The quote database

Liberty, as the inestimable birthright of every man, converted every object into an asserter of this right.

Finally we must have courage and self-confidence to cling to our own methods and conceptions of human society. After all, the greatest danger that can befall us in coping with this problem of Soviet communism, is that we shall allow ourselves to become like those with whom we are coping.

The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave.

The Constitution expresses more than the conviction of the people that democratic processes must be preserved at all costs.

My master had power and law on his side; I had a determined will.

I would ten thousand times rather that my children should be the half-starved paupers of Ireland than to be the most pampered among the slaves of America

If citizens do not like a law, their duty as honest men and women is to discourage its violation; their right is openly to work for its repeal.

There can be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the United States.

One great object of the Constitution was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon their just rights.

the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.

The right to dissent peaceably, within the guardrails of our Republic, is perhaps our nation's greatest strength.

The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have only the law of nature for his rule.

No body can give more power than he has himself; and he that cannot take away his own life, cannot give another power over it.

The constitutional right of free expression is powerful medicine in a society as diverse and populous as ours.

Surely the State has no right to cleanse public debate to the point where it is grammatically palatable to the most squeamish among us.

Between subjection to the will of others and the virtues of self-help and self-government there is a natural incompatibility.

One of the benefits of freedom is that under it the ruler can not pass by the people's minds, and amend their affairs for them without amending them.

Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers.

To me, a man has no master but God. Man in his authority is a sovereign lord.

The fact is that old age is respectable just as long as it asserts itself, maintains its proper rights, and is not enslaved to any one.

As members of the minority party, we do not have the primary authority to formulate the policy of our government. But we do have the responsibility of rendering constructive criticism, of clarifying issues, of allaying fears by acting as responsible citizens.

Seeking no favors because of our color, nor patronage because of our needs, we knock at the bar of justice, asking an equal chance.

I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves

Why do they expect virtue from a slave, or from a being whom the constitution of civil society has rendered weak, if not vicious?

Free trade in labour and equality of training, intellectual or physical, is essential if the organic aptitudes of a sex or class are to be determined.