Freedom & Liberty

Take the time to be Free.

Liberty is the most contagious force in the world.

Depend on it, that the lovers of freedom will be free.

Freedom is a chance to be better. - Albert Camus

The sum of behavior is to retain a man's own dignity, without intruding on the liberty of others.

Liberty consists of being able to do whatever is not injurious to the rights of others.

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.

Liberty, then is the sovereignty of the individual, and never shall man know liberty until each and every individual is acknowledged to be the only legitimate sovereign of his or her person, time, and property, each living and acting at his own cost; and not until we live in a society where each can exercise his right of sovereignty at all times without clashing with or violating that of others.

There will never be a free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.

Individuality is the aim of political liberty.

Whatever crushes individuality is despotism.

There never was a revolution unless there were some oppressive and intolerable conditions against which to revolt.

The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want. They spread and grow in the evil soil of poverty and strife. They reach their full growth when the hope of a people for a better life has died. We must keep Hope alive. The free people of the world look to us for support in maintaining their freedom.

Freedom from want, freedom from fear, freedom of speech and expression, the freedom to practice their spiritual beliefs.

It is demonstrable that many of the obstacles for change which have been attributed to human nature are in fact due to the inertia of institutions and to the voluntary desire of powerful classes to maintain existing status.

I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.

The revolution was effected before the war commenced. The revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, their duties and obligations.

This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.

Man's external, personal, natural liberty, antecedent to all human parts, or alliances, must also be considered. And so every man must be conceived to be perfectly in his own power and disposal, and not to be controlled by the authority of any other. And thus every man must be acknowledged equal to every man, since all subjugation and all command are equally banished on both sides; and considering all men thus at liberty, every man has a prerogative to judge for himself, that is to say: what shall be most for his advantage, happiness, and well-being.

We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable: that all men are created equal and independent, that from that creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

All human beings are born free and equal, in dignity and rights.

For two centuries we have asserted the propositions of human equality, the sanctity of life, the blessings of liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These liberating ideals not only fueled a revolution; they raised standards of national measurement so high that they are not likely to be fully realized. Thus, we live with a continuing, unfinished revolution that challenges each succeeding generation.

Liberty of each, limited by the like liberties of all, is the rule in conformity with which society must be organized.

Liberty and Equality.

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.

Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

The condition upon which God has given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.

The people must eternally vigilant against the enemies of liberty.

Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women. When it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.

The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom.

You can only be free if I am free.

He who lives in fear will never be a free man.

Will one day live in a nation when they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but the content of their character.

Freedom! A fine word when rightly understood. What freedom would you have? What is the freedom of the most free? To act rightly!

We are men, and held together, only by our word.

The ancient idealization of poverty could have meant: the liberation from material attachments, the unbridled soul, the manlier indifference, the paying our way by what we are or do and not by what we have, the more athletic trim, in short, the moral fighting shape.

The proletariat, not wishing to be treated as canaille, needs its courage, its self-esteem, its pride, and its sense of independence more than its bread.

Who then is free? The wise man, who is lord over himself, whom neither poverty, or death, nor bonds affright, who bravely defies his passions, and scorns ambition, who in himself is a whole, smoothed and rounded, so that nothing outside can rest on the polished surface, and against whom Fortune in her onset is ever defeated.

Genuine liberty demands of its votaries a quality he lacks completely, and that is courage. The man who loves it must be willing to fight for it. More, he must be able to endue it, an even more arduous business.

Better to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees.

Liberty does not always have clean hands.

What in some is called liberty is called license in others.

Liberty is for wise people who delight in humanity, praise justice, despise their flatterers, and respect the truth.

Liberty means responsibility.

Liberty is activity.

A free life cannot acquire many possessions, because this is not easy to do without servility to mobs or monarchs.

Let him then who wishes to be free not wish for anything or avoid anything that depends on others; or else he is bound to be a slave.

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.

Variation, experiment and insurgence are all of them attributes of freedom.

All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it.

It is no longer possible to maintain that there can be progress in socialism without equal progress in human freedom, and particularly in freedom of expression.

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to my conscience, above all liberties.

There must be no barriers for freedom in inquiry. There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors.

Freedom of expression is the well-spring of our civilization...The history of civilization is in considerable measure the displacement of error which once held sway as official truth by beliefs which in turn have yielded to other truths. Therefore the liberty of man to search for truth ought not to be fettered, no matter what othodoxies he may challenge.

The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth; if wrong, they lose, what is always as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.

Long experience has taught us that it is dangerous in the interest of truth to suppress opinions and ideas; it has further taught us that it is foolish to imagine that we can do so. It is far easier to meet an evil in the open and defeat it in fair combat in people's minds, than to drive it underground and have no hold on it or proper approach to it. Evil flourishes far more in the shadows than in the light of day.

Intellectual freedom is essential to human society. Freedom of thought is the only guarantee against an infection of people by mass myths, which, in the hands of treacherous hypocrites and demagogues, can be transformed into bloody dictatorships.

The Framers of the Constitution knew that free speech is the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the deadliest enemy of tyranny.

Make no laws whatsoever concerning speech, and speech will be free.

Liberty of thought soon shrivels without freedom of expression. Nor can truth be pursued in an atmosphere hostile to the endeavor or under dangers which are hazarded only by heroes.

It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions make it impossible to earn a living.

If they think for themselves, great good will be done, and if they do not, no harm. It is a benefit to human beings to take off their fetters, even if they do not desire to walk.

Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people.

The rights of mankind to knowledge and the free use thereof.

As fire is indispensable to cooking, so knowledge is essential to deliverance.

Knowledge alone effects emancipation.

Wisdom, above all else, is liberty.

Only the educated are free.

 

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