So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those
who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent,
and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods,
religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men
Voltaire
If you are not free to choose wrongly and
irresponsibly, you are not free at all. Jacob Hornberger (1995)
One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope
that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation.
Thomas B. Reed (1886)
The right to defy an unconstitutional statute is basic
in our scheme. Even when an ordinance requires a permit to make a
speech, to deliver a sermon, to picket, to parade, or to assemble,
it need not be honored when it's invalid on its face. Potter
Stewart (1915-1985), U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Walker v.
Birmingham, 1967
The American experiment has come and gone. Whatever
freedoms the people still might have as their own, are monitored and
registered and taxed at virtually every turn. Jeff Baxter
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who
falsely believe they are free. Goethe
It is not the business of government to make men
virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences
of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is
necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each
from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental
prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating
the very ends they are intended to serve. Henry George
Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.
Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. Barry Goldwater
(1964)
If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will
lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or
money that it values more, it will lose that, too. Somerset
Maugham
Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women. When it
dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it. Justice
Learned Hand
It is sobering to reflect that one of the best ways to
get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go
about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in
the struggle for independence. Charles A. Beard
Liberty is not a means to a political end. It is
itself the highest political end. Lord Acton
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives
under. H.L. Mencken
When the government's boot is on your throat, whether
it is a left boot or a right boot is of no consequence. Gary Lloyd
[On ancient Athens]: In the end, more than freedom,
they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost
it all security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians finally
wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when
the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility,
then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again. Edward
Gibbon
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of
its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live
under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The
robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some
point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will
torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their
own conscience. C. S. Lewis
Vices are simply the errors which a man makes in his
search after his own happiness. Unlike crimes, they imply no malice
toward others, and no interference with their persons or property.
Lysander Spooner
It is not the responsibility of the government or the
legal system to protect a citizen from himself. Justice Casey
Percell
No one can read our Constitution without concluding
that the people who wrote it wanted their government severely
limited; the words no and not employed in restraint of government
power occur 24 times in the first seven articles of the Constitution
and 22 more times in the Bill of Rights. Edmund A. Opitz
Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest
thing we have. Harry Emerson Fosdick
It is much more important to kill bad bills than to
pass good ones. Calvin Coolidge
It is dangerous to be right when the government is
wrong. Voltaire
The war for freedom will never really be won because
the price of our freedom is constant vigilance over ourselves and
over our Government. Eleanor Roosevelt
First they came for the Jews, but I did nothing
because I'm not a Jew. Then they came for the socialists, but I did
nothing because I'm not a socialist. Then they came for the
Catholics, but I did nothing because I'm not a Catholic. Finally,
they came for me, but by then there was no one left to help me.
Pastor Father Niemoller (1946) German Lutheran pastor arrested by
the Gestapo in 1937
The most fundamental purpose of government is defense,
not empire. Joseph Sobran (1995)
Here's your enemy for this week, the government says.
And some gullible Americans click their heels and salute often
without knowing who or even where the enemy of the week is.
Charley Reese (1998)
Whenever is found what is called a paternal
government, there is found state education. It has been discovered
that the best way to ensure implicit obedience is to commence
tyranny in the nursery. Benjamin Disraeli, 1874
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human
freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
William Pitt (1783)
Just because you do not take an interest in politics
doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you. Pericles (430
BC)
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects
of folly is to fill the world with fools. Herbert Spencer (1891)
Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you
are willing to give it to others. William Allen White
Ask not what you can do for your country; ask what
your government is doing to you. Joseph Sobran (1990)
The saddest epitaph which can be carved in memory of a
vanished liberty is that it was lost because its possessors failed
to stretch forth a saving hand while yet there was time. Justice
George Sutherland (1938)
Let the people think they govern and they will be
governed. William Penn (1693)
The threat posed by humans to the natural environment
is nothing compared to the threat to humans posed by global
environmental policy. Fred L. Smith (1992)
Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
Mao Zedong (1938)
Everything that is really great and inspiring is
created by the individual who can labor in freedom. Albert
Einstein
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men
dread it. George Bernard Shaw
The strength of the Constitution, lies in the will of
the people to defend it. Thomas Edison
The Constitution is a written instrument. As such, its
meaning does not alter. That which it meant when it was adopted, it
means now. South Carolina v. United States, 199 U.S. 437, 448
(1905)
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, On Liberty
(1859)
Left-wing politicians take away your liberty in the
name of children and of fighting poverty, while right-wing
politicians do it in the name of family values and fighting drugs.
