"Much violence is based on the illusion that life
is a property to be defended and not to be shared."
-- Henri Nouwen
 |
*
Today
we are engaged in a deadly global struggle with
those who would intimidate, torture, and murder
people for exercising the most basic freedoms.
If we are to win this struggle and spread those
freedoms, we must keep our own moral compass
pointed in a true direction.
-- Barack Obama
|
Here
is my advice as we begin the century that will lead
to 2081. First, guard the freedom of ideas at all
costs. Be alert that dictators have always played
on the natural human tendency to blame others and
to oversimplify. And don't regard yourself as a guardian
of freedom unless you respect and preserve the rights
of people you disagree with to free, public, unhampered
expression.
-- Gerard K. O'Neill, 2081
There
can be no prescription old enough to supersede the
Law of Nature and the grant of God Almighty, who has
given to all men a natural right to be free, and they
have it ordinarily in their power to make themselves
so, if they please.
-- James Otis
|
|
He
that would make his own liberty secure, must
guard even his enemy from opposition; for if
he violates this duty he establishes a precedent
that will reach himself.
-- Thomas Paine
*
When
people fear the government, there is tyranny.
When government fears the people, there is liberty.
-- Thomas Paine
|
|
|
*
"I
would like to be known as a person who is concerned
about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity
for all people."
-- Rosa Parks
|
Anarchism
has but one infallible, unchangeable motto, "Freedom."
Freedom to discover any truth, freedom to develop,
to live naturally and fully.
-- Lucy Parsons,
1905 |
|
Let
us not accept violence as the way of peace. Let us
instead begin by respecting true freedom: the resulting
peace will be able to satisfy the world's expectations,
for it will be a peace built on justice, a peace founded
on the incomparable dignity of the free human being.
-- Pope John Paul II
There
is but one special interest that we should be working
for, and that would solve just about all of our problems,
and that is our liberty.
-- Ron Paul
America
was founded by men who understood that the threat
of domestic tyranny is as great as any threat from
abroad. If we want to be worthy of their legacy, we
must resist the rush toward ever-increasing state
control of our society. Otherwise, our own government
will become a greater threat to our freedoms than
any foreign terrorist.
-- Ron Paul
Only
in a free society do individuals have the best chance
to seek virtue, strive for excellence, improve their
economic well-being, and achieve personal happiness...
The worthy goals of civilization can only be achieved
by freedom loving individuals. When government uses
force, liberty is sacrificed and the goals are lost.
It is freedom that is the source of all creative energy.
-- Ron Paul
 |
*
"There
can be no Friendship where there is no Freedom."
-- William Penn
|
|
*
Freedom
is never granted; it is won. Justice is never
given; it is exacted.
-- A. Philip
Randolph
|
|
There
is no power in the world that can stop the forward march
of free men and women when they are joined in the solidarity
of human brotherhood.
-- Walter Reuther
|
*
"The
artist must elect to fight for Freedom or for
Slavery.
-- Paul Robeson
|
 |
 |
*
"At
all times, day by day, we have to continue fighting
for freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and
freedom from want… for these are things that must
be gained in peace as well as in war."
-- Eleanor
Roosevelt |
*
Freedom
means the supremacy of human rights everywhere.
Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those
rights or keep them.
--
Franklin
D. Roosevelt |
|
In
the future days which we seek to make secure, we look
forward to a world founded upon four essential human
freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression
--everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of
every person to worship God in his own way-- everywhere
in the world. The third is freedom from want, which,
translated into world terms, means economic understandings
which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime
life for its inhabitants --everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into
world terms, means a worldwide reduction of armaments
to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that
no nation will be in a position to commit an act of
physical aggression against any neighbor --anywhere
in the world. That is no vision of a distant millennium.
It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable
in our own time and generation.
-- Franklin
D. Roosevelt
The
only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government
strong enough to protect the interests of the people,
and a people strong enough and well enough informed
to maintain its sovereign control over the government.
-- Franklin
D. Roosevelt
 |
*
Order
without liberty and liberty without order are
equally destructive.
-- Theodore
Roosevelt
|
Freedom
is actually a bigger game than power. Power is about
what you can control. Freedom is about what you can
unleash.
-- Harriet Rubin
If
you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to
guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all
your neighbors. There is no other.
-- Carl Schurz
|
*
Sometimes
the lack of substantive freedoms relates directly
to economic poverty
-- Amartya
Sen
|
 |
Sometimes
the lack of substantive freedoms relates directly to
economic poverty, which robs people of the freedom to
satisfy hunger; or to achieve sufficient nutrition,
or to obtain remedies for treatable illnesses or the
opportunity to be adequatley clothed or sheltered, or
to enjoy clean water or sanitary facilities. In other
cases, the unfreedom links closely to the lack of public
facilities and social care, such as the absence of epidemiological
programs, or of organized arrangements for the health
care or educational facilities, or of effective insititutions
for the maintenance of local peace and order. In still
other cases, the violation of freedom results directly
from a denial of political and civil liberties by authoritarian
regimes and from imposed restrictions on the freedom
to participate in the social, political and economic
life of the community.
-- Amartya Sen
Liberty
is the possibility of doubting, of making a mistake,...
of searching and experimenting,... of saying No to any
authority - literary, artistic, philosophical, religious,
social, and even political.
-- Ignazio Silone
|
Freedom
is the most basic of all human rights, and yet
throughout history many individuals and nations
have had to struggle to be free. Much progress
has been made in helping to win freedom for all.
But even though all nations agreed to uphold the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights for their
citizens, many people are not allowed these basic
liberties.
-- Robert Alan Silverstein
|
 |
Every
man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice,
is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his
own way, and to bring both his industry and capital
into competition with those of any other man or order
of men.
-- Adam Smith
|
|
My
definition of a free society is a society where
it is safe to be unpopular.
-- Adlai Stevenson
|
