Liberty
Wild liberty
develops iron conscience. Want of liberty…stupefies
conscience.
...the times favor the idea of self-government, and leave the
individual...to the rewards and penalties of his own constitution...
Of persons, all have equal rights...
We want...a state of things which allows every man the largest
liberty compatible with the liberty of every other man.
...Liberty is the Crusade of all brave and conscientious men...
A man's right to liberty is as inalienable as his right to life.
We wish...to offer liberty instead of chains...
If any person have less love of liberty...shall he therefore
dictate to you and me?
...liberty is an accurate index, in men and nations, of general
progress.
It is not skill in iron locomotives that makes so fine civility,
as the jealousy of liberty.
A nation of men unanimously bent on freedom...can easily confound
the arithmetic of statists, and achieve extravagant actions,
out of all proportion to their means...
Government and Liberty
…[the State’s]
institutions...are not superior to the citizen...
Man exists for his own sake and not to add a laborer to the
State.
Who is he that shall control me?...Who has forged the chains...
and must I wear them?
…whenever
I find my dominion over myself not sufficient for me, and undertake
the direction of him also... it must be
executed by a practical lie, namely, by force. This undertaking
for another, is the blunder which stands in colossal ugliness
in the governments of the world.
This is the history of governments--one man does something which
is to bind another. A man who cannot be acquainted with me, taxes
me; looking from afar at me, ordains that a part of my labor
shall go to this or that whimsical end, not as I, but as he happens
to fancy.
…[many] believe…any
measure, though it were absurd, may be imposed on a people,
if only you can get sufficient voices
to make it a law. But the wise know that foolish legislation
is a rope of sand...
...statesmen...are sure to be found befriending liberty with
their words, and crushing it with their votes.
We live in a very low state of the world, and pay unwilling
tribute to governments founded on force...[all] have been partial
reformers, and have admitted in some manner the supremacy of
the bad State.
Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey the laws
too well.
…necessity…secures
the rights of person and property against the malignity or
folly of the magistrate...
...what is the use of constitutions, if all the guaranties provided
by the jealousy of ages for the protection of liberty are made
of no effect, when a bad act of Congress finds a willing commissioner?
Hence, the
less government we have, the better--the fewer laws, and the
less confided
power. The antidote to this abuse of formal
Government is…the growth of the Individual...
We must not imagine that all things are lapsing into confusion...nor
doubt that roads can be built, letters carried, and the fruit
of labor secured, when the government of force is at an end.
The
Sage of Concord’s Legacy
