“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
—-The Declaration of Independence
“It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment, independence now and independence forever. “
—-Daniel Webster, U.S. politician and orator
“Liberty is the soul’s right to breathe, and when it cannot take a long breath, laws are girdled too tight.”
—-Henry Ward Beecher, abolitionist.
“Without an unfettered press, without liberty of speech, all of the outward forms and structures of free institutions are a sham, a pretense – the sheerest mockery. If the press is not free; if speech is not independent and untrammeled; if the mind is shackled or made impotent through fear, it makes no difference under what form of government you live, you are a subject and not a citizen.”
—- Senator William Borah (R-ID), 1917
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
—-George Orwell
“Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”
—- Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, 1927
“The Republic may not give wealth or happiness, she has not promised these. It is the freedom to pursue these, not their realization, which the Declaration of Independence claims.”
—-Andrew Carnegie, American industrialist, 1886
“There is no rest for free people; rest is a monarchical idea.”
—-Georges Clemenceau, Premier of France, 1883
“The freedom of America is the freedom to live your own life and take your own chances.”
—Thomas Sowell, scholar and social scientist, 1986
“The American people have a stake in non-conformity, for they know the American genius is non-conformist.”
—-Henry Steele Commager, U.S. historian, 1947
“Why is my opinion judged by another man’s conscience?”
—-New Testament, 1 Corinthians 10:29
“The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance.”
— John Philpot Curra, Irish barrister, 1790.
“You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man’s freedom. You can only be free if I am free.”
—Clarence Darrow, American lawyer and orator, 1920
“Advocacy and belief go hand in hand. For there can be no true freedom of mind if thoughts are secure only when they are pent up.”
—-US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
“I have made the great discovery that liberty is s product of order”
—-Will Durant, U.S. historian, 1968
“If none were to have Liberty but those who understand what it is, there would not be many freed Men in the world.”
—George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax, 1750
“The Constitution is a delusion and a snare if the weakest and humblest man in the land cannot be defended in his right to speak and his right to think as much as the strongest in the land.”
—Clarence Darrow, American lawyer and orator, 1920
“I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon law and upon courts. These are false hopes, believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it.”
—- Judge Learned Hand
“The greatest right in the world is the right to be wrong.”
—Henry Weinberger, William Randolph, William Randolph Hearst, or someone else.
“Liberty belongs only to those who have the gift of reason,”
—Pope Leo XIII, 1888
“Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”
—-James Madison, 1788
Ethics Alarms 
William Borah had an affair with Alice Roosevelt Longworth, wife of House Speaker Nicholas Longworth of Ohio and the daughter of Theodore Roosevelt.
It was an open secret in DC. People called her Aurora Borah Alice. He was probably the father of her child. Nick Longworth accepted the little girl as his own and was a devoted father until his untimely death.
“Aurora Borah Alice” is BRILLIANT! And I did not know that, but it figures: Alice was still around when I moved to D.C., and she was her father’s daughter, even though he neglected her compared to his sons, making her cynical and bitter.
She definitely looked for father figures. Nick and Borah were both older men.
In fact, a joke went around about the baby’s parentage. “What do the Longworth’s baby and new parquet floor have in common? Neither has a Nick in them.”
Wow, Darrow had some great thoughts. I really enjoyed this list as well.
Thanks!
Thank you for the quotes.
If the principles depicted in the above quotes were taught in our schools and supported by the populous, there would be no necessity for cramming LGBTQ….. propaganda down everyone’s throat. Affirmative Action, DEI, Critical Race Theory, and the 1619 project; none of these divisive concepts could gain any serious traction. The liberty-stealing, totalitarian progressive movement would have been stillborn.
The progressive movement was born in the minds of lesser men and women lacking the courage and initiative to strive to excel while still playing by the rules. To be sure, they have been aided by politicians’ lust for power and money. However, the politicians are not solely to blame. It is also the businessmen who also lust for power and riches who “lobby” or bribe politicians to give them an unfair competitive advantage.
Finally, it is mankind’s lust to obtain something for nothing as long as his neighbor gets stuck with the bill that may be the root cause of our problems. Walt Kelly’s POGO stated, “We have met the enemy and he is us” and Paul Harvey cautioned that “Self-government won’t work without self-discipline”. Both of these warnings need to be heeded if our Republic is to be saved. We each must do our part. Freedom does not come without a cost.
Great quotes, Jack. Thank you for sharing them. Happy Independence Day!
Wonderful quotes. Permit me to add another that I discovered in high school.
A title that has always stuck with me is a book by Elmer Davis “But We Were Born Free” from 1953. I have the book, although I confess not to have read it — it was written in the shadow of McCarthy, and in the opening chapter he says:
“… the men who made our government thought they could guarantee that the lid would stay off by almost immediately writing into the Constitution as its very first amendment the guarantee of freedom of religion, of speech, of the press — all corollaries of the basic right to think what you like. That seemed to have settled that; with a great price our ancestors obtained this freedom, but we were born free.
“So we were; but that freedom can be retained only by the eternal vigilance which has always been its price.”
And the current narrative being pushed by the totalitarians is that the eternally vigilant are either dangerous wacko conspiracy theorists or that people who demand their rights are being selfish.