Famous Quotations / Quotes
Famous Quotes about Liberty
 
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Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.
-- Thomas Jefferson		 
Every species of government has its specific principles. Ours perhaps are more peculiar than those of any other in the universe. It is a composition of the freest principles of the English constitution, with others derived from natural right and natural reason.
-- Thomas Jefferson		 
[N]othing can be more opposed [to American principles] than the maxims of absolute monarchies. Yet, from such, we are to expect the greater number of emigrants. They will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth; or, if able to throw them off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded licentiousness, passing, as is usual, from one extreme to another. It would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at the point of temperate liberty. These principles, with their language, they will transmit to their children. In proportion to their numbers, they will share with us the legislation. They will infuse into it their spirit, warp and bias its direction, and render it a heterogenous, incoherent, distracted mass.
-- Thomas Jefferson		 
It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.
-- Thomas Jefferson		 
During the course of administration, and in order to disturb it, the artillery of the press has been levelled against us, charged with whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare. These abuses of an institution so important to freedom and science are deeply to be regretted, inasmuch as they tend to lessen its usefulness and to sap its safety.
-- Thomas Jefferson		 
Outwardly we have a Constitutional government. We have operating within our government and political system, another body representing another form of government, a bureaucratic elite which believes our Constitution is outmoded.
-- Senator William Jenner		 
I want to make one thing clear. This war against our constitution is not being fought way off in Madagascar or in Mandalay. It is being fought here—in our schools, our colleges, our churches, our women’s clubs. It is being fought with our money, channeled through the State Department. It is being fought twenty-four hours a day—while we remain asleep. How many of you Senators know what the UN is doing to change the teaching of the children in your own home town? The UN is at work there, every day and night, changing the teachers, changing the teaching materials, changing the very words and tones—changing all the essential ideas which we imagine our schools are teaching to our young folks. How in the name of Heaven are we to sit here, approve these programs, appropriate our own people’s money—for such outrageous “orientation” of our own children, and of the men and women who teach our children, in this Nation’s schools?
-- William Jenner		 
It is always the best policy to tell the truth, unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar.
-- Jerome K. Jerome		 
Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!
-- Jesus of Nazareth		 
Put up again thy sword into its place: for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword.
-- Jesus of Nazareth		 
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.
-- Jesus of Nazareth		 
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
-- Jesus of Nazareth		 
What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?
-- Jesus of Nazareth		 
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
-- Jesus of Nazareth		 
Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment.
-- Jesus of Nazareth		 
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
-- Jesus of Nazareth		 
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
-- Jesus of Nazareth		 
Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth.
-- Jesus of Nazareth		 
And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, 'It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.'
-- Jesus of Nazareth		 
And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, 'It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.'
-- Jesus of Nazareth		 
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
-- Jesus of Nazareth		 
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
-- Jesus of Nazareth		 
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
-- Jesus of Nazareth		 
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
-- Jesus of Nazareth		 
What you don't see with your eyes, don't witness with your mouth.
-- Jewish Proverb		 
Truth is the safest lie.
-- Jewish Proverb		 
[I]t’s an unfortunate reality in many of the journalistic environments we exist today. We can’t criticize certain people, or dig into certain stories, or follow our noses on the trail of corruption if it means upsetting our publishers, sponsors, and donors.
-- Zaid Jilani		 
ThinkProgress national security bloggers were called into a meeting with CAP senior staff and basically berated for opposing the Afghan war and creating daylight between us and Obama. It confused me a lot because on the one hand, CAP was advertising to donors that it opposed the Afghan war -- in our “Progressive Party,” the annual fundraising party we do with both Big Name Progressive Donors and corporate lobbyists (in the same room!) we even advertised that we wanted to end the war in Afghanistan. But what that meeting with CAP senior staff showed me was that they viewed being closer to Obama and aligning with his policy as more important than demonstrating progressive principle, if that meant breaking with Obama.
-- Zaid Jilani		 
Outside of the Constitution we have no legal authority more than private citizens, and within it we have only so much as that instrument gives us. This broad principle limits all our functions and applies to all subjects.
-- Andrew Johnson		 
I have never met a more dedicated bunch of people than I did working in the union, at every level. The work is difficult and demanding, and very few people would do it if they didn’t believe in its righteousness. However, the conviction that you know what’s best insulates you against reflecting morally on your own actions and it teaches you to begin assessing morality in terms of either the ends justifying the means, or even worse, of mere good intention justifying those means.
