Liberty Quotes - Daily Email History

"Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure and) which insures to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments."

~ Charles Carroll  

"The Republican form of government is the highest form of government; but because of this it requires the highest type of human nature -- a type nowhere at present existing."

~ Herbert Spencer  

"Though I admire republican principles in theory, yet I am afraid the practice may be too perfect for human nature. We tried a republic last century, and it failed. Let our enemies try next. I hate political experiments."

~ Sir Robert Walpole  

"Those who lack the capacity to achieve much in an atmosphere of freedom will clamor for power."

~ Eric Hoffer  

"The way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to
one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to everyone exactly
the functions in which he is competent ...
- To let the National Government be entrusted with the defense of the
nation, and its foreign and federal relations ...
- The State Governments with the Civil Rights, Laws, Police and
administration of what concerns the State generally.
- The Counties with the local concerns, and each ward direct the interests
within itself.
It is by dividing and subdividing these Republics from the great
national one down through all its subordinations until it ends in the
administration of everyman's farm by himself, by placing under everyone
what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for the best."

~ Thomas Jefferson  

"Look, I think you're tackling public expenditure from the wrong end, if I might say so. Why don't you look at it as any housewife has to look at it? She has to look at her expenditure every week or every month, according to what she can afford to spend, and if she overspends one week or month, she's got to economise the next. Now governments really ought to look at it from the viewpoint of "What can we afford to spend?" They've already put up taxes, and yet the taxes they collect are not enough for the tremendous amount they're spending. They're having to borrow to a greater extent than ever before, and future generations will have to repay. Now, if anyone tells me that a Chancellor of the [Denis Healey] Exchequer can put up public expenditure in two years by -- and it's a tremendous figure -- twenty thousand million pounds, and he doesn't know where to get it down by about three thousand million pounds, then he ought never to have been in charge of the nation's finances ... never!"

~ Margaret Thatcher  

"Capitalism and communism stand at opposite poles. Their essential difference is this:
The communist seeing the rich man and his fine home says, “No man should have so much.”
The capitalist seeing the same thing says, “All men should have as much.” "

~ Phelps Adams  

"It has been said that all Government is an evil. It would be more proper to say that the necessity of any Government is a misfortune. This necessity however exists; and the problem to be solved is, not what form of Government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect."

~ James Madison

"We are corrupted by prosperity. And when the state is corrupt, then the laws are most multiplied."

~ Publius Cornelius Tacitus  

"It would seem that not only is religion lacking in the schools -- so is common sense. I wonder what a teacher is supposed to say if a kid asks about those four words on a dime -- 'In God We Trust.' Or maybe that's why they aren't being taught how to read these days."

~ Ronald Reagan  

"Great authors are admirable in this respect: in every generation they make for disagreement. Through them we become aware of our differences."

~ Andre Gide  

"I have always strenuously supported
the right of every man to his own opinion,
however different that opinion might be to mine.
He who denies another this right makes
a slave of himself to his present opinion,
because he precludes himself the right of changing it."

~ Thomas Paine  

"Enslave the liberty of but one human being and
the liberties of the world are put in peril."

~ William Lloyd Garrison