Gilder

Liberty is worth whatever the country is worth. It is by liberty that man has a country; it is by liberty he has rights. -- Henry Giles

Liberty is worth whatever the best civilization is worth. -- Henry Giles

Not until right is founded upon reverence will it be secure; not until duty is based upon love will it be complete; not until liberty is based on eternal principles will it be full, equal, lofty, and universal. -- Henry Giles

[It is not the purpose nor right of Congress] to attend to what generosity and humanity require, but to what the Constitution and their duty require. -- William Branch Giles

The First Amendment is important not only to guarantee the rights of alternative religions and of nonreligious persons in society; it is also important in setting the only possible legal and social condition for the creative health of serious religion itself. -- Langdon Gilkey

Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious. -- Brendan Gill

The one predominant duty is to find one's work and do it. -- Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Truth: the most deadly weapon ever discovered by humanity. Capable of destroying entire perceptual sets, cultures, and realities. Outlawed by all governments everywhere. Possession is normally punishable by death. -- John Gilmore

If moral behavior were simply following rules, we could program a computer to be moral. -- Samuel P. Ginder

If I resign any time this year, he [President Obama] could not successfully appoint anyone I would like to see in the court. ... [A]nybody who thinks that if I step down, Obama could appoint someone like me, they’re misguided. -- Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The impact of all these restrictions is on poor women, because women who have means, if their state doesn’t provide access, another state does. ... It makes no sense as a national policy to promote birth only among poor people. -- Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of. -- Ruth Bader Ginsburg

In the name of peace They waged the wars Ain't they got no shame -- Nikki Giovanni

Humanity's most valuable assets have been the non-conformists. Were it not for the non-conformists, he who refuses to be satisfied to go along with the continuance of things as they are, and insists upon attempting to find new ways of bettering things, the world would have known little progress, indeed. -- Josiah William Gitt

What we don't see is that freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do. -- Rudolph W. Giuliani

National injustice is the surest road to national downfall. -- William E. Gladstone

All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward. -- Ellen Glasgow

Live so that your friends can defend you but never have to. -- Arnold H. Glasow

Is there any reason why the American people should be taxed to guarantee the debts of banks, any more than they should be taxed to guarantee the debts of other institutions, including the merchants, the industries, and the mills of the country? -- Senator Carter Glass

Is there any reason why the American people should be taxed to guarantee the debts of banks, any more than they should be taxed to guarantee the debts of other institutions, including merchants, the industries, and the mills of the country? -- Senator Carter Glass

There are only two places in the world where time takes precedence over the job to be done. School and prison. -- William Glasser

Why, if we had to do that we could not pass most of the laws we enact around here... Americans just want us to solve America's problems of health and safety -- and not be concerned if they can be constitutionally justified. -- Sen. John Glenn

I'm proud to pay taxes in the United States; the only thing is, I could be just as proud for half the money. -- Arthur Godfrey

A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone. -- Jo Godwin

The First Amendment was designed to protect offensive speech, because nobody ever tries to ban the other kind. -- Mike Godwin

Make men wise, and by that very operation you make them free. Civil liberty follows as a consequence of this; no usurped power can stand against the artillery of opinion. -- William Godwin

Whenever government assumes to deliver us from the trouble of thinking for ourselves, the only consequences it produces are those of torpor and imbecility. -- William Godwin

Government will not fail to employ education to strengthen its hands and perpetuate its institutions. -- William Godwin

Bred in the lap of Republican Freedom. -- William Godwin

To dragoon man into the adoption of what we think right, is an intolerable tyranny. -- William Godwin

Let us consider the effect that coercion produces upon the mind of him against whom it is employed. It cannot begin with convincing; it is no argument. It begins with producing the sensation of pain, and the sentiment of distaste. It begins with violently alienating the mind from the truth with which we wish it to be impressed. It includes in it a tacit confession of imbecility. If he who employs coercion against me could mould me to his purposes by argument, no doubt he would. He pretends to punish me because his argument is important, but he really punishes me because his argument is weak. -- William Godwin

To be a socialist is to submit the I to the thou; socialism is sacrificing the individual to the whole. -- Joseph Paul Goebbels

The war made possible for us the solution of a whole series of problems that could never have been solved in normal times. -- Joseph Paul Goebbels

National Socialism is a religion. All we lack is a religious genius capable of uprooting outmoded religious practices and putting new ones in their place. We lack traditions and ritual. One day soon National Socialism will be the religion of all Germans. My Party is my church, and I believe I serve the Lord best if I do his will, and liberate my oppressed people from the fetters of slavery. That is my gospel. -- Joseph Paul Goebbels

Not every item of news should be published. Rather must those who control news policies endeavor to make every item of news serve a certain purpose. -- Joseph Paul Goebbels

As socialists, we are opponents of the Jews, because we see, in the Hebrews, the incarnation of capitalism, of the misuse of the nation’s goods. -- Joseph Paul Goebbels

To be a socialist is to submit the I to the thou; socialism is sacrificing the individual to the whole. -- Joseph Paul Goebbels

During a war, news should be given out for instruction rather than information. -- Joseph Paul Goebbels

It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion. -- Joseph Paul Goebbels

We are not a charitable institution but a Party of revolutionary socialists. -- Joseph Paul Goebbels

We are a workers’ party because we see in the coming battle between finance and labor the beginning and the end of the structure of the twentieth century. We are on the side of labor and against finance ... The value of labor under socialism will be determined by its value to the state, to the whole community. Labor means creating value, not haggling over things. -- Joseph Paul Goebbels

The money pigs of capitalist democracy… Money has made slaves of us… Money is the curse of mankind. It smothers the seed of everything great and good. Every penny is sticky with sweat and blood. -- Joseph Paul Goebbels

Lenin is the greatest man, second only to Hitler, and that the difference between Communism and the Hitler faith is very slight. -- Joseph Paul Goebbels

What does anti-Semitism have to do with socialism? I would put the question this way: What does the Jew have to do with socialism? Socialism has to do with labor. When did one ever see him working instead of plundering, stealing and living from the sweat of others? As socialists we are opponents of the Jews because we see in the Hebrews the incarnation of capitalism. -- Joseph Paul Goebbels

I joined the party because I was a revolutionary, not because of any ideological nonsense. -- Hermann Goering

I am what I have always been: the last Renaissance man, if I may be allowed to say so. -- Hermann Goering

Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. -- Hermann Goering

Guns will make us powerful; butter will only make us fat. -- Hermann Goering

We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Tolerance comes of age. I see no fault committed that I myself could not have committed at some time or other. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Talent develops in tranquillity, character in the full current of human life. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The moment men obtain perfect freedom, that moment they erect a stage for the manifestation of their faults. The strong characters begin to go wrong by excess of energy; the weak by remissness of action. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Yes! to this thought I hold with firm persistence;\\ The last result of wisdom stamps it true;\\ He only earns his freedom and existence\\ Who daily conquers them anew. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Lose this day loitering 'Twill be the same old story, Tomorrow and the next, Even more dilatory. Whatever you would do, Or dream of doing, begin it! Boldness has power, genius, and magic in it. Begin it now. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I always had an aversion to your apostles of freedom; each but sought for himself freedom to do what he liked. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Merely to breathe freely does not mean to live. [Ger., Frei athmen macht das Leben nicht allein.] -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The best of all government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Legislators and revolutionaries who promise equality and liberty at the same time are either psychopaths or mountebanks. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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