Either way, government gets bigger and you become less free. Harry
Browne
If we don't believe in freedom of expression for
people we despise, we don't believe in it at all. Noam Chomsky
I wanted to change the world. But I have found that
the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself. Aldous
Huxley
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in
politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
Plato
Virtually all reasonable laws are obeyed, not because
they are the law, but because reasonable people would do that
anyway. If you obey a law simply because it is the law, that's a
pretty likely sign that it shouldn't be a law. Unknown
Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to
protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial
the
greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of
zeal, well meaning but without understanding. Supreme Court
Justice Louis D. Brandeis, 1928
We have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified
dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we may
have. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between
being effective and being honest. Stephen Schneider, environmental
activist, in Discover, Oct. '89
Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its
failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the
charter of its own existence U.S. Supreme Court Justice Tom C.
Clark - Mapp vs. Ohio
Those who do not learn from the mistakes of history
are doomed to repeat them. George Santayana
Alcohol didn't cause the high crime rates of the '20s
and '30s, Prohibition did. And drugs do not cause today's alarming
crime rates, but drug prohibition does. US District Judge James C.
Paine, addressing the Federal Bar Association in Miami, November,
1991
The moral and constitutional obligations of our
representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle
the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy and
economic turmoil to our people. Congressman Ron Paul, 1987
If the jury feels the law is unjust, we recognize the
undisputed power of the jury to acquit, even if its verdict is
contrary to the law as given by a judge, and contrary to the
evidence
and the courts must abide by that decision. US v
Moylan, 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, 1969, 417 F.2d at 1006
The government is good at one thing. It knows how to
break your legs, and then hand you a crutch and say, See- if it
weren't for the government, you wouldn't be able to walk. Harry
Browne
Why doesn't everybody just leave everybody else the
hell alone? Jimmy Durante
No matter how disastrously some policy has turned out,
anyone who criticizes it can expect to hear: But what would you
replace it with? When you put out a fire, what do you replace it
with? Thomas Sowell
One of the annoying things about believing in free
will and individual responsibility is the difficulty of finding
somebody to blame your problems on. And when you do find somebody,
it's remarkable how often his picture turns up on your driver's
license. P.J. O'Rourke
When they kept you out it was because you were black;
when they let you in, it is because you are black. That's progress?
Marilyn French
No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size.
Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Ronald Reagan
When the same man, or set of men, holds the sword and
the purse, there is an end of liberty. George Mason
Can any of you seriously say the Bill of Rights could
get through Congress today? It wouldn't even get out of committee.
F. Lee Bailey
Socialists make the mistake of confusing individual
worth with success. They believe you cannot allow people to succeed
in case those who fail feel worthless. Kenneth Baker
The American heritage was one of individual liberty,
personal responsibility and freedom from government
Unfortunately
that heritage has been lost. Americans no longer have the freedom
to direct their own lives
Today, it is the government that is free
free to do whatever it wants. There is no subject, no issue, no
matter
that is not subject to legislation. Harry Browne
It must never be unpatriotic to support your country
against your government. It must always be unpatriotic to support
your government against your country. Stephen T. Byington
Penalties against possession of a drug should not be
more damaging than the drug itself. Jimmy Carter
America was born of revolt, flourished on dissent,
became great through experimentation. Henry Steele Commager
You can only be free if I am free. Clarence Darrow
Drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like
the decision to step out in front of a moving car. You would call
that not a disease but an error of judgment. Philip K. Dick
When a legislature undertakes to proscribe the
exercise of a citizen's constitutional rights it acts lawlessly and
the citizen can take matters into his own hands and proceed on the
basis that such a law is no law at all. Justice William O. Douglas
Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every
citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people
and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national
heritage. Dwight D. Eisenhower
So long as we need to control other people, however
benign our motives, we are captive to that need. In giving them
freedom, we free ourselves. Marilyn Ferguson
Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the
State becomes lawless or, which is the same thing, corrupt.
Mohandas Gandhi
The broad masses of a population are more amenable to
the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force. Adolf Hitler
I never hurt nobody but myself and that's nobody's
business but my own. Billie Holiday
Historically, much of the motivation for public
schooling has been to stifle variety and institute social control.
Jack Hugh
He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in
it as he who helps to perpetuate it. Martin Luther King, Jr.
