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Famous Quotes about Liberty
 
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For man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but, when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all; since armed injustice is the more dangerous, and he is equipped at birth with the arms of intelligence and with moral qualities which he may use for the worst ends.
-- Aristotle		 
Men regard it as their right to return evil for evil -- and if they cannot, feel they have lost their liberty.
-- Aristotle		 
To the size of the state there is a limit, as there is to plants, animals and implements, for none of these retain their facility when they are too large.
-- Aristotle		 
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit
-- Aristotle (False)		 
Both Oligarch and Tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of arms.
-- Aristotle		 
Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.
-- Aristotle		 
What is common to many is least taken care of, for all men have greater regard for what is their own than what they possess in common with others.
-- Aristotle		 
The end of labor is to gain leisure.
-- Aristotle		 
The basis of a democratic state is liberty.
-- Aristotle		 
Man is by nature a political animal.
-- Aristotle		 
The trade of the petty usurer is hated with most reason: it makes a profit from currency itself, instead of making it from the process which currency was meant to serve. Their common characteristic is obviously their sordid avarice.
-- Aristotle		 
It makes no difference whether a good man has defrauded a bad man, or a bad man defrauded a good man, or whether a good or bad man has committed adultery: the law can look only to the amount of damage done.
-- Aristotle		 
A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious.
-- Aristotle		 
The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.
-- Aristotle		 
It is the mark of an educated man to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
-- Aristotle		 
Dignity does not come in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
-- Aristotle		 
What then, is he protected in the right to keep and thus use? Not every thing that may be useful for offense or defense, but what may properly be included or understood under the title of “arms,” taken in connection with the fact that the citizen is to keep them, as a citizen. Such, then as are found to make up the usual arms of the citizen of the country, and the use of which will properly train and render him efficient in defense of his own liberties, as well as of the State. Under this head, with a knowledge of the habits of our people, and of the arms in the use of which a soldier should be trained, we hold that the rifle, of all descriptions, the shot gun, the musket and repeater, are such arms, and that, under the Constitution, the right to keep such arms cannot be infringed or forbidden by the legislature.
-- Arkansas Supreme Court		 
The people themselves, not their government, should be trusted with spending their own money and making their own decisions.
-- Richard Armey		 
Three groups spend other people's money: children, thieves, politicians. All three need supervision.
-- Richard Armey		 
[T]he tax code has been piling up, year after year, a symbol of everything gone wrong in America, of arrogant rulers and lost freedom, just waiting for us to pick the whole thing up and heave it away. It has to happen. Free people can put up with such laws only for so long.
-- Richard Armey		 
Government is saying to the average citizen every January 1: 'For the next five months you’ll be working for us, for goals we shall determine. Is that clear? After May 5 you may look after your own needs and ambitions, but report back to us next January. Now move along.' ... If nearly half of what you make is spent by someone else, that means that half your work time is spent working for someone else. Call me a radical, but I think that comes dangerously close to being a form of indentured servitude.
-- Richard Armey		 
...[W]e insist on the principle that no danger or crisis, foreign or domestic, will be solved by Americans surrendering more of their constitutional liberties, in the foolish hope that a bigger government will provide greater security.
-- Larry P. Arnn		 
Hillsdale [College] forgoes government money in order to spare our students, faculty and administrators the bureaucratic interference that is the price of accepting federal financial support.
-- Larry P. Arnn		 
The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next.
-- Matthew Arnold		 
Believe me, it is not failing to speak out with promptitude and energy that is the matter with you; it is having nothing consistent or valuable to say.
-- Matthew Arnold		 
But each day brings its petty dust Our soon-chok'd souls to fill, And we forget because we must, And not because we will.
-- Matthew Arnold		 
It is a part of the function of “law” to give recognition to ideas representing the exact opposite of established conduct. Most of the complications arise from the necessity of pretending to do one thing, while actually doing another.
-- Thurman Arnold		 
The spectacle of a judge pouring over the picture of some nude, trying to ascertain the extent to which she arouses prurient interests, and then attempting to write an opinion which explains the difference between that nude and some other nude has elements of low comedy.
-- Thurman Arnold		 
[The US has] developed two coordinate governing classes: the one, called ‘business,' building cities, manufacturing and distributing goods, and holding complete and autocratic power over the livelihood of millions; the other, called ‘government,' concerned with preaching and exemplification of spiritual ideals, so caught in a mass of theory, that when it wished to move in a practical world it had to do so by means of a sub rosa political machine.
