Liberty Quotes - Daily Email History

~ Frank Norris  

~ George Bernard Shaw  

"If liberty means anything at all,
it means the right to tell people
what they do not want to hear."

~ George Orwell  

"Search for the truth
is the noblest occupation of man;
its publication is a duty."

~ Anne Louise Germaine de Stael  

"While birds can fly, only humans can argue.
Argument is the affirmation of our being.
It is the principal instrument of human intercourse.
Without argument the species would perish.
As a subtle suggestion, it is the means by which we aid another.
As a warning, it steers us from danger.
As exposition, it teaches.
As an expression of creativity, it is the gift of ourselves.
As a protest, it struggles for justice.
As a reasoned dialogue, it resolves disputes.
As an assertion of self, it engenders respect.
As an entreaty of love, it expresses our devotion.
As a plea, it generates mercy.
As charismatic oration it moves multitudes and changes history.
We must argue -- to help, to warn, to lead, to love, to create,
to learn, to enjoy justice, to be."

~ Gerry Spence  

"We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth...
For my part, I am willing to know the whole truth;
to know the worst; and to provide for it."

~ Patrick Henry  

"The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names."

~ Chinese Proverb  

"A sure sign of a genius is that all of
the dunces are in a confederacy against him."

~ Frank Lloyd Wright  

~ Justice Clarence Thomas  

"The rising power of the United States in world affairs ...
requires, not a more compliant press,
but a relentless barrage of facts and criticism ...
Our job in this age, as I see it,
is not to serve as cheerleaders for our side ...
but to help the largest possible number of people
to see the realities."

~ James Reston  

"If all mankind minus one were of one opinion and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that person that he, if he had the power, would be in silencing mankind… If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth; if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error."

~ John Stuart Mill  

"In any free society, the conflict between
social conformity and individual liberty
is permanent, unresolvable, and necessary."

~ Kathleen Norris  

"The authoritarian sets up some book,
or man, or tradition to establish the truth.
The freethinker sets up reason and
private judgment to discover the truth...
It takes the highest courage to utter unpopular truths."

~ Herbert Spencer  

"We find few historians who have been diligent enough in their search
for truth; it is their common method to take on trust what they help
distribute to the public; by which means a falsehood once received from
a famed writer becomes traditional to posterity."

~ John Dryden  

"In our country are evangelists and
zealots of many different political,
economic and religious persuasions
whose fanatical conviction is that
all thought is divinely classified
into two kinds -- that which is
their own and that which is false
and dangerous."

~ Justice Robert H. Jackson