Liberty Quotes - Daily Email History

"This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still."

~ Thomas Paine  

"If you depart from moral absolutes, you go into a bottomless pit. Communism and Naziism were catastrophic evils which both derived from moral relativism. Their differences were minor compared to their similarities."

~ Paul Bede Johnson  

"It was self-serving politicians who convinced recent generations of Americans that we could all stand in a circle with our hands in each other’s pockets and somehow get rich."

~ Paul Harvey  

"In truth, attempts to regulate the civilian possession of firearms have five political functions. They
(1) increase citizen reliance on government and tolerance of increased police powers and abuse;
(2) help prevent opposition to the government;
(3) facilitate repressive action by government and its allies;
(4) lessen the pressure for major or radical reform; and
(5) can be selectively enforced against those perceived to be a threat to government."

~ Raymond G. Kessler  

"I am the inferior of any man
whose rights I trample under foot."

~ Robert G. Ingersoll  

"To those who feel that their values are THE values, the less controlled systems necessarily present a spectacle of "chaos," simply because such systems respond to a diversity of values. The more successfully such systems respond to diversity, the more "chaos" there will be, by definition, according to the standards of ANY specific set of values- other than diversity or freedom as values. Looked at another way, the more self-righteous observers there are, the more chaos (and "waste") will be seen."

~ Thomas Sowell  

~ Thomas Szasz  

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased
at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!
I know not what course others may take;
but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"

~ Patrick Henry  

"Government isn't a good way to solve problems ... [G]overnment is concerned mostly with self-perpetuation and is subject to fantastic ideas about its own capabilities. ... [G]overnment is wasteful of the nation's resources, immune to common sense and subject to pressure from every half-organized bouquet of assholes. ... [G]overnment is distrustful of and disrespectful toward average Americans while being easily gulled by Americans with money, influence or fame."

~ P. J. O'Rourke  

"The first duty of government
is to protect
the citizen from assault.
Unless it does this,
all the civil rights and
civil liberties in the world
aren't worth a dime."

~ Richard A. Viguerie  

"But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply.
See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them,
and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong.
See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another
by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime."

~ Frederic Bastiat  

"The prime function of the criminal law is to protect our persons and
our property; these purposes are now engulfed in a mass of other
distracting, inefficiently performed, legislative duties. When the
criminal law invades the spheres of private morality and social welfare,
it exceeds its proper limits at the cost of neglecting its primary
tasks. This unwarranted extension is expensive, ineffective, and
criminogenic."

~ Norval Morris  

"Only in a police state is the job of a policeman easy."

~ Orson Welles