-- Ben Johnson		 
We are reluctant to admit that we owe our liberties to men of a type that today we hate and fear -- unruly men, disturbers of the peace, men who resent and denounce what Whitman called 'the insolence of elected persons' -- in a word, free men.
-- Gerald W. Johnson		 
The first casualty when war comes is Truth.
-- Hiram Johnson		 
The first casualty when war comes is truth.
-- Hiram W. Johnson		 
Labor is the fabled magician's wand, the philosophers stone, and the cap of good fortune.
-- James Weldon Johnson		 
Never ruin an apology with an excuse.
-- Kimberly Johnson		 
I believe that one of the great problems for us as individuals is the depression and the tension resulting from existence in a world which is increasingly less pleasing to the eye.
-- Lady Bird Johnson		 
Free speech, free press, free religion, the right of free assembly, yes, the right of petition... well, they are still radical ideas.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson		 
You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson		 
Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson		 
You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harm it would cause if improperly administered.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson		 
Every man should know that his conversations, his correspondence, and his personal life are private.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson		 
China, Cuba, countries where the only freedoms are those bestowed on a whim by the state -- these countries jail their kids for burning the flag. We do not. America was created around dissent. Our freedom is founded upon the right to make known our opinion without threat of government interdiction -- Old Glory is the ultimate, tangible expression of this national belief.
-- Marvin Johnson		 
Patriotism and respect are earned through the substance and values of a nation, not by its physical symbols. By making the American flag untouchable, Congress would be sending the message that approval of our nation is an obligation not a choice.
-- Marvin Johnson		 
The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance.
-- Paul Bede Johnson		 
If you depart from moral absolutes, you go into a bottomless pit. Communism and Naziism were catastrophic evils which both derived from moral relativism. Their differences were minor compared to their similarities.
-- Paul Bede Johnson		 
Every good historian is almost by definition a revisionist. He looks at the accepted view of a particular historic episode or period with a very critical eye.
-- Paul Bede Johnson		 
If you depart from moral absolutes, you go into a bottomless pit. Communism and Nazism were catastrophic evils which both derived from moral relativism. Their differences were minor compared to their similarities.
-- Paul Bede Johnson		 
The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.
-- Paul Bede Johnson		 
Throughout history, the attachment of even the humblest people to their freedom…has come as an unpleasant shock to condescending ideologues.
-- Paul Bede Johnson		 
The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.
-- Paul Bede Johnson		 
They who most loudly clamour for liberty do not most liberally grant it.
-- Dr. Samuel Johnson		 
In order that all men might be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.
-- Dr. Samuel Johnson		 
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
-- Dr. Samuel Johnson		 
Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first overcome.
-- Dr. Samuel Johnson		 
They make a rout about universal liberty, without considering that all that is to be valued, or indeed can be enjoyed by individuals, is private liberty.
-- Dr. Samuel Johnson		 
Among the innumerable mortifications which waylay human arrogance on every side may well be reckoned our ignorance of the most common objects and effects, a defect of which we become more sensible by every attempt to supply it. Vulgar and inactive minds confound familiarity with knowledge and conceive themselves informed of the whole nature of things when they are shown their form or told their use; but the speculatist, who is not content with superficial views, harasses himself with fruitless curiosity, and still, as he inquires more, perceives only that he knows less.
-- Dr. Samuel Johnson		 
Courage is the first of all the virtues because if you haven't courage, you may not have the opportunity to use any of the others.
-- Dr. Samuel Johnson		 
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.
-- Dr. Samuel Johnson		 
Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.
-- Dr. Samuel Johnson		 
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
-- Dr. Samuel Johnson		 
The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.
-- Dr. Samuel Johnson		 
Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
-- Dr. Samuel Johnson		 
All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it.
-- Dr. Samuel Johnson		 
In questions of law or of fact conscience is very often confounded with opinion. No man’s conscience can tell him the rights of another man; they must be known by rational investigation or historical inquiry.
-- Dr. Samuel Johnson		 
Knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
-- Dr. Samuel Johnson		 
Be not too hasty to trust or admire the teachers of morality; they discourse like angels but they live like men.
