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Quotes about liberty

136 quotes from 75 people

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Procedural fairness and regularity are of the indispensable essence of liberty.
Robert H. Jackson1892–1954Shaughnessy v. United States ex rel Mezei, 345 U.S. 206, 224–25 (1953)
- Justice
The choice is not between order and liberty. It is between liberty with order and anarchy without either.
Robert H. Jackson1892–1954Dissenting in Terminiello v. City of Chicago, 337 U.S. 1 (1949)
- Government
We can afford no liberties with liberty itself.
Robert H. Jackson1892–1954United States v. Spector, 343 US 169, 180 (1952) (dissenting)
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.
- War & Peace
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Letter to Archibald Stuart , Philadelphia (23 December 1791)
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Letter to Edward Carrington, Paris (27 May 1788)
- Government
The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774); The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (19 Vols., 1905) edited by Andrew A. Lipscomb and Albert Ellery Bergh, Vol. 1, p. 211
- God
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 Jefferson1743–1826The Declaration of Independence (1776), Declaration of Independence (4 July 1776), which he draftedIn context
- America
We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
John F. Kennedy1917–1963John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address (1961)
Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain.
John F. Kennedy1917–1963Address at Vanderbilt University
- Education
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
John F. Kennedy1917–1963John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address (1961)
- America
Men fight for liberty, and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves.
D. H. Lawrence1885–1930“Liberty’s Old Old Story”, Pansies (1929)
In countries and epochs in which communication is impeded, soon all other liberties wither; discussion dies by inanition, ignorance of the opinion of others becomes rampant, imposed opinions triumph.
Primo Levi1919–1987The Drowned and the Saved (1986)
- Debate
Must a government of necessity be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?
Abraham Lincoln1809–1865Fourth of July Address to Congress (1861)
- Government
We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.
Abraham Lincoln1809–1865Lecture on Liberty: An Address in Baltimore, Maryland (18 April 1864)