Quotes about liberty
136 quotes from 75 people
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Letter to William Stephens Smith (13 November 1787). Manuscript at the Library of Congress.
Benjamin Franklin1706–1790This was first used by Franklin for the Pennsylvania Assembly in its “Reply to the Governor” (November 11, 1755) Reply to the Governor
Aristotle384–322 BCPolitics, book IV, 1291.b34Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain.
John F. Kennedy1917–1963Address at Vanderbilt UniversityI know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
Patrick Henry1736–1799Speech to the Second Virginia Convention, St. John’s Church, Richmond (23 March 1775), as given in William Wirt, Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry (1817). Nothing was written down at the time: Wirt rebuilt the speech from listeners’ recollections four decades later, so how much of the wording is Henry’s is disputed
Thomas Paine1737–1809First Principles of Government (1795)The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.
Edmund Burke1729–1797Speech at a County Meeting of Buckinghamshire (1784)Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950Maxims for Revolutionists (1903), #25If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.
George Washington1732–1799Letter to James Madison (2 March 1788)Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel.
Patrick Henry1736–1799Speech on the Federal Constitution, Virginia Ratifying Convention (5 June 1788)
