“At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare...”
“In every age [liberty's] progress has been beset by its natural enemies: by ignorance and superstition, by lust of conquest and by love of ease, by the strong man's craving for power, and the poor man's craving for food.”
“Liberty is the prevention of control by others. This requires self-control...”
“Liberty alone demands, for its realization, the limitation of the public authority, for liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition.”
“Liberty and good government do not exclude each other...Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.”
“Liberty enables us to do our duty unhindered by the state, by society, by ignorance and error. We are free in proportion as we are safe from these impediments...”
“...sanctifying freedom...teaching men to treasure the liberties of others as their own, and to defend them...has been the soul of what is great and good in the progress of the last two hundred years.”
“...by birth all men are free.”
“With [liberty] no human authority can be permitted to interfere. We are bound to extend to the utmost, and to guard from every encroachment, the sphere in which we can act in obedience to the sole voice of conscience, regardless of any other consideration.”
“...the interest of individuals is above the exclusive interest of the state. The power of the whole is not to be set in the balance for a moment with freedom...those who act on other principle are the worst of criminals.”
“It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people to govern others. Every man is the best, the most responsible, judge of his own advantage.”
“The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern.”
“The will of the people cannot make just that which is unjust.”
“The public good is not to be considered, if it is purchased at the expense of an individual.”
“There are many things the government can't do, many good purposes it must renounce. It must leave them to the enterprise of others. It cannot feed the people. It cannot enrich the people. It cannot teach the people.”
“Among all the causes which degrade and demoralize men, power is the most constant and the most active.”
“...power...corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding...”
“There are principles which override precedents...there is such a thing as a higher law.”
The America Show
