"If mankind minus one were of one opinion, then mankind is no more justified in silencing the one than the one - if he had the power - would be justified in silencing mankind."

                                                                John Stuart Mill

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.                 John Stuart Mill

The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant.         John Stuart Mill

I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death.          Patrick Henry

It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.                                                                       David Hume

It is easy to take liberty for granted when you have never had it taken from you.            M. Grundler

I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.                                                                                                                   Barry Goldwater

	The more liberty you give away the more you will have.                                                                               Robert G. Ingersoll

	What light is to the eyes -- what air is to the lungs -- what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.
	Robert Green Ingersoll 1833-1899, American Orator, Lawyer

	I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
	Thomas Jefferson

	It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.                                                                                               Thomas Jefferson

	The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.                                                                                        Thomas Jefferson

	The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.                                                                                                     Thomas Jefferson

	The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.                                                                                           Thomas Jefferson

	Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.                                                                                           Thomas Jefferson

                         H.L. Mencken, 1880-1956, American Editor, Author, Critic, Humorist

	We are as great as our belief in human liberty -- no greater. And our belief in human liberty is only ours when it is larger than ourselves.                                                                                                        Archibald MacLeish

	Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.                                       James Madison

We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.

James Madison

	He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
	Thomas Paine

I would rather not be a king than to forfeit my liberty.

The approach of liberty makes even an old man brave.

Seneca 4 B.C. – 65 A.D., Spanish-born Roman Statesman, philosopher

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

George Bernard Shaw

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves. Henry David Thoreau

I would rather belong to a poor nation that was free than to a rich nation that had ceased to be in love with liberty.

Woodrow T. Wilson

	Liberty has never come from government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it.
	Woodrow T. Wilson 1856-1924, Twenty-eighth President of the USA

Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others.

William Allen White

1868-1944, American Editor, Writer

           George Washington, 1732-1799, First President   of the USA

The history of liberty is the history of the limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it. When we resist the concentration of power we are resisting the powers of death. Concentration of power precedes the destruction of human liberties.

Woodrow T. Wilson, 1856-1924, Twenty-eighth President of the USA

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal -- well-meaning but without understanding.

1856-1941, American Judge

Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves.

Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865, Sixteenth President of the USA

Freedom is the last, best hope of earth.

Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865, Sixteenth President of the USA

No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.

Douglas Macarthur

1880-1964, American Army General in WW II

Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently.

1870-1919, German Revolutionary

You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.

Malcolm X 1925-1965, American Black Leader, Activist

You don't have to be a man to fight for freedom. All you have to do is to be an intelligent human being.

Malcolm X 1925-1965, American Black Leader, Activist

Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.

Nelson Mandela 1918-, South African President

Any nation that thinks more of its ease and comfort than its freedom will soon lose its freedom; and the ironical thing about it is that it will lose its ease and comfort too.

W. Somerset Maugham 1874-1965, British Novelist, Playwright

When a person places the proper value on freedom, there is nothing under the sun that he will not do to acquire that freedom. Whenever you hear a man saying he wants freedom, but in the next breath he is going to tell you what he won't do to get it, or what he doesn't believe in doing in order to get it, he doesn't believe in freedom. A man who believes in freedom will do anything under the sun to acquire... or preserve his freedom.

Malcolm X

1925-1965, American Black Leader, Activist

I believe in a religion that believes in freedom. Any time I have to accept a religion that won't let me fight a battle for my people, I say to hell with that religion.

Malcolm X 1925-1965, American Black Leader, Activist

If you're not ready to die for it, put the word ''freedom'' out of your vocabulary.

Malcolm X 1925-1965, American Black Leader, Activist

It is easy to believe in freedom of speech for those with whom we agree.

Leo Mckern

We must be willing to pay a price for freedom.

H. L. Mencken 1880-1956, American Editor, Author, Critic, Humorist

The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.

John Stuart Mill 1806-1873, British Philosopher, Economist

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.

Henry Bolingbroke

1678-1751, British Politician

When ever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither is safe.

Edmund Burke 1729-1797, British Political Writer, Statesman

Freedom suppressed and again regained bites with keener fangs than freedom never endangered.

Marcus T. Cicero

c. 106-43 BC, Great Roman Orator, Politician

Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.

Charles Caleb Colton 1780-1832, British Sportsman Writer

Tyrants have not yet discovered any chains that can fetter the mind.

Charles Caleb Colton 1780-1832, British Sportsman Writer

You can protect your liberties in this world only by protecting the other man's freedom. You can be free only if I am free.

Clarence Darrow 1857-1938, American Lawyer

If you think you're free, there's no escape possible.

Ram Dass American Spiritual Author, Lecturer

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.

Dwight D. Eisenhower 1890-1969, Thirty-fourth President of the USA

Freedom is fragile and must be protected. To sacrifice it, even as a temporary measure, is to betray it.

Germaine Greer

1939-, Australian Feminist Writer

When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free.

1862-1948, American Jurist, Politician

The unity of freedom has never relied on uniformity of opinion.

1917-1963, Thirty-fifth President of the USA

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

1929-1968, American Black Leader, Nobel Prize Winner, 1964

A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him.

1885-1972, American Poet, Critic

Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.

BC 495-429, Athenian Statesman

The law will never make men free, it is men that have to make the law free.

