The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
Category: liberty
Private property creates liberty
Property must be secured, or liberty cannot exist.
Neither restraint nor aid
The policy of American government is to leave its citizens free, neither restraining them nor aiding them in their pursuits.
The American dream
There are those who will say that the liberation of humanity, the freedom of man and mind, is nothing but a dream. They are right. It is the American Dream.
I believe in only one thing
I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone.
Liberty is the highest political end
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is the highest political end.
Rightful liberty
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 rights of the individual.
First duty of citizens
It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens, and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The freeman of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle.
Freedom, reason, and the slavery of fear
Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think.
Take action for liberty
When the goal of political action is no longer the defense of liberty, no word other than demagoguery can describe the despicable nature of politics.