Liberty Quotes - Daily Email History

"Government, in my humble opinion, should be formed to secure and to enlarge the exercise of the natural rights of its members; and every government, which has not this in view, as its principal object, is not a government of the legitimate kind."

~ James Wilson  

"When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, 'just men who will rule in the fear of God.' The preservation of [our] government depends on the faithful discharge of this Duty; if the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded. If [our] government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine Commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the Laws."

~ Noah Webster  

"Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us."

~ Thomas Jefferson  

"A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest form of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal in satisfying his vices. And it all comes from lying to others and to yourself."

~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky  

"What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?"

~ Jesus of Nazareth  

"Ill habits gather by unseen degrees --
As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas."

~ John Dryden  

"Not to be, but to seem, virtuous -- it is a formula whose utility we all discovered in the nursery."

~ C. S. Lewis  

"To many a man, and sometimes to a youth, there comes the opportunity to choose between honorable competence and tainted wealth. The young man who starts out to be poor and honorable, holds in his hand one of the strongest elements of success."

~ Orison Swett Marden  

"One of the hardest things to teach a child is that the truth is more important than the consequences."

~ O. A. Battista  

"Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character."

~ Henry Clay  

"Character is higher than intellect... A great soul will be strong to live as well as think."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson  

"Tis the upright mind that holds true sovereignty."

~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca  

"I would rather starve and rot and keep the privilege of speaking the truth as I see it, than of holding all the offices that capital has to give from the presidency down."

~ Henry Brooks Adams  

"...[T]here is no more dangerous experiment than that of undertaking to be one thing before a man's face and another behind his back."

~ Robert E. Lee  

"One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them."

~ Thomas Sowell