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Famous Quotes about Liberty
 
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Setting a good example is a far better way to spread ideals than through force of arms.
-- Dr. Ron Paul		 
Strictly speaking, it probably is not “necessary” for the federal government to tax anyone directly; it could simply print the money it needs. However, that would be too bold a stroke, for it would then be obvious to all what kind of counterfeiting operation the government is running. The present system combining taxation and inflation is akin to watering the milk; too much water and the people catch on.
-- Dr. Ron Paul		 
[W]e have to realize that the real problem is that the American people have been too submissive. We have been too submissive. It has been going on for a long time. ... [T]he bill that I have introduced ... is very simple. It is one paragraph long. It removes the immunity from anybody in the Federal government that does anything that you or I can't do. If you can't grope another person and if you can't X-ray people and endanger them with possible X-rays, [and] you can't take nude photographs of individuals, why do we allow the government to do it? We would go to jail. He would be immediately arrested, if an individual citizen went up and did these things, and yet we just sit there and calmly say, 'oh, they are making us safe.' And besides, the argument from the executive branch is that when you buy a ticket, you have sacrificed your rights and it is the duty of the government to make us safe. That isn't the case. You never have to sacrifice your rights. The duty of the government is to protect our rights, not to use them and do what they have been doing to us.
-- Dr. Ron Paul		 
The theory of the IRS is rather repugnant to me because the assumption is made that I, the government, owns 100% of your income and I permit you to keep 5%, 10% or 20%. You're vulnerable, you've sold out. The government can take 80% if they want, which they did at one time.
-- Dr. Ron Paul		 
When one person can initiate war, by its definition, a republic no longer exists.
-- Dr. Ron Paul		 
They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil.
-- Paul the Apostle		 
Assuming that either the left wing or the right wing gained control of the country, it would probably fly around in circles.
-- Pat Paulsen		 
All the problems we face in the United States today can be traced to an unenlightened immigration policy on the part of the American Indian.
-- Pat Paulsen		 
The art of living is the art of knowing how to believe lies.
-- Cesare Pavese		 
To know the world one must construct it.
-- Cesare Pavese		 
We can't spend more than we have. ... This is no longer a matter of right versus left, liberal versus conservative, we can prove our conclusion on this by basic mathematics. The United States Federal Government from all sources, for all purposes, takes in $2.2 trillion a year. Keep that number in mind. $2.2 trillion a year. We have total unfunded liabilities of $65 trillion, $2.2 trillion in revenue, $65 trillion in total unfunded liabilities. That is more than 30 to 1 leverage. If the United States Federal Government were a bank regulated by itself, they would shut themselves down. We live in a nation where not long ago our United States Secretary of State [Hillary Clinton] was on rhetorical bended knee in communist China pleading with the Chinese to continue to buy our debt, because if they don’t buy our debt and other foreign sovereign wealth funds don’t buy our debt our beloved United States of America can’t pay its bills. The United States of America my friends is not a beggar nation.
-- Gov. Tim Pawlenty		 
....it is always easier to tell people what to do than to find out what is happening...
-- Martin Pawley		 
Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
-- J. H. Payne		 
What sets worlds in motion is the interplay of differences, their attractions and repulsions; life is plurality, death is uniformity.
-- Octavio Paz		 
[Transcription of some of the signs in Washington during the peace march January 18, 2003]
-- Peace March Signs		 
The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.
-- Norman Vincent Peale		 
We live in a world that has popularized Black people showing the same hate towards white people that people like Martin Luther King Jr. died fighting to overcome. It’s sad. Sad as hell.
-- CJ Pearson		 
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
-- Lester B. Pearson		 
Life is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived.
-- M. Scott Peck		 
Did I say "republic?" By God, yes, I said "republic!" Long live the glorious republic of the United States of America. Damn democracy. It is a fraudulent term used, often by ignorant persons but no less often by intellectual fakers, to describe an infamous mixture of socialism, graft, confiscation of property and denial of personal rights to individuals whose virtuous principles make them offensive.
-- Westbrook Pegler		 
He who does not bellow out the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.
-- Charles Peguy		 
Contrary to the Marxists, the Nazis did not advocate public ownership of the means of production. They did demand that the government oversee and run the nation's economy. The issue of legal ownership, they explained, is secondary; what counts is the issue of control. Private citizens, therefore, may continue to hold titles to property -- so long as the state reserves to itself the unqualified right to regulate the use of their property.
-- Leonard Peikoff		 
Contrary to the Marxists, the Nazis did not advocate public ownership of the means of production. They did demand that the government oversee and run the nation’s economy. The issue of legal ownership, they explained, is secondary; what counts is the issue of control. Private citizens, therefore, may continue to hold titles to property—so long as the state reserves to itself the unqualified right to regulate the use of their property.
