Liberty & Freedom Quotes

Freedom is never granted; it is won.

Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom - and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.

Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom - and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.

I believe in Liberty for all men: the space to stretch their arms and their souls, the right to breathe and the right to vote, the freedom to choose their friends, enjoy the sunshine, and ride on the railroads, uncursed by color; thinking, dreaming, working as they will in a kingdom of beauty and love.

All great enterprises have a pearl of faith at their core, and this must be ours: that Americans are still a people born to liberty. That they retain the capacity for self-government. That, addressed as free-born, autonomous men and women of God-given dignity, they will rise yet again to drive back a mortal enemy.

Freedom is from within.

Liberty, as it is conceived by current opinion, has nothing inherent about it; it is a sort of gift or trust bestowed on the individual by the state pending good behavior.

I believe that, as Americans, our freedoms come from God and not government, and include the rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

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

Truth is mysterious, elusive, always to be conquered. Liberty is dangerous, as hard to live with as it is elating. We must march toward these two goals, painfully but resolutely, certain in advance of our failings on so long a road.

Freedom is just freedom. It is a condition, not an agent of change. It does not develop or uplift those who win it. Freedom holds us accountable no matter the disadvantages we inherit from the past.

The history of liberty is a history of resistance.

Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right to do what we ought.

Money's the cheapest thing. Liberty and freedom is the most expensive.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.

God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: 'This is my country.'

Liberty: One of Imagination's most precious possessions.

Religious liberty is the first freedom in our Constitution. And whether the cause is justice for the persecuted, compassion for the needy and the sick, or mercy for the child waiting to be born, there is no greater force for good in the nation than Christian conscience in action.

Liberty has never come from Government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it.

The best road to progress is freedom's road.

Freedom is never given; it is won.

Democracy is liberty - a liberty which does not infringe on the liberty nor encroach on the rights of others; a liberty which maintains strict discipline, and makes law its guarantee and the basis of its exercise. This alone is true liberty; this alone can produce true democracy.

Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.

We are descended from a people whose government was founded on liberty; our glorious forefathers of Great Britain made liberty the foundation of everything. That country is become a great, mighty, and splendid nation; not because their government is strong and energetic, but, sir, because liberty is its direct end and foundation.

The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending against all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.

Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.

Liberty does not exist where rights are on one side and power on the other. To be liberty, rights must be armed with vital powers. A people cannot be free who do not participate in the control of the government which operates upon them.

Liberty is worth paying for.

Freedom is fragile and must be protected. To sacrifice it, even as a temporary measure, is to betray it.

We must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would no longer be possessed of liberty.

The precondition to freedom is security.

What light is to the eyes - what air is to the lungs - what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.

Freedom is a possession of inestimable value.

Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be.

Freedom is not negotiable.

There is only one kind of freedom and that's individual liberty. Our lives come from our creator and our liberty comes from our creator. It has nothing to do with government granting it.

Liberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society.

Freedom in art, freedom in society, this is the double goal towards which all consistent and logical minds must strive.

Freedom is what beauty feels like when it can most express itself.

Freedom is control in your own life.

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires.

And what is liberty, whose very name makes the heart beat faster and shakes the world? Is it not the union of all liberties - liberty of conscience, of education, of association, of the press, of travel, or labor, or trade?

Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery.

Freedom. And Justice. If you have those two, it covers everything. You must stick to those principles and have the courage of your convictions.

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.

Freedom is not the absence of obligation or restraint, but the freedom of movement within healthy, chosen parameters.

The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule.

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.

Freedom is absolutely necessary for the progress in science and the liberal arts.

The United States was the first country in the history of the world to be consciously created out of an idea - and the idea was liberty.

Freedom and order are not incompatible... truth is strength... free discussion is the very life of truth.

Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.

The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.

Equality is the soul of liberty; there is, in fact, no liberty without it.

Freedom is the recognition of necessity.

The liberty of man consists solely in this, that he obeys the laws of nature because he has himself recognized them as such, and not because they have been imposed upon him externally by any foreign will whatsoever, human or divine, collective or individual.

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.

Those who won our independence... valued liberty as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.

Freedom comes with responsibility.

The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the goverment.

Freedom is a system based on courage.

Freedom is the right to live as we wish.

The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.

Our Constitution exists to secure individual freedom, the essential condition of human flourishing. Liberty is not provided by government; liberty preexists government. It's our natural birthright, not a gift from the sovereign. Our founders upended things and divided power to enshrine a promise, not a process.