Liberty Quotes - Daily Email History

"The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition, when suffered to exert itself with freedom and security is so powerful a principle that it is alone, and without any assistance, not only capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting a hundred impertinent obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often incumbers its operations; though the effect of these obstructions is always more or less either to encroach upon its freedom, or to diminish its security. "

~ Adam Smith  

"There are incalculable resources
in the human spirit,
once it has been set free."

~ Hubert H. Humphrey  

"Freedom is not something that can be given.
Freedom is something people take,
and people are as free as they want to be."

~ James Baldwin  

"I know of no inquiry which the impulses of man suggests
that is forbidden to the resolution of man to pursue."

~ Margaret Fuller  

"The essence of the liberal outlook lies not in what opinions are held,
but in how they are held: instead of being viewed dogmatically,
they are held tentatively, with a consciousness that new evidence
may at any moment lead to their abandonment."

~ Bertrand Russell  

~ Will Durant  

"...the Patriot Act followed 9-11 as smoothly as the suspension of the Weimar constitution followed the Reichstag fire."

~ Srdja Trifkovic  

"1. Our military is supposed to be a means to an end: national security.  Due to its immense size and colossal budget, has our military not become an end as well as a means?
2. In World War II, Americans could explain “Why We Fight” in part because the government provided a clear and compelling rationale for war.  Why are the goals of today’s wars so opaque to most Americans?
3. If our military provides us with our way of “nation building” abroad, won’t countries and peoples be more likely to copy our military ways and weaponry than our democratic teachings? 
4. America is facing painful budgetary belt tightening.  Why is the military immune?
5. Why does “support our troops” seemingly end when they leave the service, leading us to tolerate such inequities as an unemployment rate of 21% for young veterans?"

~ William J. Astore  

"We are thus in the position of having to borrow from Europe to defend Europe, of having to borrow from China and Japan to defend Chinese and Japanese access to Gulf oil, and of having to borrow from Arab emirs, sultans and monarchs to make Iraq safe for democracy. We borrow from the nations we defend so that we may continue to defend them. To question this is an unpardonable heresy called 'isolationism.'"

~ Patrick J. Buchanan  

"What I had failed to understand was that the security I felt in the Party was that of a group and that affection in that strange communist world is never a personal emotion. You were loved or hated on the basis of group acceptance, and emotions were stirred or dulled by propaganda. That propaganda was made by the powerful people at the top. That is why ordinary Communists get along well with their groups: they think and feel together and work toward a common goal."

~ Dr. Bella Dodd  

"The process of completely freeing oneself emotionally from being a Communist is a thing no outsider can understand. The group thinking and group planning and the group life of the Party had been a part of me for so long that it was desperately difficult for me to be a person again. ... But I had begun the process of “unbecoming” a Communist. It was a long and painful process, much like that of a polio victim who has to learn to walk all over again. I had to learn to think. I had to learn to love. I had to drain the hate and frenzy from my system. I had to dislodge the self and the pride that had made me arrogant, made me feel that I knew all the answers. I had to learn that I knew nothing. There were many stumbling blocks in this process."

~ Dr. Bella Dodd  

"There had been many things I had not really understood. I had regarded the Communist Party as a poor man’s party, and thought the presence of certain men of wealth within it accidental. I now saw this was no accident. I regarded the Party as a monolithic organization with the leadership in the National Committee and the National Board. Now I saw this was only a facade placed there by the movement to create the illusion of the poor man’s party; it was in reality a device to control the “common man” they so raucously championed."

~ Dr. Bella Dodd  

"I am concerned for the security of our great Nation;
not so much because of any threat from without,
but because of the insidious forces working from within."

~ General Douglas MacArthur  

"The universe seems bankrupt as soon as we begin to discuss the characters of individuals."

~ Henry David Thoreau  

"It's true that the world is a dangerous place. The problem is that the Pentagon is part of that danger. Our military has grown so strong and so dominates our government, including its foreign policy and even aspects of our culture, that there's no effective counterweight to its closeted, conflict-centered style of thinking."

~ William J. Astore