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.
Category: liberty
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.
Freedom from coercion
Freedom is living without government coercion. So when a politician talks about freedom for this group or that, ask yourself whether he is advocating more government action or less.
Safety vs. liberty
I’m convinced that you never have to give up liberties to be safe. I think you’re less safe when you give up your liberties.
Freedom shrinks as government grows
The more powerful the national government grows, the less free Americans will become.
A test for freedom
He is free who knows how to keep in his own hands the power to decide at each step, the course of his life, and who lives in a society which does not block the exercise of that power.
Free men or drudges?
Were the talents and virtues which heaven has bestowed on men given merely to make them more obedient drudges, to be sacrificed to the follies and ambition of a few? Or, were not the noble gifts so equally dispensed with a divine purpose and law, that they should as nearly as possible be equally exerted, and the blessings of Providence be equally enjoyed by all?
From slavery to liberty to slavery in three generations
Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves.