Liberty Quotes - Daily Email History

"There is only one basic human right,
the right to do as you damn well please. 
And with it comes the only basic human duty,
the duty to take the consequences."

~ P. J. O'Rourke  

"The real freedom of any individual can always be measured by the amount of responsibility which he must assume for his own welfare and security."

~ Robert Welch  

"He is free who knows how to keep in his own hand
the power to decide, at each step, the course of his life, and
who lives in a society which does not block the exercise of that power."

~ Salvador de Madariaga  

"When bad men combine, the good must associate;
else they will fall one by one,
an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."

~ Edmund Burke  

"One of the best ways to get yourself a reputation
as a dangerous citizen these days
is to go about repeating the very phrases
which our founding fathers used
in the great struggle for independence."

~ Charles Austin Beard  

"Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and
intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished
from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and
the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people,
in order to betray them."

~ Justice Joseph Story  

"Government should allow persons to engage in whatever conduct they want
to, no matter how deviant or abnormal it may be, so long as
(a) they know what they are doing,
(b) they consent to it, and
(c) no one -- at least no one other than the participants -- is harmed
by it."

~ Hugo Adam Bedau  

"There can be no prescription old enough to supersede the Law of Nature
and the grant of God Almighty, who has given to all men a natural right
to be free, and they have it ordinarily in their power to make
themselves so, if they please."

~ James Otis  

"The real menace of our Republic is the invisible government which like
a giant octopus sprawls its slimy legs over our cities states and nation.
At the head is a small group of banking houses generally referred to as
'international bankers.' This little coterie... run our government for
their own selfish ends. It operates under cover of a self-created
screen...[and] seizes...our executive officers... legislative bodies...
schools... courts... newspapers and every agency created for the public
protection."

~ John F. Hylan  

"Integrity has no need of rules."

~ Albert Camus  

"It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority."

~ Benjamin Franklin  

"Laws control the lesser man.
Right conduct controls the greater one."

~ Chinese Proverb  

"Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire
is that which he exercises over himself."

~ Elie Wiesel  

"The right to defy an unconstitutional statute is basic in our scheme.
Even when an ordinance requires a permit to make a speech,
to deliver a sermon, to picket, to parade, or to assemble,
it need not be honored when it’s invalid on its face."

~ Justice Potter Stewart  

"The human race divides itself politically into those who want to be controlled, and those who have no such desire."

~ Robert A. Heinlein