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.

The period is now arrived, in which either they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must fall.

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace, and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty.

Either you will control your government, or government will control you.

A free press can of course be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom it will never be anything but bad. . . Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better, whereas enslavement is a certainty of the worse.

The right to free speech is more important than the content of the speech.

Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitude.

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

The overwhelming importance of the atmosphere means that there are no longer any frontiers to defend against pollution, attack, or propaganda. It means, further, that only by a deep patriotic devotion to one’s country can there be a hope of the kind of protection of the whole planet, which is necessary for the survival of the people of other countries.

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

If there is anything in the world a person should fight for, it is freedom to pursue his ideal, because in that is his great opportunity for self-expression, for the unfoldment of the greatest thing possible to him.

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.

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

For you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you.

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 rebel; therefore I exist.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most impressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be saturated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

A well governed appetite is the greater part of liberty.

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.

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

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."