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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.

Early in life I have noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie. I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed. I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that never happened. I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various “party lines.”

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

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.

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

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

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

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

There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

To change your mind and to follow him who sets you straight is to be nonetheless the free agent that you were before.

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.

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.

Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.

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

I rebel; therefore I exist.

They fear love because it creates a world they can't control.

Never cross a man, not afraid to die.

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

What exactly is your 'fair share' of what 'someone else' has worked for?

You don't have to be big or well known to be great.

Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.

We have more machinery of government that is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.

A society that tolerates intimidation as a means of settling disputes…loses its moral rights to exist as a social system, and its collapse does not take long to follow.

Amid the seeming confusion of our mysterious world, individuals are so nicely adjusted to a system, and systems to one another and to a whole, that, by stepping aside for a moment, a man exposes himself to a fearful risk of losing his place forever.

Every high civilization decays by forgetting obvious things.

Racism is not dead, but it is on life support—kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as ‘racists’.

Almost every significant breakthrough is the result of a courageous break with traditional ways of thinking.

As the eagle was killed by the arrow winged with his own feather, so the hand of the world is wounded by its own skill.

Two percent of the people think; three percent of the people think they think; and ninety-five percent of the people would rather die than think.

It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance.

Listen with ears of tolerance, see through the eyes of compassion, speak with language of love.

The only way to make sure people you agree with can speak is to support the rights of people you don’t agree with.