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Famous Quotes about Liberty
 
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Morality may consist solely in the courage of making a choice.
-- Léon Blum		 
What is so mind boggling is that all of this is being financed by the American people themselves through their own taxes. In other words, the American people are underwriting the destruction of their own freedom and way of life by lavishly financing through federal and state grants the very social scientists who are undermining our national sovereignty and preparing our children to become the dumbed-down vassals of the new world order.
-- Samuel L. Blumenfeld		 
When we think of the past, we forget the fools and remember the sage. We reverse the process for our own time.
-- George Boas		 
The real reason to abolish departments like Energy and Education is not to promote efficiency, nor even to save taxpayers’ money. It is that many agencies perform functions that are not Federal responsibility. The founders delegated to the Government only strictly defined authority in Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution. Search the entire Constitution, and you will find no authorization for Congress to subsidize the arts, finance and regulate education or invest tax revenues in energy research.
-- David Boaz		 
Maybe that's because guns are sold at a profit, while schools are provided by the government.
-- David Boaz		 
American [public] schools are failing because they are organized according to a bureaucratic, monopolistic model; their organizing principle is basically the same as that of a socialist economy.
-- David Boaz		 
Power always corrupts, and the power of government to tell people how to live their lives or to transfer money from those who earn it to others is always a temptation to corruption. Taxes and regulations reduce people’s incentive to produce wealth, and government transfer programs reduce people’s incentive to work, to save, and to help family and friends in case of sickness, disability, or retirement. ...[I]t is nonetheless clear that government enterprises are less efficient, less innovative, and more wasteful than private firms.... [C]ompare what it’s like to call American Express versus the IRS to correct problems. Or compare a private apartment building with public housing.
-- David Boaz		 
The median family of four ... paid $4,722 in federal taxes last year. That’s enough to pay for a new curtain for the secretary of commerce’s office, to bribe a farmer not to plant 38 acres with corn ... seven weeks of salary for a Customs man assigned to save us from the terror of high-quality, low priced foreign TV sets, or the subsidy on 6,000 bushels of wheat to prop up the Soviet regime. Surely civilization would collapse without such essential services.
-- Alan Bock		 
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.\\ You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.\\ You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.\\ You cannot lift the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer.\\ You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.\\ You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.\\ You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.\\ You cannot establish security on borrowed money.\\ You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence.\\ You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.
-- William Boetcker		 
The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.
-- Niels Bohr		 
The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. The opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
-- Niels Bohr		 
Honor is like an island, rugged and without a beach; once we have left it, we can never return.
-- Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux		 
In the whole history of law and order, the biggest step was taken by primitive man when...the tribe sat in a circle and allowed only one man to speak at a time. An accused who is shouted down has no rights whatever.
-- Curtis Bok		 
It will be asked whether one would care to have one's young daughter read these books. I suppose that by the time she is old enough to wish to read them she will have learned the biologic facts of life and the words that go with them. There is something seriously wrong at home if those facts have not been met and faced and sorted by then; it is not children so much as parents that should receive our concern about this. I should prefer that my own three daughters meet the facts of life and the literature of the world in my library than behind a neighbor's barn, for I can face the adversary there directly. If the young ladies are appalled by what they read, they can close the book at the bottom of page one; if they read further, they will learn what is in the world and in its people, and no parents who have been discerning with their children need fear the outcome. Nor can they hold it back, for life is a series of little battles and minor issues, and the burden of choice is on us all, every day, young and old
-- Judge Curtis Bok		 
Some people are calling for the federal government to restrict the right to keep and bear arms of people who are on the federal government’s terrorism watch list. This is not only unconstitutional, but sets an extremely dangerous precedent for all our rights. If the federal government can take away someone else’s right to defend themselves simply because it has unilaterally decided to place them on a secret, wildly inaccurate list that’s virtually impossible to be removed from, eventually, some bureaucrat is going to find some way to put you on that list for another reason.
-- Michael Boldin		 
Whatever power you give politicians and bureaucrats to use against other people will eventually be used by future politicians and bureaucrats against you.
-- Michael Boldin		 
Not one cent should be raised unless it is in accord with the law.
-- Napoleon Bonaparte		 
When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes… Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.
-- Napoleon Bonaparte		 
While I live I will never resort to irredeemable paper.
-- Napoleon Bonaparte		 
Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.
-- Napoleon Bonaparte		 
There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.
-- Napoleon Bonaparte		 
I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of people would die for Him.
-- Napoleon Bonaparte		 
Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.
