Speaking Freely
Quotes on Rights and Liberty #41
Dr. Sharon Presley • 1943—2022
“The people who need to hate are driven by their own suppressed fears and uncertainties. They lash out to hide those fears from themselves.”
Ronald Reagan • 1904–2011
“History had taught us an important lesson: Free trade serves the cause of economic progress, and it serves the cause of world peace.”
Mitt Romney • 1947 —
“We are a nation of immigrants. We are the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the ones who wanted a better life, the driven ones, the ones who woke up at night hearing that voice telling them that life in that place called America could be better.”
John Ramsay McCulloch • 1789–1864
“A despot is merely an individual and becomes quite powerless when those masses of individuals in whom the ability to coerce others really resides, disapprove of his proceedings.”
𝐆𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐎𝐫𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 • 𝟏𝟗𝟎𝟑 — 𝟏𝟗𝟓𝟎
“One is almost driven to the cynical conclusion that men are only decent when they are powerless.”
𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 • 𝟏𝟖𝟕𝟗 — 𝟏𝟗𝟔𝟔
“No woman can call herself free who does not control her own body.”
H.L. Mencken • 1880–1956
“The objection to Puritans is not that they try to make us think as they do, but that they try to make us do as they think.”
Barry Goldwater • 1908—1998
“One of the great strengths of our political system always has been our tendency to keep religious issues in the background. By maintaining the separation of church and state, the United States has avoided the intolerance which has so divided the rest of the world with religious wars.”
Halford E. Luccock • 1885–1960
“When and if fascism comes to America… it will not be marked with a swastika; it will not even be called fascism; it will be called, of course, ‘Americanism.’”
Marie Curie • 1867—1934
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”
Richard Feynman • 1918–1988
“We must be careful not to believe things simply because we want them to be true. No one can fool you as easily as you can fool yourself.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky • 1821—1881
“Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.”
William Jay Gaynor • 1849—1913
“We must see to it that those whom we elect to office do not go outside of the laws, or set themselves up above the laws, and do as they please.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge • 1772–1834
“In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.”
C.S. Lewis • 1898–1963
“Theocracy is the worst of all governments. If we must have a tyrant, a robber baron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point be sated; and since he dimly knows he is doing wrong he may possibly repent. But the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations.”
Thomas Paine • 1737–1809
“In America the law is king. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king, and there ought to be no other.”
A.V. Dicey • 1835–1922
“Every man, whatever be his rank or condition, is subject to the ordinary law of the realm and amenable to the jurisdiction of the ordinary tribunals.”
Robert Anton Wilson • 1932–2007
“To the extent that you need a scapegoat, you simply have not got your brain programmed to work as an efficient problem-solving machine.”
Robert Ingersoll • 1833–1899
“There was a time when physical force or brute strength gave pre-eminence. The savage chief occupied his position by virtue of his muscle, of his courage, on account of the facility with which he wielded a club. As long as nations depend simply upon brute force, the man, in time of war, is, of necessity, of more importance to the nation than woman, and as the dispute is to be settled by strength, by force, those who have the strength and force naturally settle it. As the world becomes civilized, intelligence slowly takes the place of force, conscience restrains muscle, reason enters the arena, and the gladiator retires.”
Herbert Spencer • 𝟏𝟖𝟐𝟎 — 𝟏𝟗𝟎𝟑
“I emphasize the reply that the liberty which a citizen enjoys is to be measured, not by the nature of the governmental machinery he lives under, whether representative or other, but by the relative paucity of the restraints it imposes on him.”
Frédéric Bastiat 1801–1850
“The entire difference between a bad and a good Economist is apparent here. A bad one relies on the visible effect while the good one takes account both of the effect one can see and of those one must foresee.”
Ludwig Mises • 1881–1973
“No open attack upon the freedom of the individual [has] any prospect of success. Thus the advocates of totalitarianism choose other tactics. They reverse the meaning of words. They call true or general liberty the condition of the individuals under a system in which they have no right other than to obey orders… They define liberty as the opportunity to do the “right” things, and, of course, they arrogate to themselves the determination of what is right and what is not. In their eyes, government omnipotence means full liberty. To free the police power from all restraints is the true meaning of their struggle for freedom.”
Lesley Gore • 1946–2015
“I don’t tell you what to say
I don’t tell you what to do
So just let me be myself
That’s all I ask of you.
I’m young and I love to be young
I’m free and I love to be free
To live my life the way I want
To say and do whatever I please.”
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