If you can cut the people off from their history, then
they can be easily persuaded. Karl Marx
In 1950, the average family of four paid 2% of its
earnings to federal taxes. Today it pays 24% William R. Mattox,
Jr. (sometime before 1996)
The smallest minority on earth is the individual.
Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of
minorities. Ayn Rand
What is ominous is the ease with which some people go
from saying that they don't like something to saying that the
government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don't
expect freedom to survive very long. Thomas Sowell
However insignificant the minority, and however
trifling the proposed trespass against their rights, no such
trespass is permissible. Herbert Spencer (from The Right To Ignore
The State)
In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce
man and brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds however,
the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot.
Mark Twain
I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend
to the death your right to say it. Voltaire
Liberals believe government should take people's
earnings to give to poor people. Conservatives disagree. They
think government should confiscate people's earnings and give them
to farmers and insolvent banks. The compelling issue to both
conservatives and liberals is not whether it is legitimate for
government to confiscate one's property to give to another, the
debate is over the disposition of the pillage. Walter Williams
The pages of history shine on instances of the jury's
exercise of its prerogative to disregard instructions of the judge.
U.S. vs. Dougherty, 1972
It took about 150 years, starting with a Bill of
Rights that reserved to the states and the people all powers not
explicitly delegated to the federal government, to produce a Supreme
Court willing to rule that growing corn to feed to your own hogs is
interstate commerce and can therefore be regulated by Congress.
David Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for
good men to do nothing. Edmund Burke
Patriotism means loving our country, not the
government. Michael Cloud
We ask that the government undertake the obligation
above all of providing citizens with adequate opportunity for
employment and earning a living. The activities of the individual
must not be allowed to clash with the interests of the community,
but must take place within its confines and be for the good of all.
Therefore, we demand:
an end to the power of the financial
interests. We demand profit sharing in big business. We demand a
broad extension of care for the aged. We demand
the greatest
possible consideration of small business in the purchases of
national, state, and municipal governments. In order to make
possible to every capable and industrious [citizen] the attainment
of higher education and thus the achievement of a post of
leadership, the government must provide an all-around enlargement of
our entire system of public education
We demand the education at
government expense of gifted children of poor parents
The
government must undertake the improvement of public health by
protecting mother and child, by prohibiting child labor
by the
greatest possible support for all clubs concerned with the physical
education of youth. We combat the
materialistic spirit within and
without us, and are convinced that a permanent recovery of our
people can only proceed from within on the foundation of the common
good before the individual good. From the political program of
the Nazi Party, adopted in Munich, February 24, 1920
The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to
take the government off the backs of people. Justice William O.
Douglas
The prestige of government has undoubtedly been
lowered considerably by the Prohibition law. For nothing is more
destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land
than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret
that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely
connected with this. Albert Einstein
I'm in favor of legalizing drugs. According to my
value system, if people want to kill themselves, they have every
right to do so. Most of the harm that comes from drugs is because
they are illegal. Milton Friedman
There comes a time when a moral man can't obey a law
which his conscience tells him is unjust. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In our desire to have government become our benefactor
and sustainer, we have allowed it to become our taskmaster and
overlord. As a result, we have become little more than well-fed,
well-entertained slaves to the state. Freedom, as envisioned by our
forefathers, is gone. Chuck Baldwin 2001
The limitation of tyrants is the endurance of those
they oppose. Frederick Douglass
The jury has the right to judge both the law as well
as the fact in controversy. John Jay, Joint-author of the
Federalist Papers and first U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justice
Freedom is essentially a condition of inequality, not
equality. It recognizes as a fact of nature the structural
differences inherent in man in temperament, character, and
capacity and it respects those differences. We are not alike and
no law can make us so. Frank Chodorov
The cure for evil and disorder is more liberty, not
suppression. Alexander Berkman
The most dangerous man to any government is the man
who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the
prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to
the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest,
insane, and intolerable
H. L. Mencken
Blacks were not enslaved because they were black but
because they were available. Slavery has existed in the world for
thousands of years. Whites enslaved other whites in Europe for
centuries before the first black was brought to the Western
hemisphere. Asians enslaved Europeans. Asians enslaved other Asians.
