quotations about liberty
Clearly when the liberties are left unrestricted they collide with one another.
JOHN RAWLS
A Theory of Justice
The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts.
EDMUND BURKE
letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, Apr. 3, 1777
Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be found.
EDMUND BURKE
second speech on Conciliation with America, 1775
Indeed nations, in general, are not apt to think until they feel; and therefore nations in general have lost their liberty: For as violations of the rights of the governed, are commonly not only specious, but small at the beginning, they spread over the multitude in such a manner, as to touch individuals but slightly. Thus they are disregarded. The power or profit that arises from these violations centering in few persons, is to them considerable. For this reason the governors having in view their particular purposes, successively preserve an uniformity of conduct for attaining them. They regularly increase the first injuries, till at length the inattentive people are compelled to perceive the heaviness of their burthens -- They begin to complain and inquire -- but too late. They find their oppressors so strengthened by success, and themselves so entangled in examples of express authority on the part of their rulers, and of tacit recognition on their own part, that they are quite confounded: for millions entertain no other idea of the legality of power, than it is founded on the exercise of power.
JOHN DICKENSON
The Political Writings of John Dickinson
Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel.
PATRICK HENRY
speech on the Federal Constitution at the Virginia Ratifying Convention, Jun. 5, 1788
Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights.
GILBERT DU MOTIER
Declaration of the Rights of Man