Freedom Quotes
Presidents are over-represented here. George W. Bush has the most entries, ahead of Thomas Jefferson and John F. Kennedy, which says more about how often presidents talk about freedom than about how well they put it. The better writing tends to be elsewhere: Madison in the Federalist Papers (1787), Hannah Arendt in The Human Condition (1958), Dalí in his diary.
Two of the most repeated freedom quotes are flagged. “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” is credited to Voltaire. Evelyn Beatrice Hall wrote it in The Friends of Voltaire (1906), as a summary of his views. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance” is credited to Jefferson, but nobody has found it in his writings. The closest early version is by John Philpot Curran, in a speech of 1790.
What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence?
Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.
The Confederacy stands for slavery and the Union for freedom.
Jesus wanted to liberate everyone from the law — from all laws.
To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men.
Self-regulation is the basis of freedom, and dependence the origin of inequality.
Ever since I arrived to a state of manhood, I have felt a sincere passion for liberty.
Come all you true friends of the nation, attend to humanity's call!
Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.
Partial freedom seems to me the most invidious form of slavery.