Africans enslaved other Africans, and indeed even today in North
Africa, blacks continue to enslave blacks. Thomas Sowell, a black
sociologist, author and columnist
Liberty is always unfinished business. Anonymous
Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders;
no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no
one can find a safe way out for himself if society 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 hangs on the
results. Whether he chooses or not, every man is drawn into the
greatest historical struggle, the decisive battle into which our
epoch has plunged us. Ludwig von Mises
Not only can no one predict the future, we don't
understand the present and there isn't even any certainty about
the past. Harry Browne
Men are most apt to believe what they least
understand. Montaigne
When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold
gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem
utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic. Dresden
James
People never believe in volcanoes until the lava
actually overtakes them. George Santayana
The worst forms of tyranny, or certainly the most
successful ones, are not those we rail against but those that so
insinuate themselves into the imagery of our consciousness, and the
fabric of our lives, as not to be perceived as tyranny. Michael
Parenti
When the mass media in some foreign countries serve as
megaphones for the rhetoric of their government, the result is
ludicrous propaganda. When the mass media in our country serve as
megaphones for the rhetoric of the U.S. government, the result is
responsible journalism. Norman Solomon
The aim of public education is not to spread
enlightenment at all, it is simply to reduce as many individuals as
possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized
citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. H L. Mencken
We must remember that government, no matter how hard
it tries, cannot protect an individual from themselves. This
legislation is simply one more attempt by big government to tell us
that they know what is best for us. It is not the first time and it
will not be the last. Peter Calcagno
Washington is not America. It has become an alien
city-state that rules America, and much of the rest of the world, in
the way that Rome ruled the Roman Empire. Richard Maybury
Now that I look back, I realize that a life predicated
on being obedient is a very comfortable life indeed. Living in such
a way reduces to a minimum one's own need to think. Adolf
Eichmann, Memoirs written after his 1960 capture by Israel.
A State which dwarfs its men, in order that they may
be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes
will find that with small men no great thing can really be
accomplished. John Stuart Mill
The
more power a government has the more it can act arbitrarily
according to the whims and desires of the elite, and the more it
will make war on others and murder its foreign and domestic
subjects. The more constrained the power of governments, the more
power is diffused, checked, and balanced, the less it will aggress
on others and commit democide. R. J. Rummel, Death by Government
The state calls its own violence law, but that of the
individual crime. Max Stirner
The state is a force incarnate. Worse, it is the silly
parading of force. It never seeks to prevail by persuasion. Whenever
it thrusts its finger into anything it does so in the most
unfriendly way. Its essence is command and compulsion. Michael
Bakunin
In every State, the government is nothing but a
permanent conspiracy on the part of the minority against the
majority, which it enslaves and fleeces. Michael Bakunin
[S]tatism is but socialized dishonesty; it is
feathering the nests of some with feathers coercively plucked from
others on the grand scale. There is no moral difference between
the act of a pickpocket and the progressive income tax or any other
social program. Leonard Read
Opium and morphine are certainly dangerous,
habit-forming drugs. But once the principle is admitted that it is
the duty of the government to protect the individual against his own
foolishness, no serious objections can be advanced against further
encroachments
Is not the harm a man can inflict on his mind and
soul even more disastrous than any bodily evils.? Why not prevent
him from reading bad books and bad plays, from looking at bad
paintings and statues and from hearing bad music? The mischief done
by bad ideologies, surely, is much more pernicious both for the
individual and for the whole society, than that done by narcotic
drugs. Von Mises, Human Action
Man is born free, yet he is everywhere in chains.
Jean Jacques Rosseau. The Social Contract, 1762
Everything government touches turns to crap. Ringo
Starr
One of the things the government can't do is run
anything. The only things our government runs are the post office
and the railroads, and both of them are bankrupt. Lee Iacocca
The proper and limited use of government is to invoke
a common justice and keep the peace and that is all. Leonard
Read
The bureaucrat's first objective, of course, is
preservation of his job provided by the big-government system, at
the taxpayers expense.
Whether real world problems get solved or
not is of secondary importance. It doesn't take much cynicism, in
fact, to see that the bureaucrats have a vested interest in not
having problems solved. If the problems did not exist (or had been
invented), there would be no reason for the bureaucrat to have a job
William Simon, former U.S Treasury Secretary
What is so bad about big government? My indictment of
big government is that it is bad because it attacks liberty,
prosperity, progress, harmony, and morality. Thanks to big
government, we have significantly less of all of those good things
than we would if we had been able to keep government right-sized.
