Liberty not only means that the individual has both the opportunity and the burden of choice; it also means that he must bear the consequences of his actions…. Liberty and responsibility are inseparable. Friedrich A. Hayek
Nobel Prize Winner, The Constitution of Liberty, 1960 (1899-1992)
Category Archives: Quotations Freedom
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government …
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question. Thomas Jefferson
1801 (1743-1826) (Investor’s Business Daily, November 25, 1998)
We don’t have a revenue problem. The government gets plenty of …
We don’t have a revenue problem. The government gets plenty of revenue. What’s wrong is that the government spends too much money. John Snow
United States, Secretary of the Treasury, June 2003
The state represents violence in a concentrated and organized form. The individual …
The state represents violence in a concentrated and organized form. The individual has a soul, but as the state is a soulless machine, it can never be weaned from violence to which it owes its very existence. Mahatma Ghandi
Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming …
Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and consequently the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature repugnant to the constitution is void.
U.S. Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison, 5 US (2 Cranch) 137, 174, 176, (1803)
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion …
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. . . . And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. . . . Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. George Washington
There are two ways of making a Cabinet. One way is to …
There are two ways of making a Cabinet. One way is to have in it people representing the different points of view within the party, within the broad philosophy. The other way is to have in it only the people who want to go in the direction which every instinct tells me we have to go: clearly, steadily, firmly, with resolution. As Prime Minister, I could not waste my time having internal arguments. Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher, 1979
Marriage is a lottery, but you can’t tear up your ticket …
Marriage is a lottery, but you can’t tear up your ticket if you lose. F. M. Knowles
…
…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)
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.