Liberty is not collective, it is personal. All liberty is individual liberty. — Calvin Coolidge
Those who have ever valued liberty for its own sake believed that to be free to choose, and not to be chosen for, is an inalienable ingredient in what makes human beings human. — Isaiah Berlin
Freedom is the right to live as we wish. — Epictetus
The first maxim of a man who loves liberty, should be never to grant to rulers an atom of power that is not most clearly and indispensably necessary for the safety and well being of society. — Richard Henry Lee
The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. — John Stuart Mill
At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life. — Anthony Kennedy
If our hard-earned liberty, our desire to be irreverent of the old and to question the new, can be reduced to one, basic, and indispensable right, it must be the right to free speech. — Maajid Nawaz
On Liberty Quotes
The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded. — Baron de Montesquieu
At the age of nineteen, on my own initiative and at my own expense, I raised an army by means of which I restored liberty to the republic, which had been oppressed by the tyranny of a faction. For which service the senate, with complimentary resolutions, enrolled me in its order. — Augustus
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost. — Thomas Jefferson
Groups cannot grow, unless individuals grow within the group.
We, today, stand on the shoulders of our predecessors who have gone before us. We, as their successors, must catch the torch of freedom and liberty passed on to us by our ancestors. We cannot lose in this battle. — Benjamin E. Mays
We cannot choose freedom established on a hierarchy of degrees of freedom, on a caste system of equality like military rank. We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it. — William Faulkner
I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. — Thomas Jefferson
No individual raindrop ever consider itself responsible for the flood.
For no People will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can they easily be subdued, where Knowledge is diffusd and Virtue preservd . On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own Weight, without the Aid of foreign Invaders. — Samuel Adams
Prohibition only drives drunkenness behind doors and into dark places, and does not cure it or even diminish it. — Mark Twain
There! His Majesty can now read my name without glasses. And he can double the reward on my head! — John Hancock
The civil rights of none, shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext infringed. — James Madison
Liberty For Freedom Quotes
It is our duty to pay for our liberty with our own blood. The freedom that we shall win through our sacrifice and exertions, we shall be able to preserve with our own strength. — Subhas Chandra Bose
Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither. — Benjamin Franklin
Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom, and then lost it, have never known it again. — Ronald Reagan
Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes difference.
Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom. — John F. Kennedy
I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind. — John Diefenbaker
Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm, look for me all around you, for, with God's grace, I shall come and bring with me countless millions of black slaves who have died in America and
the West Indies and the millions in Africa to aid you in the fight for Liberty, Freedom and Life. — Marcus Garvey
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
Too long have the workers of the world waited for some Moses to lead them out of bondage... I would not lead you out if I could; for if you could be led out, you could be led back again. I would have you make up your minds there is nothing that you cannot do for yourselves. — Eugene V. Debs
If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them. — Paul Wellstone
People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both. — Benjamin Franklin
Nothing is more disgusting than the crowing about liberty by slaves, as most men are, and the flippant mistaking for freedom of some paper preamble like a Declaration of Independence, or the statute right to vote, by those who have never dared to think or to act. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
What Is Freedom Quotes
What is it you want to change? Your hair, your face, your body? Why? For God is in love with all those things and he might weep when they are gone. — St. Catherine of Siena
If yet your blood does not rage, then it is water that flows in your veins. For what is the flush of youth, if it is not of service to the motherland. — Chandra Shekhar Azad
The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. — Jim Morrison
I don't mind what happens. That is the essence of inner freedom.