-- Thurman Arnold		 
If honor be your clothing, the suit will last a lifetime; but if clothing be your honor, it will soon be worn threadbare.
-- William D. Arnot		 
Why is it that millions of children who are pushouts or dropouts amount to business as usual in the public schools, while one family educating a child at home becomes a major threat to universal public education and the survival of democracy?
-- Stephen Arons		 
To those who scare peace loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: your tactics aid terrorists for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America’s enemies and pause to America’s friends.
-- John Ashcroft		 
True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others, at whatever cost.
-- Arthur Ashe		 
Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition.
-- Isaac Asimov		 
If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.
-- Isaac Asimov		 
Politically popular speech has always been protected: even the Jews were free to say ‘Heil Hitler.’
-- Isaac Asimov		 
Politically popular speech has always been protected: even the Jews were free to say ‘Heil Hitler.’
-- Isaac Asimov		 
Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what's right.
-- Isaac Asimov		 
If living conditions don't stop improving in this country, we're going to run out of humble beginnings for our great men.
-- Russell P. Askue		 
What a pity, when Christopher Columbus discovered America, that he ever mentioned it.
-- Margot Asquith		 
'Parent choice' proceeds from the belief that the purpose of education is to provide individual students with an education. In fact, educating the individual is but a means to the true end of education, which is to create a viable social order to which individuals contribute and by which they are sustained. 'Family choice' is, therefore, basically selfish and anti-social in that it focuses on the 'wants' of a single family rather than the 'needs' of society.
-- Association of California School Administrators		 
The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching.
-- Assyrian Tablet		 
Truth always originates in a minority of one, and every custom begins as a broken precedent.
-- Nancy Astor		 
1. Our military is supposed to be a means to an end: national security.  Due to its immense size and colossal budget, has our military not become an end as well as a means? 2. In World War II, Americans could explain “Why We Fight” in part because the government provided a clear and compelling rationale for war.  Why are the goals of today’s wars so opaque to most Americans? 3. If our military provides us with our way of “nation building” abroad, won’t countries and peoples be more likely to copy our military ways and weaponry than our democratic teachings?  4. America is facing painful budgetary belt tightening.  Why is the military immune? 5. Why does “support our troops” seemingly end when they leave the service, leading us to tolerate such inequities as an unemployment rate of 21% for young veterans?
-- William J. Astore		 
When it comes to our nation's military affairs, ignorance is not bliss.  What's remarkable then, given the permanent state of war in which we find ourselves, is how many Americans seem content not to know.
-- William J. Astore		 
It's true that the world is a dangerous place. The problem is that the Pentagon is part of that danger. Our military has grown so strong and so dominates our government, including its foreign policy and even aspects of our culture, that there's no effective counterweight to its closeted, conflict-centered style of thinking.
-- William J. Astore		 
If some people had wings and others didn't, and the government wanted to enforce "fairness," soon no one would have wings. Because wings cannot be redistributed, they can only be broken. Likewise, a government edict cannot make people smarter or more capable, but it can impede the growth of those with the potential. Wouldn't it be fair if, in the name of equality, we scar the beautiful, cripple the athletes, lobotomize the scientists, blind the artists, and sever the hands of the musicians? Why not?
-- Oleg Atbashian		 
Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking.
-- Clement Atlee		 
The use of “religion” as an excuse to repress the freedom of expression and to deny human rights is not confined to any country or time.
-- Margaret Atwood		 
Political history is far too criminal and pathological to be a fit subject of study for the young. Children should acquire their heroes and villains from fiction.
-- W. H. Auden		 
Liberty is from God; liberties, from the devil.
-- Berthold Auerbach		 
Near our vineyard there was a pear tree laden with fruit that was not attractive in either flavor or form. One night, when I [at the age of sixteen] had played until dark on the sandlot with some other juvenile delinquents, we went to shake that tree and carry off its fruit. From it we carried off huge loads, not to feast on, but to throw to the pigs, although we did eat a few ourselves. We did it just because it was forbidden.
-- Saint Augustine		 
An apt and true reply was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride. “What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor.”
-- Saint Augustine		 
Give me chastity and self-restraint, but do not give it yet.