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
Bureaucrats write memoranda both because they appear
to be busy when they are writing and because the memos, once
written, immediately become proof that they were busy. Charles
Peters, How Washington Really Works
The era of big government is over. Bill Clinton,
State of the Union Address, January 23, 1996
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
Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and
have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one
year, can never willingly abandon it. Edmund Burke
The power which a multiple millionaire, who may be my
neighbor and perhaps my employer, has over me is very much less than
that which the smallest "functionaire" possesses who wields the
coercive power of the state, and on whose desecration it depends
whether and how I am allowed to live or to work. Frederich von
Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
Few of us can easily surrender our belief that society
must somehow make sense. The thought that the State has lost its
mind and is punishing so many innocent people is intolerable. And so
the evidence has to be internally denied. Arthur Miller
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when
they do it from mistaken conviction. Blaise Pascal
We do many things at the federal level that would be
considered dishonest and illegal if done in the private sector.
Donald T. Regan
This and no other is the root from which a tyrant
springs; when he first appears he is a protector. Plato circa 400
B.C.
The ideal tyranny is that which is ignorantly
self-administered by its victims. The most perfect slaves are,
therefore, those which blissfully and unawaredly enslave themselves.
Dresden James
I am unable to accept the idea that I should be an
obedient subject of a gang of corrupt, unprincipled thugs who
pontificate about freedom while enslaving the population. John
Pugsley, JPJ Nov 96
I fear for our nation. Nearly half of our people
receive some kind of government subsidy. We have grown weak from too
much affluence and too little adversity. I fear that soon we will
not be able to defend our country from our sure and certain enemies.
We have debased our currency to the point that even the most loyal
citizen no longer trusts it. A Roman Senator in A.D. 63
We should distinguish at this point between
"government" and "state"
A government is the consensual
organization by which we adjudicate disputes, defend our rights, and
provide for certain common needs
A state on the other hand, is a
coercive organization asserting or enjoying a monopoly over the use
of physical force in some geographic area and exercising power over
its subjects. David Boaz
Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was
legal. Martin Luther King Jr.
If one really wishes to know how justice is
administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the
lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class.
One goes to the unprotected those, precisely, who need the law's
protection most! and listens to their testimony. James Baldwin,
African- American Author, "No Name in the Street"
Political elections do not choose leaders of society.
Rather, they are an exercise in which groups of people choose
individuals who will assist them in looting other groups of
individuals, those folks who were unfortunate enough not to be able
to elect their own political strongman. The process can be downright
blatant, as is the case in African and Asian countries, or it can be
relatively subtle as it is in the United States, where the trappings
of "constitutionality" and "rule of law" hide many of the more
nefarious goings on. William Anderson, Are Politicians Leaders?
10/19/2000
Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger
was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Tom Lehrer
Being elected to Congress is regarded as being sent on
a looting raid for one's friends. George F. Will, Newsweek
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it
everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong
remedies. Groucho Marx
Wherever politics intrudes upon economic life,
political success is readily attained by saying what people like to
hear rather than what is demonstrably true. Instead of safeguarding
truth and honesty, the state then tends to become a major source of
insincerity and mendacity. Hans F. Sennholz
Politicians are always interested in people. Not that
this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs. P.J.
O'Rourke
A concern for states rights, local self government and
regional identity used to be taken for granted everywhere in
America. But the United States is no longer, as it once was, a
federal union of diverse states and regions. National uniformity is
being imposed by the political class that runs Washington, the
economic class that owns Wall Street and the cultural class in
charge of Hollywood and the Ivy League. Michael Hill, professor of
British History, University of Alabama
Politics I supposed to be the second-oldest
profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close
resemblance to the first. Ronald Reagan
Politicians can't give us anything without depriving
us of something else. Government is not a god. Every dime they
spend must first be taken from someone else. Gary Asmus
Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that
mean? It means that we choose between two bodies of real, though not
avowed, autocrats. We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
Helen Keller
It is indeed a singular thing that people wish to pass
laws to nullify the disagreeable consequences that the law of
responsibility entails. Will they never realize that they do not
eliminate these consequences but merely pass them along to other
people? The result is one injustice the more and one moral the less.
Frederic Bastiat
Students now arrive at the university ignorant and
cynical about our political heritage, lacking the wherewithal to be
either inspired by it or seriously critical of it. Allan Bloom,
The Closing of the American Mind
The voice of the majority is no proof of justice.
Johann von Schiller
A great many laws in a country, like many physicians,
is a sign of malady. Voltaire
An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells
him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment
in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its
injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.
