The origin of all constitutional rights, according to Lincoln, was the right …

The origin of all constitutional rights, according to Lincoln, was the right that a man had to own himself, and therefore to own the product of his labor. Government exists to protect that right, and to regulate property only to make it more valuable to its possessors. Harry V. Jaffa
Abraham Lincoln on the essence of slavery and government jobs [as reported in a Wall Street Journal article by Jaffa, September 12, 1996]

The first principle of a free society is that each person owns …

The first principle of a free society is that each person owns himself. You are your private property, and I am mine. Most Americans probably accept that first principle. Those who disagree are obliged to inform the rest of us just who owns us, at least here on earth. Dr. Walter E. Williams
May 7, 2003, http://www.townhall.com/columnists/walterwilliams/ww20030507.shtml

We find a race of men living in that day whom we …

We find a race of men living in that day whom we claim as our fathers and grandfathers. They were iron men. They fought for the principle that they were contending for, and we understood that by what they then did it has followed that the degree of prosperity that we now enjoy has come to us. Abraham Lincoln
Speech July 10, 1858 in Chicago on the Declaration of Independence and its celebration (1809-1865)

I believe there is a limit beyond which free speech cannot go, …

I believe there is a limit beyond which free speech cannot go, but it’s a limit that’s very seldom mentioned. It’s the point where free speech begins to collide with the right to privacy. I don’t think there are any other conditions to free speech. I’ve got a right to say and believe anything I please, but I haven’t got a right to press it on anybody else. …. Nobody’s got a right to be a nuisance to his neighbors. H.L. Mencken
(1880-1956)

When Presidents begin to worry about images … they become like athletes, the …

When Presidents begin to worry about images … they become like athletes, the football teams and the rest, who become so concerned about what is written about them and what is said about them that they don’t play the game well … The President, with the enormous responsibilities he has, must be constantly preening in front of a mirror. I don’t worry about polls, I don’t worry about images. I never have. Richard M. Nixon
1971

Individual Rights and Today's Issue