Safe popular freedom consists of four things, the diffusion of liberty, of intelligence, of property, and of conscientiousness, and cannot be compounded of any three out of the four.
—Joseph Cook
Where equality is undisputed, so also is subordination.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
He is the freeman whom the truth makes free, and all are slaves beside.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
In my youth I stressed freedom, and in my old age I stress order. I have made the great discovery that liberty is a product of order.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Industrialist
The most essential mental quality for a free people, whose liberty is to be progressive, permanent, and on a large scale, is much stupidity.
—Walter Bagehot (1826–77) English Economist, Journalist
Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Liberty is the most jealous and exacting mistress that can beguile the brain and soul of man. From him who will not give her all, she will have nothing. She knows that his pretended love serves but to betray. But when once the fierce heat of her quenchless, lustrous eyes has burned into the victim’s heart, he will know no other smile but hers.
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American Civil Liberties Lawyer
The liberty of a people consists in being governed by laws which they have made themselves, under whatsoever form it be of government. The liberty of a private man, in being master of his own time and actions, as far as may consist with the laws of God and of his country.
—Abraham Cowley (1618–67) English Poet, Essayist
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.
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American Civil Liberties Lawyer
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Nothing can be unconditional: consequently nothing can be free.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
We recall the joy and excitement of a nation that had found itself, the collective relief that we had stepped out of our restrictive past, and the expectant air of walking into a brighter future.
—Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) South African Political leader
It is impossible to mentally or socially enslave a Bible-reading people. The principles of the Bible are the ground work of human freedom.
—Horace Greeley (1811–72) American Elected Rep, Politician, Reformer, Editor
There are two freedoms—the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where he is free to do what he ought.
—Charles Kingsley (1819–75) English Clergyman, Academic, Historian, Novelist
Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have.
—Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) American Baptist Minister
A well governed appetite is the greater part of liberty.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Man’s liberty ends, and it ought to end, when that liberty becomes the curse of his neighbors.
—Frederic William Farrar (1831–1903) English Clergyman, Writer
It would indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defense, we would sanction the subversion of those liberties which make the defense of the nation worthwhile.
—Earl Warren (1891–1974) American Judge, Politician
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.
—Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751) English Politician, Philosopher
Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
—S. G. Tallentyre (Evelyn Beatrice Hall)
When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Radical, Inventor
The contest, for ages, has been to rescue liberty from the grasp of executive power.
—Daniel Webster (1782–1852) American Statesman, Lawyer
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Liberty, not communism, is the most contagious force in the world.
—Earl Warren (1891–1974) American Judge, Politician