-- Dr. Samuel Johnson		 
There is no crime more infamous than the violation of truth. It is apparent that men can be social beings no longer than they believe each other. When speech is employed only as the vehicle of falsehood, every man must disunite himself from others, inhabit his own cave and seek prey only for himself.
-- Dr. Samuel Johnson		 
Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intelligence.
-- Dr. Samuel Johnson		 
To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.
-- Samuel Johnson		 
Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.
-- Samuel Johnson		 
The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them.
-- Zachariah Johnson		 
The issue isn't gun control but state control -- obtuse and arbitrary state control, state control run amok. ... Forget guns. If Dr. Hudson, Mr. Turnbull, Dr. Gingrich and others end up in jail it won't be for their guns but our liberties.
-- George Jonas		 
[Censors are] people with secret attractions to various temptations... They are defending themselves under the pretext of defending others, because at heart they fear their own weaknesses.
-- Ernest Jones		 
Persecution is the first law of society because it is always easier to suppress criticism than to meet it.
-- Howard Mumford Jones		 
An honorable Peace is and always was my first wish! I can take no delight in the effusion of human Blood; but, if this War should continue, I wish to have the most active part in it.
-- John Paul Jones		 
Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it.
-- David Starr Jordan		 
There seemed to be no lengths to which some American officials would not go in aiding Russia to master the secret of nuclear fission.
-- Major George Racey Jordan		 
Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself -- and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty.
-- Chief Joseph		 
I believe much trouble and blood would be saved if we opened our hearts more. I will tell you in my way how the Indian sees things. The white man has more words to tell you how they look to him, but it does not require many words to speak the truth. If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian... we can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike.... give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who is born a free man should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. We only ask an even chance to live as other men live. We ask to be recognized as men. Let me be a free man...free to travel... free to stop...free to work...free to choose my own teachers...free to follow the religion of my Fathers...free to think and talk and act for myself.
-- Chief Joseph		 
It does not require many words to speak the truth.
-- Chief Joseph		 
There are some acts of justice which corrupt those who perform them.
-- Joseph Joubert		 
People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote -- a very different thing.
-- Walter H. Judd		 
One should be suspicious of “love” as a political slogan. A government which purports to “love” its citizens invariably desires all the prerogatives of a lover: to share the loved one’s thoughts and keep him in bondage.
-- Eric Julber		 
Rational argument can be conducted with some prospect of success only so long as the emotionality of a given situation does not exceed a certain critical degree. If the affective temperature rises above this level, the possibility of reason’s having any effect ceases and its place is taken by slogans and chimerical wish fantasies. That is to say, a sort of collective possession results which rapidly develops into a psychic epidemic.
-- Carl Jung		 
Sentimentality is a superstructure covering brutality.
-- Carl Gustav Jung		 
A shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.
-- Carl Gustav Jung		 
Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.
-- Carl Gustav Jung		 
Whenever justice is uncertain and police spying and terror are at work, human beings fall into isolation, which, of course, is the aim and purpose of the dictator state, since it is based on the greatest possible accumulation of depotentiated social units.
-- Carl Gustav Jung		 
Resistance to the organized mass can be effected only by the man who is as well organized in his individuality as the mass itself.
-- Carl Gustav Jung		 
The Liberty of the press is the Palladium of all the civil, political and religious rights of an Englishman.
-- Junius		 
It is not the disease, but the physician; it is the pernicious hand of government alone which can reduce a whole people to despair.
-- Junius		 
Now that no one buys our votes, the public has long since cast off its cares; for the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things -- bread and circuses.
-- Juvenal		 
Count it the greatest sin to prefer life to honor, and for the sake of living to lose what makes life worth having.
-- Juvenal		 
Quis costodiet ipsos custodies? (Who will watch the watchers?)
-- Juvenal		 
Who will stand guard to the guards themselves?
-- Juvenal		 
It seems as if the Department [of Justice] sees the value of the Bill of Rights as no more than obstacles to be overcome.
-- Prof. Sanford H. Kadish		 
I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us.
-- Franz Kafka		 
You are free and that is why you are lost.
-- Franz Kafka		 
It's often safer to be in chains than to be free.
-- Franz Kafka		 
For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press 3.
-- Alice Kahn		 


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