…there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights or property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. James Madison
On pure democracy, and why a constitution enumerating the powers of a government is required. (1751-1836)
Category Archives: Quotations Freedom
The most fundamental purpose of government is defense, not empire. Joseph Sobran (…
The most fundamental purpose of government is defense, not empire. Joseph Sobran
(1946- ) American writer and editor. Formerly senior editor at National Review.
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’…
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, they make them. George Bernard Shaw
The government is good at one thing…it knows how to break …
The government is good at one thing…it knows how to break your legs, and then hand you a crutch and say ‘see if it weren’t for the government you wouldn’t be able to walk.’ Harry Browne
(1996 & 2000 Libertarian Party Presidential candidate)
We do not accept the existence of permanent tyranny because we do …
We do not accept the existence of permanent tyranny because we do not accept the possibility of permanent slavery. George W. Bush
January 20, 2005
We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, …
We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. John F. Kennedy
35th President of the United States, 1961-1963 (1917-1963)
Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and …
Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Poet and writer
I certainly learned a great deal from 3,000 town hall meetings …
I certainly learned a great deal from 3,000 town hall meetings across my home state of Tennessee over a 16-year period [in Congress] Al Gore
Interview with NPR’s Bob Edwards. Look at the math. That’s 187 town hall meetings per year, or a meeting in Tennessee every other day for 16 years, including weekends, holidays, vacations, and time spent running for president in 1988 and for vice president in 1992.
Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint. Daniel Webster Speech at the …
Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint. Daniel Webster
Speech at the Charleston Bar Dinner, May 10, 1847. Vol. ii. p 393. 1782-1852
I studied the lives of great men and famous women, and I …
I studied the lives of great men and famous women, and I found that the men and women who got to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand, with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm. Henry Truman