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

Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitude.

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

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.

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

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

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

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."

If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-knowledge is painful and we prefer the pleasures of illusion.

Freedom is to be free from restraint and violence from others.

Some people’s idea of free speech is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage.

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.

Statism needs war; a free country does not. Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by producing.

What light is to the eyes - what air is to the lungs - what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.

There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.

The welfare of the people has always been the alibi of tyrants.

It is a socialist idea making profits is a vice. I consider the real vice is making losses.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.

I am a true laborer: I earn that I eat, get that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man’s happiness, glad of other men’s good, content with my harm.

I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.

Nothing can now be believed which is seen in the newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.

When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.

There is no disguise which can for long conceal love where it exists or simulate it where it does not.

Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.

My way of joking is to tell the truth. It is the funniest joke in the world.

Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute.

You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil system never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil. A good person will resist an evil system with his or her whole soul.