You cannot have the right to do what is wrong.

The mutual confidence on which all else depends can be maintained only by an open mind and a brave reliance upon free discussion.

You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.

I did not seek greatness. I only sought to fulfill my duties.

Speech is civilization itself. The word, even the most contradictory word, preserves contact—it is silence which isolates.

Why has government been instituted? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason & justice without constraint.

Freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that society, and made by the legislative power vested in it; a liberty to follow my own will in all things when the rule prescribes not, and not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, unknown, arbitrary rule of another man.

Those who enjoy responsibility usually get it; those who merely enjoy exercising authority usually lose it.

A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country.

Let us remind ourselves that it is ordinary people – men and women, boys and girls – that make the world a special place.

Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.

Man is a mental being, and to know this is the first step on the road to freedom, for as long as you believe yourself to be primarily physical, you will remain in bondage, that is to say, to your own habits of thought, for there is no other bondage.

I could not understand how any man could be so brutalized as to claim the right to dispose of the lives of others, nor how any man could be so lacking in self-esteem as to grant to others the right to dispose of his life.

I rebel; therefore I exist.

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.