I remained a socialist for several years, even after my rejection of Marxism; and if there could be such a thing as socialism combined with individual liberty, I would be a socialist still. For nothing could be better than living a modest, simple, and free life in an egalitarian society.
— Karl Popper
Uplifting Individual Liberty quotations
Liberty not only means that the individual has both the opportunity and the burden of choice; it also means that he must bear the consequences of his actions. Liberty and responsibility are inseparable.
'Emergencies' have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded.
The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.
Federalism isn’t about states’ rights.
It’s about dividing power to better protect individual liberty.
Life, faculties, production- in other words, individuality, liberty, property- this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it. Life, liberty and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.
Democracy and liberty are not the same.
Democracy is little more than mob rule, while liberty refers to the sovereignty of the individual.
Those (who) seek to establish systems of Government based on the regimentation of all Human Beings by a handful of individual rulers...call this a new order. It is not new and it is not order.
I don't believe in quotas. America was founded on a philosophy of individual rights, not group rights.
You don't protect any of your individual liberties by lying down and going to sleep.
Liberty is not collective, it is personal. All liberty is individual liberty.
Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.
The more the state "plans" the more difficult planning becomes for the individual.
Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.
The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city.
I am certain, however, that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice.
Hamas is a terrorist organization dedicated to annihilating the Jewish state.
It runs a theocratic totalitarian state in Gaza, with no individual liberty, and no freedom of speech or press.
With few exceptions, democracy has not brought good government to new developing countries. What Asians value may not necessarily be what Americans or Europeans value. Westerners value the freedoms and liberties of the individual. As an Asian of Chinese cultural backround, my values are for a government which is honest, effective and efficient.
In a capitalist society, all human relationships are voluntary.
Men are free to cooperate or not, to deal with one another or not, as their own individual judgments, convictions and interests dictate.
Individual rights are not subject to a public vote;
a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority.
I regard the principle of conscription of life as a flat contradiction of all our cherished ideals of individual freedom, democratic liberty and Christian teaching.
Government has no right to control individual liberty beyond what is necessary to the safety and well-being of society. Such is the boundary which separates the power of the government and the liberty of the citizen or subject in the political state.
Whatever crushes individuality is despotism.
The political problem of mankind is to combine three things: economic efficiency, social justice and individual liberty.
The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited;
he must not make himself a nuisance to other people.
Individual liberty depends upon keeping government under control.
When we got organized as a country and we wrote a fairly radical Constitution with a radical Bill of Rights, giving a radical amount of individual freedom to Americans, it was assumed that the Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly.
The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government.
Peaceful secession and nullification are the only means of returning to a system of government that respects rather than destroys individual liberty.
Liberty not only means that the individual has both the opportunity and the burden of choice; it also means that he must bear the consequences of his actions.... Liberty and responsibility are inseparable.
I realized that conservatism was the philosophy that best suited me, with its emphasis on individual liberty, personal responsibility, and merit.
All our lives we fought against exalting the individual, against the elevation of the single person, and long ago we were over and done with the business of a hero, and here it comes up again: the glorification of one personality. This is not good at all.
The ideal Government of all reflective men, from Aristotle onward, is one which lets the individual alone - one which barely escapes being no government at all.
Excess of liberty, whether it lies in state or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery.
Individual liberty and interdependence are both essential for life in society.