The responsibility of the great states is to serve and not to dominate the world.

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.”

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.

Liberty only survives when it is defended.

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

Never cross a man, not afraid to die.

If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of view, justify revolution—certainly would if such a right were a vital one.

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

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.

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

It is absurd to hold that a man ought to be ashamed of being unable to defend himself with his limbs, but not of being unable to defend himself with speech and reason.

When one remains silent in the face of oppression, one is on the side of the oppressor.

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

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.

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.

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.

I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.

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.

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.

I had always hoped that this land might become a safe & agreeable Asylum to the virtuous & persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong.

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.

I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.

As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.

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

They [the Americans] have all a lively faith in the perfectibility of man, they judge that the diffusion of knowledge must necessarily be advantageous, and the consequences of ignorance fatal; they all consider society as a body in a state of improvement, humanity as a changing scene, in which nothing is, or ought to be, permanent; and they admit that what appears to them today to be good, may be superseded by something better tomorrow.

Never exceed your rights, and they will soon become unlimited.

We hardly ever realize that we can cut anything out of our lives, anytime, in the blink of an eye.

In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.

We are all one family in the world. Building a community that empowers everyone to attain their full potential through each of us respecting each other's dignity, rights and responsibilities makes thee world a better place to live.

I never encounter anything except my responsibility.

We all walk in the dark and each of us must learn to turn on his or her own light.

The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual; and, exhibited in the lives of many, it continues the true source of national vigor and strength. Help from without is often enfeebling in its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates.

You and only you are responsible for your life choices and decisions.

We know of no culture that has said, articulately, that there is no difference between men and women except in the way they contribute to the creation of the next generation.

If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really man it.

Films, football, beer, and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.

No matter how big the lie; repeat it often enough and the masses will regard it as the truth.

All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.

And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth.

The higher you soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.

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’.

Anarchy, anarchy! Show me a greater evil! This is why cities tumble and the houses rain down, this is what scatters armies!

Men who reject the responsibility of thought and reason can only exist as parasites on the thinking of others.

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.