-- Leonard Peikoff		 
You demonize...we call it the wrap-up smear, you smear somebody with falsehoods and all the rest, and then you merchandise it and then you write it and say, "See, it's reported in the press that this, this, and this..." so they have that validation that the press reported the smear and then it's called a wrap-up-smear and the merchandise is the press' report on the smear we made. It's a tactic, and it's self-evident.
-- Nancy Pelosi		 
Let the people think they govern and they will be governed.
-- William Penn		 
Justice is the insurance we have in our lives, and obedience is the premium we pay for it.
-- William Penn		 
To do evil that good may come of it is for bunglers in politics as well as morals.
-- William Penn		 
Those people who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.
-- William Penn		 
A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we ever do evil, that good may come of it.
-- William Penn		 
The loyalists in the beginning of the late war objected to associating, arming and fighting, in defense of our liberties, because these measures were not constitutional. A free people should always be left... with every possible power to promote their own happiness.
-- Pennsylvania Gazette		 
The provision in the Constitution granting the right to all persons to bear arms is a limitation upon the power of the Legislature to enact any law to the contrary. The exercise of a right guaranteed by the Constitution cannot be made subject to the will of the sheriff.
-- People vs. Zerillo		 
Any society that needs disclaimers has too many lawyers.
-- Erik Pepke		 
One has the right to be wrong in a democracy.
-- Claude Pepper		 
Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.
-- Pericles		 
Instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all.
-- Pericles		 
I believe that America is the greatest country in history and for good reasons, but America has been changing and not for the better. Our free society has been falling prey to a more repressive system with methods for the increased control of people. The return of groups and individuals to the controlling ideology of Imperialism and Marxism using the structures of Corporatism, Socialism and Democracy. The result is that this nation's foundational principles based on the ideology of Liberty are now in danger of extinction.
-- Darren Perkins		 
Our dependency makes slaves out of us, especially if this dependency is a dependency of our self esteem. If you need encouragement, pats on the back from everybody, then you make everybody your judge.
-- Fritz Perls		 
Is any man free except the one who can pass his life as he pleases? [Lat., An quisquam est alius liber, nisi ducere vitam Cui licet, ut voluit?]
-- Persius		 
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.
-- St. Peter		 
While [false teachers] promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
-- St. Peter		 
Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status.
-- Laurence J. Peter		 
A free press is one that prints a dictator’s speech but doesn’t have to.
-- Laurence J. Peter		 
Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame.
-- Laurence J. Peter		 
A censor is a man who knows more than he thinks you ought to.
-- Laurence J. Peter		 
Bureaucrats write memoranda both because they appear to be busy when they are writing and because the memos, once written, immediately become proof that they were busy.
-- Charles Peters		 
If a window of opportunity appears, don't pull down the shade.
-- Tom Peters		 
The American people are bound to the people of the Soviet Union in the great alliance of the United Nations. We are determined that nothing shall stop us from sharing with you all that we have.
-- Howard C. Peterson		 
We are good citizens, and we cannot protect ourselves because you allow the criminals to run wild. ... I'd like you to come and live in the inner city for a week and see the importance of having a weapon. ... Go after the criminals and not the good people.
-- Jesse Lee Peterson		 
One should not associate with controversy; one should always reach for the highest ratings; one should never forget that there is safety in numbers; one should always remember that comedy, adventure, and escapism provide the best atmosphere for selling.
-- Peter G. Peterson		 
... the key question is: can we define 'income' in a fair and reasonably straightforward manner? Unfortunately we have not yet succeeded in doing so.
-- Shirley Peterson		 
Eight decades of amendments... to (the) code have produced a virtually impenetrable maze... The rules are unintelligible to most citizens... The rules are equally mysterious to many government employees who are charged with administering and enforcing the law.
-- Shirley Peterson		 
If oppression and wrong should gain the ascendancy, and injustice stalk abroad in the land, and all else fail him; nevertheless his humblest roof, and all things that are sheltered beneath it, would find, somehow, someway, a final refuge and protection in the Supreme Court of the United States.
-- Edward J. Phelps		 
A large body of people, sufficient to make a nation, have come to the conclusion that they will have a government of a certain form. Who denies them the right? Standing with the principles of '76 behind us, who can deny them the right? ... I maintain on the principles of '76 that Abraham Lincoln has no right to a soldier in Fort Sumter. ... You can never make such a war popular. ... The North never will endorse such a war.
-- Wendell Phillips		 
Whether in chains or in laurels, liberty knows nothing but victories.
-- Wendell Phillips		 
No free people can lose their liberties while they are jealous of liberty. But the liberties of the freest people are in danger when they set up symbols of liberty as fetishes, worshipping the symbol instead of the principle it represents.