It is a timeless spiritual truth: release attachment to outcomes,
deep inside yourself, you'll feel good no matter what. — Jiddu Krishnamurti
If it is right for men to fight for their freedom, and God knows what the human race would be like today if men had not, since time began, fought for their freedom, then it is right for women to fight for their freedom and the freedom of the children they bear. — Emmeline Pankhurst
Freedom is what we all seek, but it's what we do with that freedom that ultimately defines our character. In the end, a man's character cements his fate, good or bad. — Sonny Barger
Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought — Abraham Lincoln
Life is a sum of all your choices". So, what are you doing today? — Albert Camus
It’s ridiculous to talk about freedom in a society dominated by huge corporations. What kind of freedom is there inside a corporation? They’re totalitarian institutions - you take orders from above and maybe give them to people below you. There’s about as much freedom as under Stalinism. — Noam Chomsky
True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
One individual may die for an idea, but that idea will, after his death, incarnate itself in a thousand lives. — Subhas Chandra Bose
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. — Friedrich August von Hayek
An individual should not have too much freedom. A nation should have absolute freedom. — Sun Yat-sen
To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start, requiring several amendments, a civil war and momentous social transformation to attain the system of constitutional government, and its respect for the individual freedoms and human rights, we hold as fundamental today. — Thurgood Marshall
True patriotism springs from a belief in the dignity of the individual, freedom and equality not only for Americans but for all people on earth, universal brotherhood and good will, and a constant and earnest striving toward the principles and ideals on which this country was founded. — Eleanor Roosevelt
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. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
The free exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. — John Steinbeck
There's a difference between us. You think the people of this country exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom. And I go to make sure that they have it — William Wallace
To achieve world government, it is necessary to remove from the minds of men, their individualism, loyalty to family traditions, national patriotism and religious dogmas. — Brock Chisholm
Individual Rights Quotes
No individual has any right to come into the world and go out of it without leaving behind him distinct and legitimate reasons for having passed through it. — George Washington Carver
Childhood is not a race to see how quickly a child can read, write and count. It is a small window of time to learn and develop at the pace that is right for each individual child. Earlier is not better. — Magda Gerber
No price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. — Friedrich Nietzsche
If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health. — Hippocrates
Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual… Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us. — John Hancock
You know, I've never believed, in anything, that you had to have role models who looked like you to do something. If I'd been waiting for a black, female, soviet specialist role model, I'd be still waiting. — Condoleezza Rice
If you are asking me what the individual can do right now, in a political sense, I'd have to say he can't do all that much. Speaking for myself, I am more concerned with the transformation of the individual, which to me is much more important than the so-called political revolution. — William S. Burroughs
The right of self-defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to individuals. — James Monroe
The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has the right to an opinion, but crucially, that opinion can be roundly ignored and even made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably nonsense! — Sayings
Personal Freedom Quotes
There is in this world no such force as the force of a person determined to rise. The human soul cannot be permanently chained. — W. E. B. Du Bois
The man hunched over his motorcycle can focus only on the present... he is caught in a fragment of time cut off from both the past and the future... he has no fear, because the source of fear is in the future, and a person freed of the future has nothing to fear. — Milan Kundera
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow or love. Chained by his certitude, he is a slave; he has forfeited his freedom. Only the person who risks is truly free. — Leo Buscaglia
Freedom from slavery is achieved only when a person starts to feel and understand that he would prefer death to life as a slave. — Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale
If we commit ourselves to one person for life, this is not, as many people think, a rejection of freedom; rather, it demands the courage to move into all the risks of freedom, and the risk of love which is permanent; into that love which is not possession but participation. — Madeleine L'Engle
We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way. The third is freedom from want. The fourth is freedom from fear. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another. — Nelson Mandela
A people who mean to be free must be prepared to meet danger in person, and not rely upon the fallacious protection of armies — Edmund Randolph
It is solely by risking life that freedom is obtained; . . . the individual who has not staked his or her life may, no doubt, be recognized as a Person; but he or she has not attained the truth of this recognition as an independent self-consciousness. — Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Personal Liberty Quotes
Women will be no longer made the slaves of, or dependent upon men ... They will be equal in education, rights, privileges and personal liberty. — Robert Owen
Anytime anyone is enslaved or in any way deprived of his liberty, that person, as a human being, as far as I'm concerned he is justified to resort to whatever methods necessary to bring about his liberty again. — Malcolm X
When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner. — Montesquieu
When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner. — Baron de Montesquieu
No matter how worthy the cause, it is robbery, theft, and injustice to confiscate the property of one person and give it to another to whom it does not belong. — Walter E. Williams
There is a price tag on human liberty. That price is the willingness to assume the responsibilities of being free men. Payment of this price is a personal matter with each of us. — James Monroe
America's abundance was not created by public sacrifices to the common good, but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. — Ayn Rand
In this context, the church supports and favors every effort today to seek the full development of the personality of all human beings, and to promote their fundamental rights, their dignity and liberty. — Claudio Hummes
Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. — Zbigniew Brzezinski
I do not share the general view that market forces are the basis for political liberty. Every time I see a homeless person living in a cardboard box in London, I see that person as a victim of market forces. Everytime I see a pensioner who cannot manage, I know that he is a victim of market forces — Tony Benn
Religious Liberty Quotes
It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong. — Voltaire
Remember civil and religious liberty always go together: if the foundation of the one be sapped, the other will fall of course. — Alexander Hamilton
The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite. — Thomas Jefferson
The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally. — Patrick Pearse
The emigrants although of different parties and different religious sects all flew from persecution in pursuit of liberty. — James Monroe
The only foundation for . . . a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments. — Benjamin Rush
Let us by wise and constitutional measures promote intelligence among the people as the best means of preserving our liberties. — James Monroe
Of course, there are dangers in religious freedom and freedom of opinion. But to deny these rights is worse than dangerous, it is absolutely fatal to liberty. — Harry S. Truman
An enforced uniformity of religion throughout a nation or civil state, confounds the civil and religious, denies the principles of Christianity and civility, and that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. — Roger Williams
Sound morals, religious liberty, and a just sense of religious responsibility are essentially connected with all true and lasting happiness. — William Henry Harrison
Civil Liberties Quotes
Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. — Frederick Douglass
Freedom, by definition, is people realizing that they are their own leaders. — Diane Nash
The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing. — John Adams
Lucifer represents life, though, progress, civilization, liberty, independence. Lucifer is the Logos, the Serpent, the Savior. — H. P. Blavatsky
Let no man think we can deny civil liberty to others and retain it for ourselves. When zealous agents of the Government arrest suspected "radicals" without warrant, hold them without prompt trial, deny them access to counsel and admission of bail....we have shorn the Bill of Rights of its sanctity. — Robert M. La Follette, Sr.