Martin Luther King Jr.
The government's only proper job is to protect
individual rights against violence by force or fraud
to protect
men from foreign invaders
to settle disputes among men according
to objective laws
The greatness of the Founding Fathers was how
well they understood this issue and how close some of them came to
understanding it perfectly. Ayn Rand
The Constitution is not hearsay. It is not a bunch of
legal myths passed along by word of mouth. It is not a depository
for judicial delusions and ideological pipe dreams. It is not a
figment of some justice's Marxian imagination. It is a written
document a legally binding contract whose words, spirit and intent
are clear. Linda Bowles, nationally syndicated columnist
The ultimate touchstone of constitutionality is the
Constitution itself and not what we have said about it. Felix
Frankfurter, Graves vs. New York; 1939
When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by
conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he
is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people
may require a leader. Plato, 347 B.C.
Governments need armies to protect them from their
enslaved and oppressed subjects. Tolstoy
In order to become the master, the politician poses
as the servant. Charles de Gaulle
Fifty-one percent of a nation can establish a
totalitarian regime, suppress minorities and still remain
democratic. Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn
The Constitution is a limitation on the government,
not on private individuals. It does not prescribe the conduct of
private individuals, only the conduct of the government. It is not a
charter for government power, but a charter of the citizens'
protection against the government. Ayn Rand
I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the
Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and
domestic.... Congressional Oath of Office
We Americans have no commission from God to police the
world Benjamin Harrison
Mankind will in time discover that unbridled
majorities are as tyrannical and cruel as unlimited despots. John
Adams 1793
Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who
holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed. Joseph Stalin
I want a government small enough to fit inside the
Constitution. Harry Browne
Immigrants used to come to America seeking freedom of
speech, freedom of religion, and freedom from government. Now they
come looking for free health care, free education, and a free lunch.
Harry Browne
Government seems to operate on the principle that if
even one individual is incapable of using his freedom competently,
no one can be allowed to be free. Harry Browne
A society that puts equality
ahead of freedom will
end up with neither equality nor freedom. Milton Friedman
Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just
master. Sallust
It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous
way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands
of people who pay no price for being wrong. Thomas Sowell
We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the
rights of ordinary Americans ... Bill Clinton (USA TODAY, 11 March
1993, page 2A)
Americans are so enamored of equality they would
rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom. Alexis de
Tocqueville
The rights of every man are diminished when the rights
of one man are threatened. John F. Kennedy
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act
responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.
Plato (427-347 B.C.)
Patrick Henry did not say, "Give me absolute safety or
give me death." John Stossel, ABC News journalist
The Declaration, after all, catalogued the assaults on
our freedoms committed by Britain's King George III. What has been
built up over the last two and a quarter centuries is a structure
that dwarfs George III's regime. K.E. Grubbs, Jr., Investor's
Business Daily, 7/3/01
Our country's founders cherished liberty, not
democracy. US House Congressional Resolution 48 "A Republic; not a
Democracy", sponsored by Ron Paul, 3/6/01.
There's no greater service to this country than the
defense of its freedom. Senator Barry Goldwater, 1964 (1909-1998)
Contrary to popular opinion, the Constitution was not
and is not a grant of rights to the citizenry. Instead, the
Constitution is a "barbed-wire entanglement" designed to interfere
with, restrict, and impede government officials in the exercise of
political power. Jacob Hornberger, 11/01
To be governed
is to be watched, inspected,
directed, indoctrinated, numbered, estimated, regulated, commanded,
controlled, law-driven, preached at, spied upon, censured, checked,
valued, enrolled by creatures who have neither the right, nor the
wisdom, nor the virtue to do so. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
There seems to be an attitude that government
ownership of land is good as long as you call it "open space"
All
it is is socialism. Douglas Bruce, Colorado tax-reduction activist
The "private sector" of the economy is, in fact, the
voluntary sector; and...the "public sector" is, in fact, the
coercive sector. Henry Hazlitt
Americans have the mistaken viewpoint that Lady
Liberty is only a peacetime luxury who is ill-equipped to fight the
nasties. Therefore, they reason, we need an equally nasty Big
Brother. Americans have forgotten that Lady Liberty is one ferocious
mother when protecting her children. Mary Ruwart
What is the basic, the essential, the crucial
principle that differentiates freedom from slavery? It is the
principle of voluntary action versus physical coercion or
compulsion. Ayn Rand
For libertarians, freedom entails the right of people
to live their lives any way they choose, so long as their conduct is
peaceful. For conservatives, freedom entails the right of government
to do just about anything it wants, even if its conduct is violent.