-- Saint Augustine		 
Though defensive violence will always be 'a sad necessity' in the eyes of men of principle, it would be still more unfortunate if wrongdoers should dominate just men.
-- St. Augustine		 
Put no faith in salvation through the political order.
-- Augustine of Hippo		 
I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.
-- Caesar Augustus		 
The quintessential revolution is that of the spirit, born of an intellectual conviction of the need for change in those mental attitudes and values which shape the course of a nation's development. A revolution which aims merely at changing official policies and institutions with a view to an improvement in material conditions has little chance of genuine success. Without a revolution in spirit, the forces which had produced inequities of the old order would continue to be operative, posing a constant threat to the process of reform and regeneration. It is not enough merely to call for freedom, democracy and human rights. There has to be a united determination to persevere in the struggle, to make sacrifices in the name of enduring truths, to resist the corrupting influences of desire, ill will, ignorance, and fear.
-- Aung San Suu Kyi		 
Life is a banquet - and most poor suckers are starving.
-- Auntie Mame		 
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
-- Marcus Aurelius		 
The opinion of ten thousand men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject.
-- Marcus Aurelius		 
He who has seen present things has seen all, both everything which has taken place from all eternity and everything which will be for time without end; for all things are of one kin and of one form.
-- Marcus Aurelius		 
Once the government becomes the supplier of people's needs, there is no limit to the needs that will be claimed as a basic right.
-- Lawrence Auster		 
Let me point this out now. Your income tax is 100 percent voluntary tax, and your liquor tax is 100 percent enforced tax. Now, the situation is as different as night and day. Consequently, your same rules just will not apply...
-- Dwight E. Avis		 
The only path to the final defeat of imperialism and the building of socialism is revolutionary war.
-- Bill Ayers		 
The whole subject of civilians carrying guns for self defense is discussed too much in the wrong places -- ACLU cocktail parties, gun club gatherings -- all placid atmospheres far removed from the terrifying reality of violent confrontation with the lawless. It should be discussed in prisons, where professional criminals are remarkably candid about their avoidance of armed citizens who can fight back. It should be discussed in rape crises centers. Ask a woman who has been raped, whether she ever wished she had a gun when it happened ... and whether she had bought one since. Her reply is likely to be “yes” to at least the first, and often to both. Talk to the bereaved who lost their loved ones to the streets. Talk to those who have been violated in their homes. Ask them how they feel about passive non-resistance. And when you have attuned yourself to the haunting fear that lives with them forever after their nightmare, you will be ready to talk with someone else who was in their place, but survived unscathed because they were armed. The contrast will be striking. These survivors don’t put notches on their pistols, and they don’t brag about what they had to do... The taking of a human life, no matter what the circumstances, is an unnatural act, an emotionally shattering experience that leaves its own scars forever. But none of those people regret what they did, and to a man, their first reaction was to go home to their wife and children and hug them, tightly and wordlessly.
-- Massad Ayoob		 
Aside from the most committed libertarians, few Americans would list a lack of freedom in their lives as their most pressing concern. That is not to deny that militant leftism, the administrative state, and the imperial judiciary threaten liberty—they most emphatically do. Nor is it to argue that conservatives should not care for liberty. Rather it is to recognize that the average American, including the average Republican voter, is not a libertarian, has come to expect quite a lot from the federal government, and cares as much, if not more, about security than liberty (or opportunity for that matter, unless he is young and on the make).
-- David Azerrad		 
There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they're necessary to reach the places we've chosen to go.
-- Richard Bach		 
There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.
-- Richard Bach		 
All governments are more or less combinations against the people...and as rulers have no more virtue than the ruled...the power of government can only be kept within its constituted bounds by the display of a power equal to itself, the collected sentiment of the people.
-- Benjamin Franklin Bache		 
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
-- Francis Bacon		 
Men prefer to believe what they prefer to be true.
-- Francis Bacon		 
So when any of the four pillars of government, are mainly shaken, or weakened (which are religion, justice, counsel, and treasure), men had need to pray for fair weather.
-- Francis Bacon		 
Nay, number itself in armies importeth not much, where the people is of weak courage; for, as Virgil saith, 'It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep be.'
-- Francis Bacon		 
...for that nothing doth more hurt in a state, than that cunning men pass for wise.
-- Francis Bacon		 


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