-- Napoleon Bonaparte		 
It is an approved maxim in war, never to do what the enemy wishes you to do, for this reason alone, that he desires it.
-- Napoleon Bonaparte		 
If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.
-- Napoleon Bonaparte		 
I want a situation without censorship, because I do not want to be responsible for whatever they may say.
-- Napoleon Bonaparte		 
When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.
-- Napoleon Bonaparte		 
I have made all the calculations; fate will do the rest.
-- Napoleon Bonaparte		 
History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.
-- Napoleon Bonaparte		 
I'm not here to say that the government is always right, but when the government tells you to do something, I'm sure you would all agree that I think you all recognize that is something you need to do.
-- Kit Bond		 
From the rostrum of the United Nations, we shall convince the colonial and semicolonial people to liberate themselves and to spread the Communist theory all over the world.
-- Soviet General Pantelei Bondarenko		 
The trouble with gold is that it turns its back on world improvers, empire builders and do-gooders.
-- Bill Bonner		 
The entire world economy rests on the consumer; if he ever stops spending money he doesn't have on things he doesn't need -- we're done for.
-- Bill Bonner		 
Whose service is perfect freedom.
-- Book of Common Prayer		 
We must abandon the prevalent belief in the superior wisdom of the ignorant.
-- Daniel Boorstin		 
Government schools will teach children that government is wonderful.
-- Neal Boortz		 
I can’t think of anything that would do more toward putting us back on the road to liberty and personal responsibility than for the average American, and for the news media, to come to the understanding that we are not a democracy, nor were we supposed to be.
-- Neal Boortz		 
You have to ask yourself, 'Who owns me? Do I own myself or am I just another piece of government property?'
-- Neal Boortz		 
Why is it when times get rough only the people have to look for ways to cut back?  Why is this always just absolutely impossible for government?
-- Neal Boortz		 
Our founding fathers detested the idea of a democracy and labored long to prevent America becoming one.  Once again -- the word 'democracy' does not appear in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, or the constitution of any of the fifty states.  Not once. Furthermore, take a look at State of the Union speeches.  You won’t find the 'D' word uttered once until the Wilson years.
-- Neal Boortz		 
THE most widespread form of child abuse in the United States is parents' sending children to the government to be educated.
-- Neal Boortz		 
How many Catholic schools do you think teach the students to question the authority of the Pope? Do you believe Christian schools teach students to question or challenge the authority of Jesus Christ? Do military schools teach the cadets to challenge the authority of superior officers? Well, why should we then expect government schools to teach children to question the authority of government?
-- Neal Boortz		 
This kind of rhetoric should be familiar to any who lived through the McCarthy era of the 1950s. It allows for no differences, not agreement to disagree, among adults or children.
-- David Booth		 
No more fatuous chimera has ever infested the brain than that you can control opinions by law or direct belief by statute, and no more pernicious sentiment ever tormented the heart than the barbarous desire to do so. The field of inquiry should remain open, and the right of debate must be regarded as a sacred right.
-- William E. Borah		 
Who could impose such socialistic confiscatory rates?
-- William E. Borah		 
The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.
-- William E. Borah		 
Without an unfettered press, without liberty of speech, all of the outward forms and structures of free institutions are a sham, a pretense -- the sheerest mockery. If the press is not free; if speech is not independent and untrammeled; if the mind is shackled or made impotent through fear, it makes no difference under what form of government you live, you are a subject and not a citizen.
-- William E. Borah		 
Social Security is an unfunded pay-as-you-go system, fundamentally flawed and analogous in design to illegal pyramid schemes. Government accounting creates the illusion of a trust fund, but in fact, excess receipts are spent immediately. The government’s own actuaries predict the system will be bankrupt by 2030, but Social Security could face financial crisis as early as 2014. Moreover, Social Security’s relatively poor rate of return makes the program an increasingly worse investment for today’s young worker. ... The system design itself is fundamentally flawed and cannot be repaired. It must instead be replaced by one derived from free markets and operated by free citizenry making individual economic decisions in their own self-interest. ... Reform is long overdue. If we fail to act soon, our children will either inherit a bankrupt system or be forced to pay an impossibly high level of taxes. Only private pensions with individual property rights to accumulate fund balances can create a secure pension system. Chile, which privatized its system in 1981, provides evidence of such a system’s effectiveness.