Jacob Hornberger
The prospect of a government that treats all its
citizens as criminal suspects is more terrifying than any terrorist.
And even more frightening is a citizenry that can accept the
surrender of its freedoms as the price of "freedom". Joe Sobran
There is nothing so bad that politics cannot make it
worse. Thomas Sowe
Public Schools too often fail because they are
shielded from the very force that improves performance and sparks
innovation in nearly every other human enterprise competition.
Robert Lutz/Clark Durant
Education compulsory schooling, compulsory learning
is a tyranny and a crime against the human mind and spirit. Let
all those escape it who can, any way they can. John Holt
The public school system: "Usually a twelve year
sentence of mind control. Crushing creativity, smashing
individualism, encouraging collectivism and compromise, destroying
the exercise of intellectual inquiry, twisting it instead into meek
subservience to authority." Walter Karp, Editor Harper's Magazine
Democracy, n. "A government of the masses. Authority
derived through mass meeting or any form of "direct" expression.
Results in mobocracy. Attitude toward property is communistic -
negating property rights. Attitude toward law is that the will of
the majority shall regulate, whether it be based upon deliberation
or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or
regard to consequences. Results in demagogism, license, agitation,
discontent, anarchy." - U.S. Army Training Manual TM2000-05, 1928
Whenever we depart from voluntary cooperation and try
to do good by using force, the bad moral value of force triumphs
over good intentions. Milton Friedman
The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of
pursuing our own good in our way, so long as we do not attempt to
deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.
John Stuart Mill
Were it necessary to bring a majority into a
comprehension of the libertarian philosophy, the cause of liberty
would be utterly hopeless. Every significant movement in history has
been led by one or just a few individuals with a small minority of
energetic supporters. Leonard E. Read
The greatest threat to the future of our nation to
our freedom is not foreign military aggression
but the growing
dependence of the people on a paternalistic government. A nation is
no stronger than its people and the best measure of their strength
is how they accept responsibility. There will never be a great
society unless the materialism of the welfare state is replaced by
individual initiative and responsibility. Charles B. Shuman
Few of us seem to want to keep government out of our
personal affairs and responsibilities. Many of us seem to favor
various types of government guaranteed and compulsory "security." We
say that we want personal freedom, but we demand government housing,
government price controls, government-guaranteed jobs and wages. We
boast that we are responsible persons, but we vote for candidates
who promise us special privileges, government pensions, government
subsidies, and government electricity. Dean Russell
It must be obvious that liberty necessarily means
freedom to choose foolishly as well as wisely; freedom to choose
evil as well as good; freedom to enjoy the rewards of good judgment,
and freedom to suffer the penalties of bad judgment. If this is not
true, the word "freedom" has no meaning. Ben Moreell
Given man's nature, freedom will always be in
jeopardy, and the only question that need concern each of us is if
and how well we took our stand in its defense during the short
period of time when we were potentially a part of the struggle.
Benjamin Rogge
Painful as it may be to hear it, there's nothing
special about the people of this country that sets them apart from
the other people of the world. It is the Bill of Rights, and only
the Bill of Rights, that keeps us from becoming the world's biggest
banana republic. The moment we forget that, the American Dream is
over. Alexander Hope, "Looking Forward"
I do not challenge the dedication and sincerity of
those who disagree with the freedom philosophy and confidently
promote government solutions for all our ills. I am just absolutely
convinced that the best formula for giving us peace and preserving
the American way of life is freedom, limited government, and minding
our own business overseas. Ron Paul
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the
strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage
payer. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot
help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do
for themselves. John Henry Boetker
If the only motive was to help people who could not
afford education, advocates of government involvement would have
simply proposed tuition subsidies. Milton Friedman
When politics are used to allocate resources, the
resources all end up being allocated to politics. P.J. O'Rourke
Man, no doubt, owes many other moral duties to his
fellow men; such as to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter
the homeless, care for the sick, protect the defenseless, assist the
weak, and enlighten the ignorant. But these are simply moral duties,
of which each man must be his own judge, in each particular case, as
to whether, and how, and how far, he can, or will perform them.
