Learning for Liberty

"Liberty without learning is always in peril and learning without liberty is always in vain." -- John F. Kennedy

"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people." -- John Adams

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free ... it expects what never was and never will be." -- Thomas Jefferson

"The greatest threat to mankind and civilization is the spread of the totalitarian philosophy.  Its best ally is not the devotion of its followers but the confusion of its enemies.  To fight it, we must understand it." -- Ayn Rand

"The tyranny of a principal in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy." --Montesquieu, 1748

"Tyranny is always better organized than freedom." -- Charles Peguy.

"A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both." -- James Madison

“The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.” -- John F. Kennedy, 1963 

"It is not for glory or riches or honours that we fight, but only for liberty, which no good man will consent to lose but with his life." -- The Declaration of Arbroath, a reply to the Papal Bulls excommunicating Robert Bruce for recapturing Berwick, as sent to Pope John XXII on behalf of the community of the realm of Scotland, 1320 A.D.

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. ... God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion; what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?  Let them take arms." -- Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 1787

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things.  The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling that 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

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat." -- Theodore Roosevelt

"In the end, more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security.  They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all -- security, comfort, and freedom.  When ... the freedom they wished for was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free." -- Sir Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)

"The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living and the get rich quick theory of life." -- Teddy Roosevelt

"Personal responsibility is the price of liberty." -- Michael Cloud

"A free society cannot work unless people take charge of their lives and assume responsibility for their actions." -- Jim Powell

"The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite." -- Thomas Jefferson

"Live free or die." -- Gen. John Stark, the hero of the battles of Bennington and Bunker Hill.  Now the motto of the state of New Hampshire

"Anyone who needs to be persuaded to be free, doesn't deserve to be." -- L. Neil Smith

"A people may prefer a free government, but if, from indolence, or carelessness, or cowardice, or want of public spirit, they are unequal to the exertions necessary for preserving it; if they will not fight for it when it is directly attacked; if they can be deluded by the artifices used to cheat them out of it; if by momentary discouragement, or temporary panic, or a fit of enthusiasm for an individual, they can be induced to lay their liberties at the feet even of a great man, or trust him with powers which enable him to subvert their institutions; in all these cases they are more or less unfit for liberty: and though it may be for their good to have had it even for a short time, they are unlikely long to enjoy it." -- John Stuart Mill, Representative Government, 1861

"There is danger from all men.  The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty." -- John Adams, 1772

"There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots. What is it? Distrust." -- Demosthenes: Philippic 2, sect. 24

"All of history attests that the centralization and concentration of power breed despotism." -- H.A.Scott Trask

"Government is not compassion ... Government is nothing more than structured, widespread coercion ..." -- Glen Allport

"What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people.  It's not good at much else." -- Tom Clancy on Kudlow and Cramer 9/2/03

"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first."-- Thomas Jefferson

"We've witnessed a fire sale of American liberties at bargain basement prices, in return for the false promise of more security... The America being designed right now won't resemble the America we've been defending... The danger isn't that Big Brother may storm the castle gates.  The danger is that Americans don't realize that he is already inside the castle walls." -- Wayne LaPierre

"Tolerating imperfections is the price of freedom." -- Dr. Thomas Sowell

“I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years.  I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman’s club is false progress, and of no permanent value.  I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave.” -- H. L. Mencken, "Why Liberty?" January 30, 1927

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." – Thomas Jefferson to Archibald Stuart, 1791.