-- Karl Borden		 
If a state militia guarantee rather than an individual right of citizens to keep and bear arms were the purpose of the second Amendment, it would have been totally unnecessary and irrelevant to include any guarantee of “the right of the people to keep and bear arms,” since by its very nature a militia is necessarily an armed force and without arms it would be impossible to carry out its constitutional functions of suppressing insurrections and repelling invasions.
-- Bernard J. Bordonet		 
Bureaucracy is the epoxy that greases the wheels of progress.
-- Dr. Jim Boren		 
Every bureaucrat has a constitutional right to fuzzify, profundify and drivelate. It's a part of our freedom of speech...If people can understand what is being said in Washington, they might want to take over their own government again.
-- Dr. Jim Boren		 
Public apathy is more powerful than public opinion. There's more of it.
-- Dr. Jim Boren		 
When in charge, ponder... When in trouble, delegate... When in doubt, mumble.
-- Dr. Jim Boren		 
Censorship is the mother of metaphor.
-- Jorge Luis Borges		 
I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.
-- Jorge Luis Borges		 
Reality is not always probable, or likely.
-- Jorge Luis Borges		 
As government regulations grow slowly, we become used to the harness. Habit is a powerful force, and we no longer feel as intensely as we once would have [the] constriction of our liberties that would have been utterly intolerable a mere half century ago.
-- Judge Robert Bork		 
The American press is extraordinarily free and vigorous, as it should be. It should be, not because it is free of inaccuracy, oversimplification and bias, but because the alternative to that freedom is worse than those failings.
-- Judge Robert Bork		 
[A] society deadened by a smothering network of laws while finding release in moral chaos is not likely to be either happy or stable.
-- Robert Bork		 
I don't think the Constitution is studied almost anywhere, including law schools. In law schools, what they study is what the court said about the Constitution. They study the opinions. They don't study the Constitution itself.
-- Robert Bork		 
Only the suppressed word is dangerous.
-- Ludwig Börne		 
A functioning police state needs no police.
-- William S. Borroughs		 
This country is not pro-American. It is United States property.
-- Juan Bosch		 
Who lies for you will lie against you.
-- Bosnian Proverb		 
[It is] a natural Right which the people have reserved to themselves, confirmed by the [English] Bill of rights, to keep arms for their own defense; and as Mr. Blackstone observes, it is to be made use of when the sanctions of Society and law are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression.
-- Boston Evening Post		 
When you or I write a check there must be sufficient funds in our account to cover that check, but when the Federal Reserve writes a check, it is creating money.
-- Boston Federal Reserve Bank		 
Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.
-- James Boswell		 
Firearms, especially long guns, occupy a noble place in Canadian history since they are no doubt responsible for the exploitation of a vast and wild territory that had long remained untouched. From 1534 until 1979 (!), the importance of firearms remained uncontested. More than a simple tool of everyday life, they became truly a phenomenon of civilization. At all times and whoever he was, the Canadian was directly in contact with firearms, and he cannot be imagined otherwise. Even today, this symbol of liberty remains intimately related to wide, open spaces, and to a tolerant society. It is the distinctive mark of today's and yesterday's America. Here, in New France, let's repeat it, it is not only soldiers and nobles who have the possibility or privilege to bear arms. Century-old Canadian customs recognize equally to everybody the legal and moral right to acquire a firearm and to use it freely and noncoercively.
-- Russel Bouchard		 
Good government generally begins in the family, and if the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow.
-- Elias Boudinot		 
Anyone who believes in indefinite growth in anything physical, on a physically finite planet, is either mad or an economist.
-- Kenneth Boulding		 
A world of unseen dictatorship is conceivable, still using the forms of democratic government.
-- Kenneth Boulding		 
Ideas are to literature what light is to painting.
-- Paul Bourget		 
War is the health of the State. It automatically sets in motion throughout society these irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate cooperation with the government in coercing into obedience the minority groups and individuals which lack the larger herd sense.
-- Randolph Bourne		 
War is the health of the State.
-- Randolph Bourne		 
Every ambitious would-be empire clarions it abroad that she is conquering the world to bring it peace, security and freedom, and is sacrificing her sons only for the most noble and humanitarian purposes. That is a lie, and it is an ancient lie, yet generations still rise and believe it! ... If America ever does seek Empire, and most nations do, then planned reforms in our domestic life will be abandoned, States Rights will be abolished -- in order to impose a centralized government upon us for the purpose of internal repudiation of freedom, and adventures abroad. The American Dream will then die -- on battlefields all over the world -- and a nation conceived in liberty will destroy liberty for Americans and impose tyranny on subject nations.
-- George S. Boutwell		 


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