Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.

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.

I am not aware that any community has a right to force another to be civilized.

Since men are neither omniscient nor infallible, they must be free to agree or disagree, to cooperate or to pursue their own independent course, each according to his own rational judgment. Freedom is the fundamental requirement of man's mind.

Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you.

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

I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be.

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

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.

Liberty without Learning is always in peril and Learning without Liberty is always in vain.

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

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

Irreverence is the champion of liberty and its only sure defence.

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

One man thinks himself the master of others but remains more of a slave than they are.

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burned women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.

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.