-- Wendell Phillips		 
The labor movement means just this: it is the last noble protest of the American people against the power of incorporated wealth.
-- Wendell Phillips		 
No matter whose lips that would speak, they must be free and ungagged. The community which dares not protect its humblest and most hated member in the free utterance of his opinions, no matter how false or hateful, is only a gang of slaves. If there is anything in the universe that can’t stand discussion, let it crack.
-- Wendell Phillips		 
Eternal vigilence is the price of liberty.
-- Wendell Phillips		 
Let us always remember that he does not really believe his own opinion, who dares not give free scope to his opponent.
-- Wendell Phillips		 
Liberty knows nothing but victories. Soldiers call Bunker Hill a defeat; but liberty dates from it though Warren lay dead on the field.
-- Wendell Phillips		 
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
-- Wendell Phillips		 
Money, it has been said, is the cause of good things to a good man, of evil things to a bad man.
-- Philo of Alexandria		 
A free spirit takes liberties even with liberty itself.
-- Francis Picabia		 
Art is an instrument in the war against the enemy.
-- Pablo Picasso		 
All the progress we have made in philosophy… is the result of that methodical skepticism which is the element of human freedom.
-- Charles S. Pierce		 
Every child in America who enters school at the age of five is mentally ill, because he comes to school with an allegiance toward our elected officials, toward our founding fathers, toward our institutions, toward the preservation of this form of government that we have. Patriotism, nationalism, and sovereignty, all that proves that children are sick because a truly well individual is one who has rejected all of those things, and is truly the international child of the future.
-- Dr. Chester Pierce		 
I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity, ... [it] would be contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded.
-- Franklin Pierce		 
The dangers of a concentration of all power in the general government of a confederacy so vast as ours are too obvious to be disregarded.
-- Franklin Pierce		 
The constitutionality and propriety of the Federal Government assuming to enter into a novel and vast field of legislation, namely, that of providing for the care and support of all those … who by any form of calamity become fit objects of public philanthropy. ... I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States. To do so would, in my judgment, be contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution and subversive of the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded.
-- Franklin Pierce		 
Socialism is after all, the Viagra of politics...
-- Michael Pierce		 
Congress has doubled the IRS budget over the past 10 years -- making that agency one of the fastest growing non-entitlement programs. It has increased its employment by 20 percent. The IRS’s powers to investigate and examine taxpayers transcend those of any other law enforcement agency. Virtually all of the constitutional rights regarding search and seizure, due process, and jury trial simply do not apply to the IRS.
-- Daniel Pilla		 
Today, of course, the redistributive powers of Congress are everywhere -- except in the Constitution. The result is the feeding frenzy that is modern Washington, the Hobbesian war of all against all as each tries to get his share and more of the common pot the tax system fills. ... It is unseemly and wrong. More than that, it is unconstitutional, whatever the slim and cowed majority on the New Deal Court may have said.
-- Roger Pilon		 
The growth of federal power and programs over this century -- involving the regulation of business, the expansion of "civil rights," the production of environmental goods, and much else -- has taken place in large measure through the power of Congress to regulate "commerce among the states." That power has been read so broadly by the modern Court that Congress today can regulate anything that even "affects" commerce, which in principle is everything. As a result, save for the restraints imposed by the Bill of Rights, the commerce power is now essentially plenary, which is hardly what the Framers intended when they enumerated Congress’s powers. Indeed, if they had meant for Congress to be able to do anything it wanted under the commerce power, the enumeration of Congress’s other powers -- to say nothing of the defense of the doctrine of enumerated powers throughout the Federalist Papers -- would have been pointless. The purpose of the commerce clause quite simply, was to enable Congress to ensure the free flow of commerce among the states. Under the Articles of Confederation, state legislatures had enacted tariffs and other protectionist measures that impeded interstate commerce. To break the logjam, Congress was empowered to make commerce among the states "regular." In fact, the need to do so was one of the principal reasons behind the call for a new constitution.
-- Roger Pilon		 
Indeed, it was the enumeration of powers, not the enumeration of rights in the Bill of Rights, that was meant by the Framers to be the principal limitation on government power.
-- Roger Pilon		 
Over the 20th century, the federal government has assumed a vast and unprecedented set of powers. Not only has the exercise of those powers upset the balance between federal and state governments; run roughshod over individuals, families, and firms; and reduced economic opportunity for all; but most of what the federal government does today -- to put the point as plainly and candidly as possible -- is illegitimate because done without explicit constitutional authority. The time has come to start returning power to the states and the people, to relimit federal power in our fundamental law, to restore constitutional government.
-- Roger Pilon		 


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