Proclaim liberty throughout
all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. Leviticus, xxv, c. 700
B.C. (The inscription on the Liberty Bell at Philadelphia.)
O sweet name of liberty. (O
nomen dulce libertatis.) Cicero, Oration
Against Verres, c. 60 B.C.
A love of liberty is planted
by nature in the breasts of all men. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquities of Rome, iv, c. 20 B.C.
No favor produces less
permanent gratitude than the gift of liberty, especially among people who are
ready to make a bad use of it. Livy, History
of Rome, xxxix, c. 10
Brethren, ye have been
called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by
love serve one another. Galatians v,
13, c. 50
Thou inquirest what liberty
is? To be slave to nothing, to no necessity, to no accident, to keep fortune at
arm's length. Seneca, Epistulæ morales ad
Lucilium, c. 63
Only in states in which the
power of the people is supreme has liberty any abode. Cicero, De republica, I, c. 50 B.C.
Liberties and masters are
not easily combined. Tacitus, History,
iv, c. 100
Nature gives liberty even to
dumb animals. Ibid.
I tell you true, liberty is
the best of all things; never live beneath the noose of a servile halter,
William Wallace, Address to the Scots,
c. 1300
Every subject's duty is the
king's; but every subject's soul is his own. Shakespeare, Henry V, iv, c. 1599
Liberty is the power that we
have over ourselves. Hugo Grotius, De
jure belli ac pacis, i, 1625
Civil or federal liberty is
the proper end and object of authority, and cannot exist without it; and it is
a liberty to that which is good, just and honest. John Winthrop, Journal, 1635
Liberty, which appears so
dear, is often only an imaginary good. Pierre Corneille, Cinna, II, 1639
Give me the liberty to know,
to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.
John Milton, Areopagitica, 1644
By liberty is understood the
absence of external impediments; which impediments may take away part of a
man's power to do what he would, but cannot hinder him from using the power
left him, according as his judgment and reason shall dictate to him. Thomas
Hobbes, Leviathan, I, 1651
Above all things—liberty. Motto of John Selden (1584-1654)
Lean liberty is better than
fat slavery, John Ray, English Proverbs,
1670
Liberty is a great pleasure.
William Wycherley, The Country Wife,
iv, c. 1673
Freedom of men under
government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that
society, and made by the legislative power vested in it; a liberty to follow my
own will in all things, when the rule prescribes not, and not to be subject to
the inconstant, uncertain, unknown, arbitrary will of another. John Locke, Second Treatise on Government, 1690
Liberty should reach every
individual of a people, as they all share one common nature: if it only spreads
among particular branches, there had better be none at all, since such a
liberty only aggravates the misfortune of those who are deprived of it, by
setting before them a disagreeable subject of comparison. Joseph Addison, The Spectator, Jan. 29, 1712
A day, an hour of virtuous liberty,
Is worth a whole eternity in bondage
Joseph Addison, Cato, ii, 1713
Give me again my hollow tree,
A crust of bread, and liberty.
Alexander Pope, The Sixth Satire of the Second Book of Horace, 1714
Liberty of conscience is nowadays not only understood to be the liberty of believing what men please, but also of endeavoring to propagate that belief as much as they can. Jonathan Swift, Sermon on the Testimony of Conscience, c. 1715
Liberty is the right to do
what the laws allow. If a citizen had a right to do what they forbid it would
no longer be liberty, for everyone else would have the same right. Charles
Secondat, de Montesquieu, The Spirit of
the Laws, xi, 1748
In constitutional states liberty
is but a compensation for the heaviness of taxation. In despotic states the
equivalent for liberty is the lightness of taxation. Ibid, xiii
In those very few places
where men enjoy what they call liberty, it is continually in a tottering
situation, and makes greater and greater strides to that fault of despotism
which at last swallows up every species of government. Edmund Burke, A Vindication of Natural Society, 1756
Liberty is obedience to the
law which one has laid down for oneself. J.-J. Rousseau, Du contrat social, i, 1761
Liberty is not a fruit that
grows in all climates, and so it is not within the reach of all people. Ibid,
iii.
They make a rout about
universal liberty without considering that all that is to be valued, or indeed
can be enjoyed by individuals, is private liberty. Political liberty is good
only so far as it produces private liberty. Samuel Johnson, Boswell's Life, May, 1768
The God who gave us life
gave us liberty at the same time. Thomas Jefferson, A Summary View of the Rights of British America, 1774
Natural liberty is a gift of
the beneficent Creator to the whole human race, and . . . civil liberty is
founded in that, and cannot be wrested from any people without the most
manifest violation of justice. Alexander Hamilton, The Farmer Refuted, 1775
Is life so dear or peace so
sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it,
Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me
liberty, or give me death. Patrick Henry, Speech in the Virginia Convention,
March 23, 1775
Liberty must be limited in
order to be possessed. Edmund Burke, Letter
to the sheriffs of Bristol, April 3, 1777
Where liberty dwells, there
is my country. Benjamin Franklin, Letter
to Benjamin Vaughan, March 14, 1783
The people never give up
their liberties but under some delusion. Edmund Burke, Speech at a meeting in Buckinghamshire,
1784
The tree of liberty must be
refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its
natural manure. Thomas Jefferson, Letter to W. S. Smith, Nov. 13, 1787
The natural progress of
things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. Thomas Jefferson,
Letter to Edward Carrington, 1788
Political liberty consists
in the power of doing whatever does not injure another. The exercise of the
natural rights of every man has no other limits than those which are necessary
to secure to every other man the free exercise of the same rights; and these
limits are determinable only by law. Declaration of the Rights of Man by the
French National Assembly, 1789
But what is liberty without
wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is
folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint. Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France,
1790
We are not to expect to be
translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed. Thomas Jefferson, Letter
to Lafayette, 1790
O Liberty! what crimes are
committed in thy name! Ascribed to Mme. Roland, On passing a statue of liberty
on her way to the guillotine, Nov. 8, 1793
The ball of liberty is now
so well in motion that it will roll round the globe. Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Tench Coxe, 1795
Liberty in England is a sort
of idol; people are bred up in the belief and love of it, but see little of its
doings. They walk about freely, but it is between high walls. George
Washington, To John Bernard (Quoted in Bernard, Retrospections of America, 1811, v, c. 1798)
How did mankind ever come by
the idea of liberty? What a grand thought it was! G. C. Lichtenberg, Reflections, 1799
The fetters imposed on liberty at home have ever been forged
out of the weapons provided for the defence against real, pretended, or
imaginary dangers from abroad. James Madison, Political Reflections, 1799
Our liberty depends on our
education, our laws, and habits to which even prejudices yield; on the
dispersion of our people on farms and on the almost equal diffusion of
property. Fisher Ames, Oration in Boston,
1800
I have from my first outset
in public life been deeply affected by the charms of liberty, and from that
early period to my old age been without fee or reward an advocate for her
slandered righteous cause. John Dickinson, Letter to Thomas McKean, March 4,
1801
The lightning of the
nations. P. B. Shelley, Ode to Liberty,
1819
Liberty here means to do
each as he pleases; to care for nothing and nobody, and cheat everybody.