1817-1862, American Essayist, Poet, Naturalist

It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.

1694-1778, French Historian, Writer

Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where the gun begins.

Ayn Rand

Individual rights are the means of subordinating society to moral law.

Ayn Rand

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. Author: Ayn Rand

The common good of a collective -- a race, a class, a state -- was the claim and justification of every tyranny ever established over men. Every major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive. Has any act of selfishness ever equaled the carnage perpetrated by disciples of altruism? Does the fault lie in men's hypocrisy or in the nature of the principle? The most dreadful butchers were the most sincere. The believed in the perfect society reached through the guillotine and the firing squad. Nobody questioned their right to murder since they were murdering for an altruistic purpose. It was accepted that man must be sacrificed for other men. Actors change, but the course of the tragedy remains the same. A humanitarian who starts with the declarations of love for mankind and ends with a sea of blood. It goes on and will go on so long as men believe that an action is good if it is unselfish. That permits the altruist to act and forces his victims to bear it. The leaders of collectivist movements ask nothing of themselves. But observe the results. Ayn Rand 1905-1982, Russian Writer, Philosopher

There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist. Ayn Rand 1905-1982, Russian Writer, Philosopher

	The Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.
	Samuel Adams

	Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty.
	Samuel Adams

Thomas Paine 1737-1809, Anglo-American Political Theorist, Writer

He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.Thomas Paine 1737-1809, Anglo-American Political Theorist, Writer

When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon. Thomas Paine 1737-1809, Anglo-American Political Theorist, Writer

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right. Thomas Paine

Reason and Ignorance, the opposites of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind. If either of these can be rendered sufficiently extensive in a country, the machinery of Government goes easily on. Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it. Thomas Paine

Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none. Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826, Third President of the USA

	My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
	Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826, Third President of the USA

	That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.
	Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826, Third President of the USA
	I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
	Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826, Third President of the USA

	It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.
	Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826, Third President of the USA

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826, Third President of the USA

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826, Third President of the USA

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes...Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.

Thomas Jefferson

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

Thomas Jefferson

The beauty of the second amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.

Thomas Jefferson

Were we to be directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.

Thomas Jefferson

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others?

Thomas Jefferson

Government is not reason and it is not eloquence. It is force! Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.George Washington 1732-1799, First President of the USA

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. Frederic Bastiat 1801-1850, French Legislator

The point to remember is what government gives it must first take away

John S. Caldwell

Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have.

Davy Crockett, 1786-1836, American Backwoodsman

Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.

Milton Friedman 1912-, American Economist

The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.

Milton Friedman 1912-, American Economist

The greater the hold of government upon the life of the individual citizen, the greater the risk of war. John Hospers, First Libertarian Presidential Candidate, Philosopher

Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826, Third President of the USA

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

P.J. O'Rourke, 1947-, American Journalist

Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

Thomas Paine, 1737-1809, Anglo-American Political Theorist, Writer

Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.

Will Rogers 1879-1935, American Humorist, Actor

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.

Will Rogers 1879-1935, American Humorist, Actor

That government is best which governs least. Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862, American Essayist, Poet, Naturalist

Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper.

Larry Flynt

Washington is a place where politicians don't know which way is up and taxes don't know which way is down.

Robert Orben

Everybody wants to eat at the government's table, but nobody wants to do the dishes.

Werner Finck

When government accepts responsibility for people, then people no longer take responsibility for themselves.

George Pataki

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.

Thomas Jefferson

Government is an unnecessary evil. Human beings, when accustomed to taking responsibility for their own behavior, can cooperate on a basis of mutual trust and helpfulness.

Fred Woodworth

If human beings are fundamentally good, no government is necessary; if they are fundamentally bad, any government, being composed of human beings, would be bad also.

Fred Woodworth

If you make any money, the government shoves you in the creek once a year with it in your pockets, and all that don't get wet you can keep.

Will Rogers

Taxation with representation ain't so hot either.

Gerald Barzan

America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation.

Laurence J. Peter

I'm proud to pay taxes in the United States; the only thing is, I could be just as proud for half the money.

Arthur Godfrey

Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.

Calvin Coolidge

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Lord Acton

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. 

Voltaire

Everything government touches turns to crap.

Ringo Starr

Big government is cancerous. Like a cancer, it hurts the body and tends to spread, doing more and more harm as it grows. It is time for some radical surgery.

George C. Leef

You can't give the government the power to do good without also giving it the power to do bad - in fact, to do anything it wants.

Harry Browne

Once upon a time, government budgets were balanced, our money was sound, the streets were safe, and taxes imposed by all levels of government took less than 10% of our income.

Harry Browne

The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.

Edmund Burke

The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.

William O. Douglas

1898-1980, American Supreme Court Justice

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865, Sixteenth President of the USA

He who spares the bad injures the good.

1st Century BC, Roman Writer

Live with integrity, respect the rights of other people, and follow your own bliss.

Nathaniel Branden, American Expert on Self-esteem, Author, Psychologist

: When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators. 

P.J. O'Rourke1947-, American Journalist

	Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.
	P. J. O'Rourke 1947-, American Journalist

	Marijuana is self-punishing. It makes you acutely sensitive, and in this world, what worse punishment could there be?
	P. J. O'Rourke 1947-, American Journalist