When even one American, who has done nothing wrong, is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth, then all Americans are in peril.

The necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude and perseverance.

God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: "This is my country."

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.

Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.

Some people are so used to special treatment that equal treatment is considered to be discrimination.

It does not take a majority of prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.

Conscientious objectors to vaccination should stand alone, if need be, against the whole world, in defense of their conviction.

You find out the necessity of Liberty as you find out the necessity of air—by not having enough of it.

Freedom of information is a fundamental human right...for a nation that is afraid to let its people to judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

I rebel; therefore I exist.

I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.

The greatest tyrannies are always perpetuated in the name of the noblest causes.

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

Freedom ultimately means the right of the other people to do things you don’t approve of.

I shall work for the Republican party and call on all women to join me, precisely…for what that party has done and promises to do for women, nothing more, nothing less.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act. . . . Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon the definition of liberty.

You cannot possibly have a broader basis for any government than that which includes all the people, with all their rights in their hands, and with an equal power to maintain their rights.

The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.

No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way harmed, nor will we go upon him nor will we send upon him, except by the legal judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.