William Faux, Memorable Days in America,
1823
If liberty produces
ill-manners and want of taste, she is a very excellent parent with two very
disagreeable daughters. William Hazlitt, Covent
Garden Theatre, 1829, (The Atlas, 4)
Liberty and Union, now and
for ever, one and inseparable! Daniel Webster, Speech in the Senate, Jan. 26,
1830
Men of future generations will
yet win many a liberty of which we do not even feel the want. Max Stirner, The Ego and His Own, 1845
While I trust that liberty
and free institutions, as we have experienced them, may ultimately spread over
the globe, I am by no means sure that all people are fit for them; nor am I
desirous of imposing or forcing our peculiar forms upon any other nation that
does not wish to embrace them. Daniel Webster, Speech at Springfield, Mass.,
Sept. 29, 1847
[To the power of government] there must ever be allotted,
under all circumstances, a sphere sufficiently large to protect the community
against danger from without and violence and anarchy within. The residuum
belongs to liberty. More cannot be safely or rightly allotted to it. John C. Calhoun, Disquisition on Government, 1849
No more parties, no more
authority, absolute liberty of man and citizen — that is my political and
social confession of faith. P. J. Proudhon, Confessions
d'un révolutionaire, 1849
By civil liberty is meant,
not only the absence of individual restraint, but liberty within the social
system and political organism — a combination of principles and laws which
acknowledge, protect, and favor the dignity of man. Francis Lieber, Civil Liberty and Self-Government, 1852
Liberty is the sovereignty
of the individual. Josiah Warren, Equitable
Commerce, 1852
Liberty — precious boon of
Heaven — is meek and reasonable. She admits that she belongs to all — to the
high and the low; the rich and the poor; the black and the white — and that she
belongs to them all equally. Gerrit Smith, Speech in the House of
Representatives, June 27, 1854
I am for the people of the
whole nation doing just as they please in all matters which concern the whole
nation; for that of each part doing just as they choose in all matters which
concern no other part; and for each individual doing just as he chooses in all
matters which concern nobody else. Abraham Lincoln Speech, Oct. 1, 1858
The liberty of the
individual must be thus far limited: he must not make himself a nuisance to
other people. J. S. Mill, On Liberty,
iii, 1859
Four score and seven years
ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in
liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address,
Nov. 19, 1863
The world has never had a
good definition of the word liberty. Abraham Lincoln, Speech in Baltimore,
April 18, 1864
A natural right to liberty,
irrespective of the ability to defend it, exists in nations as much as and no
more than it exists in individuals. J. A. Froude, The English in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, I, 1872
The liberty of the citizen
to do as he likes so long as he does not interfere with the liberty of others
to do the same, which has been a shibboleth for some well-known writers, is
interfered with by school laws, by the Post Office, by every state or municipal
institution which takes his money for purposes thought desirable, whether he
likes it or not. Mr. Justice O.W. Holmes, Dissenting
opinion in Lochner vs. New York, 1904
Liberty is not a means to a
higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. J.E.E. Dalberg
(Lord Acton), Lectures on Modern History,
1906
Mankind is tired of liberty.
Benito Mussolini, In the Gerarchia, April, 1923
The greatest dangers to
liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without
understanding. Mr. Justice Louis D. Brandeis, Opinion in Olmstead vs. United States, 1928
You have set up in New York
harbor a monstrous idol which you call Liberty. The only thing that remains to
complete that monument is to put on its pedestal the inscription written by
Dante on the gate of Hell: "All hope abandon, ye who enter here."
George Bernard Shaw, Address in New York, April 11, 1933
Liberty is the only thing
you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others. William Allen
White, In the Emporia (Kansas) Gazette, Oct. 24, 1940
Liberty is ancient; it is
despotism that is new. French Proverb
Dear is country, but liberty
is dearer still. (Patria cara, carior libertas.) Latin Proverb
Liberty is the best of all
things. (Libertas optima rerum.) Medieval Latin Proverb.
* * *
Source: A New Dictionary of Quotations On Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources, selected and edited by H. L. Mencken (Alfred A. Knopf, 2001). This is my all time favorite book; these entries are about a third of Mencken's.
