quotations about liberty
I will fight the battle of liberty as long as there is a shot in the locker.
DAVID PAUL JONES
attributed, Day's Collacon
The spirit of liberty is not merely, as multitudes imagine, a jealousy of our own particular rights, but a respect for the rights of others, and an unwillingness that any man, whether high or low, should be wronged and trampled under foot.
WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING
"Importance of Religion to Society", The Works of William E. Channing
And now that the legislator and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty: for liberty is an acknowledgement of faith in God and His works.
FREDERICK BASTIAT
The Law
Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be found.
EDMUND BURKE
second speech on Conciliation with America, 1775
Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel.
PATRICK HENRY
speech on the Federal Constitution at the Virginia Ratifying Convention, Jun. 5, 1788
Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights.
GILBERT DU MOTIER
Declaration of the Rights of Man