“Its name is public opinion. It is held in reverence. It settles everything. Some think it is the voice of God. Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.”
— Mark Twain (1857-1938), American writer
“Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to think other men’s thoughts, to speak other men’s words, to follow other men’s habits.”
— Walter Bagehot (1826-1877), British economist
*“An appeal to arms and the God of hosts is all that is left us. But we shall not fight our battle alone. There is a just God that presides over the destinies of nations. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone. Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death.”
— Patrick Henry (1736-1799), American patriot
“There is no slavery but ignorance.”
— Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899), American orator and agnostic
“The ultimate freedom we have as human beings is the power to select what we will allow or require our minds to dwell upon.”
— Dallas Willard, USC philosophy professor Renovation of the Heart, p. 95
*“In the last analysis, our only freedom is the freedom to discipline ourselves.”
— Bernard M. Baruch (1870-1965), Business-statesman
“You can take away my wife, you can take away my children, you can strip me of my clothes and my freedom, but there is one thing no person can ever take away from me – and that is my freedom to choose how I will react to what happens to me!”
— Victor Frankl (1905-1997), Man’s Search for Meaning
“Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without religion.”
— Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), French historian and political thinker
“The only foundation for a useful education in 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.”
— Dr. Benjamin Rush (1746-1813), signer of the Declaration of Independence and physician
“Those who would deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.”
— President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
“Only those who one day fight for freedom are worthy of it.”
— Lyrics of a song in Cuba
*“Only the disciplined are free.”
— J. C. Penney (1875-1971), business and entrepreneur
“It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly.”
— Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), British philosopher
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.”
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809), British intellectual and deist, in “The Crisis”
The atheist worldview of life is “a materialistic culture that frees humanity from superstition.”
— Howard Thompson, President, American Atheists
*“It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives.”
— Dorothy Thompson (1894-1961), journalist-author
“I would define liberty to be a power to do as we would be done by. The definition of liberty to be the power of doing whatever the law permits, meaning the civil laws, does not seem satisfactory.”
— President John Adams (1735-1826)
“…The spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understands the minds of other men and women…”
— Judge Learned Hand (1872-1961)
“The hour is fast approaching, on which the honor and success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding country depend. Remember officers and soldiers that you are free men, fighting for the blessings of liberty — that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men.”
— Gen. George Washington, spoken to troops on Aug. 23, 1776
“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.”
— President Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
*“Liberty cannot be purchased by a wish.”
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809), British intellectual and deist, in Letter to the People of France
“When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished by default it can never be recovered.”
— Dorothy Thompson (1894-1961), syndicated newspaper columnist
“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God?”
— President Thomas Jefferson, 1781
“If you cannot be the master of your language, you must be its slave.”
— Richard Mitchell, Less Than Words Can Say, p. 180
“Liberty is the prevention of control by others. This requires self-control and, therefore, religious and spiritual influences; education, knowledge, well-being.”
— Lord Acton (1834-1902), British scholar and historian
“If you are ruled by mind you are a king; if by body, a slave.”
— Cato (234-149 BC), Roman statesman-historian
“It does not take a majority to prevail…but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”
— Samuel Adams (1722-1803), Founding Father
“All of us denounce war—all of us consider it man’s greatest stupidity. And yet wars happen and they involve the most passionate lovers of peace because there are still barbarians in the world who set the price for peace at death or enslavement and the price is too high.”
— President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)
“Liberty is the hardest test that one can inflict on a people. To know how to be free is not given equally to all men and all nations.”
— Paul Valery (1871-1945), French poet, essayist and philosopher
“Discipline without freedom is tyranny; freedom without discipline is chaos.”
— Cullen Hightower (b. 1923), American salesman and trainer
“Our freedom to discipline ourselves is a freedom we can lose if we don’t use it.”
— Cullen Hightower (b. 1923), American salesman and trainer
“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, US Supreme Court Justice, Planned Parenthood of “Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey” decision, 1992
“No people will tamely surrender their liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and virtue is preserved. On the contrary, when people are universally ignorant, and debauched in their manners [morals], they will sink under their own weight without the aid of foreign Invaders.”
Samuel Adams (1722-1803), Founding Father
“It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains.”
— Patrick Henry, Founding Father
“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought, which they seldom use.
— Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Danish philosopher, theologian and author
“Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.”
— President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)
“Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.”
— President John Quincy Adams (1767-1848)
“If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that, too.”
— M. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), British playwright and novelist
“I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. This is the chief meaning of freedom.”
— President Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933)
“A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.”
— Samuel Adams (1722-1803), Founding Father, political philosopher