Liberty Quotes - Daily Email History

"Individuality is to be preserved and respected everywhere, as the root of everything good."

~ Jean Paul  

"The only purpose for which power can rightfully be exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. ... Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign."

~ John Stuart Mill  

"Individualism is at once an ethical-psychological concept and an ethical-political one. As an ethical-psychological concept, individualism holds that a human being should think and judge independently, respecting nothing more than the sovereignty of his or her mind; thus, it is intimately connected with the concept of autonomy. As an ethical-political concept, individualism upholds the supremacy of individual rights ..."

~ Nathaniel Branden  

"If what is best in mankind, and what its progress depends on, manifests itself primarily in the individual and only secondarily in the mass, then our objectives should be to maintain such freedom as allows the individual to think and speak for himself."

~ Louis J. Halle  

"Thus, individualism is not antithetical to community. Rather, it can involve free association and a belief in an over-arching harmony of interests. In a free socety, individuals join with others because of love and mutual benefit, not because they are programmed or coerced."

~ Prof. Clifford Thies  

"It is astonishing with how little wisdom mankind can be governed, when that little wisdom is its own."

~ William Ralph Inge  

"Liberty is the possibility of doubting,
the possibility of making a mistake,
the possibility of searching and experimenting,
the possibility of saying "No" to any authority --
literary, artistic, philosophic, religious, social and even political."

~ Ignazio Silone  

"And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in all the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual."

~ John Steinbeck  

"The man who does not do his own thinking is a slave, and is a traitor to himself and his fellow men."

~ Robert G. Ingersoll