Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [1201-1220] of 1320 Freedom quotesFreedom QuotesFreedom Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes I heartily accept the motto, that government is best which governs least ... Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I also believe, that government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.~ Henry David Thoreau Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.~ Henry David Thoreau The fate of the country does not depend on how you vote at the polls -- the worst man is as strong as the best at that game; it does not depend on what kind of paper you drop into the ballot-box once a year, but on what kind of man you drop from your chamber into the street every morning.~ Henry David Thoreau Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison ... the only house in a slave State in which a free man can abide with honor.~ Henry David Thoreau If you see a man approaching you with the obvious intent of doing you good, you should run for your life.~ Henry David Thoreau Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one.~ Henry David Thoreau To speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it. After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule, is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience? -- in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.~ Henry David Thoreau I make my own time. I make my own terms. I cannot see how God or Nature can ever get the start of me.~ Henry David Thoreau The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free.~ Henry David Thoreau Before the creation of the welfare state, immigrants who came to this country were for the most part attracted by America’s reputation as a land of freedom and opportunity. Laws and customs that then prevailed required immigrants to carve out their individual destinies by their own labor, perseverance, intelligence, and determination.~ James Thornton The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage.~ Thucydides Be convinced that to be happy means to be free and that to be free means to be brave. Therefore do not take lightly the perils of war.~ Thucydides Did you ever expect a corporation to have a conscience, when it has no soul to be damned, and nobody to be kicked?~ Lord Chancellor Thurlow The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.~ Alvin Toffler The last stage but one of every civilisation, is characterised by the forced political unification of its constituent parts, into a single greater whole.~ Arnold J. Toynbee It's the misfortune of all Countries, that they sometimes lie under a unhappy necessity to defend themselves by Arms against the ambition of their Governors, and to fight for what's their own. If those in government are heedless of reason, the people must patiently submit to Bondage, or stand upon their own Defence; which if they are enabled to do, they shall never be put upon it, but their Swords may grow rusty in their hands; for that Nation is surest to live in Peace, that is most capable of making War; and a Man that hath a Sword by his side, shall have least occasion to make use of it.~ John Trenchard [The Bill of Rights is] designed to protect individuals and minorities against the tyranny of the majority, but it's also designed to protect the people against bureaucracy, against the government.~ Laurence Tribe [I]f we won’t choose to pay the price of liberty, then by default we shall suffer the cost of servitude -- whether it be the iron chains of a tyrannical oligarchy or the regulatory chains of unelected, faceless bureaucrats. When we witness our neighbors abused by tyrants, will we skulk away and hope we’re not next? Or will we stand by them and challenge -- as freedom-loving Americans -- the tyranny of lawless leaders.~ Phil Trieb Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.~ Mao Tse-Tung I freed thousands of slaves. I could have freed thousands more if they had known they were slaves.~ Harriet Tubman Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print