What man loses by the social contract is his natural liberty and an unlimited right to everything he tries to get and succeeds in getting; what he gains is civil liberty and the proprietorship of all he possesses. — Jean-Baptiste Rousseau
Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty. — Samuel Adams
I have very real concerns about the civil liberties implications of ultimately requiring every resident to submit themselves for compulsory fingerprinting or some other biometric test. — Patricia Hewitt
Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us. — William O. Douglas
Demanding domestic security in times of war invites carelessness in preserving civil liberties and the right of privacy. Frequently the people are only too anxious for their freedoms to be sacrificed on the altar of authoritarianism thought to be necessary to remain safe and secure. — Ron Paul
American Liberty Quotes
But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. — John Adams
We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it. — William Faulkner
Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature. — Benjamin Franklin
Violence is black children going to school for 12 years and receiving 6 years' worth of education. — Julian Bond
If the liberties of the American people are ever destroyed, they will fall by the hands of the clergy. — Marquis de Lafayette
A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. — Samuel Adams
Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom. — John Adams
And you have to remember that I came to America as an immigrant. You know, on a ship, through the Statue of Liberty. And I saw that skyline, not just as a representation of steel and concrete and glass, but as really the substance of the American Dream. — Daniel Libeskind
The Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms. — Samuel Adams
But gentlemen, as long as I am an American Citizen, and as long as American blood runs in these veins, I shall hold myself at liberty to speak, to write, and to publish whatever I please on any subject. — Elijah Parish Lovejoy
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
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. — Fr
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. — Thomas Jefferson
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. — Friedrich August von Hayek
The concentration of such immense power to control information and understanding in so few individuals and organizations is unprecedented in human history. Those in power not only promoted their story, but effectively crushed dissent, along with the medical ethics and the civil liberties norms that so many of us had taken for granted. — Robert W. Malone
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. — Dennis Prager
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. — Lee Kuan Yew
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. — Ayn Rand
Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority. — Ayn Rand
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. — Roger Nash Baldwin
Whatever crushes individuality is despotism. — John Stuart Mill
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. — John C. Calhoun
The political problem of mankind is to combine three things: economic efficiency, social justice and individual liberty. — John Maynard Keynes
The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people. — John Stuart Mill
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. — William J. Clinton
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. — Ayn Rand
Peaceful secession and nullification are the only means of returning to a system of government that respects rather than destroys individual liberty. — Thomas DiLorenzo
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. — Friedrich August von Hayek
I realized that conservatism was the philosophy that best suited me, with its emphasis on individual liberty, personal responsibility, and merit. — Mark Levin
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. — Vladimir Lenin
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. — H. L. Mencken
Excess of liberty, whether it lies in state or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery. — Plato
A society that robs an individual of the product of his effort ... is not strictly speaking a society, but a mob held together by institutionalized gang violence. — Ayn Rand
When the individuality of the artist begins to express itself, what the artist gains in the way of liberty he loses in the way of order. — Pablo Picasso
To bring about government by oligarchy, masquerading as democracy, it is fundamentally essential that practically all authority and control be centralized in our Federal government. . . The individual sovereignty of our states must first be destroyed. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
The liberty of the individual is the greatest thing of all, it is on this and this alone that the true will of the people can develop. — Alexander Herzen
The proper role of government is exactly what John Stuart Mill said in the middle of the 19th century in "On Liberty." The proper role of government is to prevent other people from harming an individual. Government, he said, never has any right to interfere with an individual for that individual's own good. — Milton Friedman
Individuality is freedom lived. — John Dos Passos
Free inquiry entails recognition of civil liberties as integral to its pursuit, that is, a free press, freedom of communication, the right to organize opposition parties and to join voluntary associations, and freedom to cultivate and publish the fruits of scientific, philosophical, artistic, literary, moral and religious freedom. — Paul Kurtz
In Conclusion
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