Lysander Spooner
A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no
one can take from you. Ramsey Clark, U.S. Attorney General, New
York Times, 10/02/77
The Bill of Rights is a born rebel. It reeks with
sedition. In every clause it shakes its fist in the face of
constituted authority
It is the one guarantee of human freedom to
the American people. Frank I. Cobb (1869-1923), LaFollette's
Magazine, 01/20
Men in authority will always think that criticism of
their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies
with patriotism, and find criticism subversive. Henry Steele
Commager (1902-1998), Freedom and Order, 1966
Freedom is not a luxury that we can indulge in when at
last we have security and prosperity and enlightenment; it is,
rather, antecedent to all of these, for without it we can have
neither security nor prosperity nor enlightenment. Henry Steele
Commager (1902-1998), Freedom, Loyalty and Dissent, 1954
It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to
deprive a man of his natural liberty upon a supposition that he may
abuse it. Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), Address, First Protectorate
Parliament, 1654
It is better, so the Fourth Amendment teaches us, that
the guilty sometimes go free than the citizens be subject to easy
arrest. William O. Douglas (1898-1980), Henry v. United States,
1959
We are willing enough to praise freedom when it is
safely tucked away in the past and cannot be a nuisance. In the
present, amidst dangers whose outcome we cannot foresee, we get
nervous about her, and admit censorship. E. M. Forster
Being tolerant does not mean that I share another
one's belief. But it does mean that I acknowledge another one's
right to believe, and obey, his own conscience. Victor Frankl
(1905-1997), The Will To Meaning
The freedom of speech and the freedom of the press
have not been granted to the people in order that they may say
things which please, and which are based upon accepted thought, but
the right to say the things which displease, the right to say the
things which convey the new and yet unexpected thoughts, the right
to say things, even though they do a wrong. Samuel Gompers
(1850-1924), Seventy Years of Life and Labor, 1925
The doctrine of blind obedience and unqualified
submission to any human power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, is
the doctrine of despotism, and ought to have no place among
Republicans and Christians. Angelica Grimke (1805-1879), Anti-
Slavery Examiner, September 1836
Where men cannot freely convey their thoughts to one
another, no other liberty is secure. William E. Hocking
(1873-1966), Freedom of the Press, 1947
If there is any principle of the constitution that
more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the
principle of free thought not free thought for those who agree
with us but freedom for the thought that we hate. Oliver Wendall
Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935), U.S. Supreme Court Justice, United States
v. Schwimmer, 1929
Liberty is often a heavy burden on a man. It involves
the necessity for perpetual choice which is the kind of labor men
have always dreaded. Oliver Wendall Holmes, Sr. (1809-1884), Elsie
Venner, 1861
Truth, in its struggles for recognition, passes
through four distinct stages.
First, we say it is damnable, dangerous, disorderly, and will surely
disrupt society.
Second, we declare it is heretical, infidelic and contrary to the
Bible.
Third, we say it is really a matter of no importance either one way
or the other.
Fourth, we aver that we have always upheld it and believed it.
Elbert Hubbard (1856- 1915)
Emergency does not increase granted power or remove or
diminish the restrictions imposed upon power granted or reserved.
The Constitution was adopted in a period of grave emergency. Its
grants of power to the federal government and its limitations of the
power of the States were determined in the light of emergency, and
they are not altered by emergency. Charles Evans Hughes
(1862-1948), Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, Home Building & Loan
Assn v. Blairsdell, 1934
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. Supreme Court Justice, American Communications
Assn v. Douds, 1950
The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw
certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy.
One's right to life, liberty and property, to free speech, a free
press, freedom of worship and assembly may not be submitted to vote;
they depend on no elections. Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954), U.S.
Supreme Court Justice, West Virginia Board of Education vs. Barnette,
1943
We are reluctant to admit that we owe our liberties to
men of a type that today we hate and fear unruly men, disturbers
of the peace, men who resent and denounce what Whitman called "the
insolence of elected persons" in word, free men
Gerald W.
Johnson (1890-1980), American Freedom and the Press, 1958
Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks.
Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools.
And their grand-children are once more slaves. D. H. Lawrence
(1885-1938), 1915
In a free society the state does not administer the
affairs of men. It administers justice among men who conduct their
own affairs. Walter Lippmann (1889- 1974), An Inquiry into the
Principles of the Good Society, 1937
To argue against any breach of liberty from the ill
use that may be made of it, is to argue against liberty itself,
since all is capable of being abused. Lord George Lyttleton
(1709-1773)