"[Oppose] with manly firmness [any] invasions on the rights of the people." -- Thomas Jefferson: Draft Virginia Constitution, 1776. Papers, 1:338

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined." -- Patrick Henry, Virginia's Ratification convention, 1788

"Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct." -- Thomas Carlyle

"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." -- Elie Wiesel
  

"The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people." -- Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis

"I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical." -- Thomas Jefferson, January 30, 1787

"The right to revolt has sources deep in our history." -- Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas

"Noncooperation with evil is as much a duty as cooperation with good." -- Gandhi

"It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from
falling into error." -- U.S. Supreme Court in American Communications Association v. Douds

"In 1776, 1950, or now, there's never been a golden age of liberty, and there never will be.  People who value freedom will always have to defend it from those who claim the right to wield power over others. ... And, in today's world, that means more than a musket by the door.  It means being an active citizen." -- David Boaz

"Most authoritarians do not surrender power voluntarily." -- Victor Davis Hanson

"No one can find a safe way out for himself if socety is sweeping towards destruction.  Therefore everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle.  None can stand aside with unconcern; the interests of everyone hang on the result." -- Ludwig von Mises

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." -- Samuel Adams"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." -- Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, September 23, 1800.  Inscribed in the Jefferson Memorial.

"A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on Earth... and what no just government should refuse." -- Thomas Jefferson in a Letter to James Madison, Paris, Dec. 20, 1787
  

See the Bill of Rights Enforcement Site

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."  --  William Pitt (the younger),  speech on the India Bill, Nov.1783 "The people never give up their liberty but under some delusion." -- Edmund Burke, 1784  "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an  endless series of hobgoblins."           -- H.L. Mencken, 1923 "I've set my own rules to live by.  The first one is: 'Never believe ANYthing the government says.' "    -- George Carlin "There's nothing that does so much harm as good intentions."-- Dr. Milton Friedman, as interviewed in "Is America No. 1?" by John Stossel. "Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of power. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."  -- Daniel Webster, as quoted in Hearings on the confirmation of Abe Fortas to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court, p. 108  "Most of the major ills of the world have been caused by well-meaning people who ignored the principle of individual freedom, except as applied to themselves, and who were obsessed with fanatical zeal to improve the lot of mankind- in-the-mass through some pet formula of their own. The harm done by ordinary criminals, murderers, gangsters, and thieves is negligible in comparison with the agony inflicted upon human beings by the professional do-gooders, who attempt to set themselves up as gods on earth and who would ruthlessly force their views on all others - with the abiding assurance that the end justifies the means." -- Henry Grady Weaver "When the freedom they wished for most was the freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and never was free again." -- Edith Hamilton  "Fifty-one percent of a nation can establish a totalitarian regime,  suppress minorities and still remain democratic."-- Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn "There is scarcely a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharaoh, get first all the people's money, then all their lands and then make them and their children servants forever."                     -- Benjamin Franklin "Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program."   -- Dr. Milton Friedman, Nobel-Prize-winning economist. "Benevolence in public institutions has a short half-life no matter how noble its original intentions." -- Richard A. Epstein, Principles for a Free Society "There's seldom been control of a new federal agency that wasn't sold by the most efficient fund-raising politicians to the wealthiest pressure groups within four years of its inception." -- Bert Rand "The problem with politics isn't the money; it's the power." -- Harry Browne "The problem isn't the abuse of power; it's the power to abuse." -- Michael Cloud "Give politicians power and it certainly will be abused eventually -- if not by today's politicians, then by ttheir successors." -- Harry Browne "These things I believe: That government should butt out. That freedom is our most precious commodity and if we are not eternally vigilant, government will take it all away. That individual freedom demands individual responsibility. That government is not a necessary good but an unavoidable evil." -- Franklyn C. "Lyn" Nofziger, Press Secretary for President Reagan "Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it." -- Dr. Milton Friedman .

"The government is merely a servant -- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them..." -- Mark Twain

"It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error." -- Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954), U.S. Judge, in American Communications Association v. Douds, May 1950

"Liberty is the sovereignty of the individual." -- Josiah Warren

"Liberty is a political firewall that limits the damage government can do to the individual." -- James Bovard

"When government does more than guard against the initiation of force, inevitably it becomes a means of theft and bamboozlement." -- Donald J. Boudreaux

"Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual."--Thomas Jefferson to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1819

"No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him." -- Thomas Jefferson to Franciis Gilmer, 1816.