Freedom Activist Network's Guide To
Freedom Quotations

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Acton, John Emerich Edward Dalberg- (deceased)

"And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that. All power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
 
"Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right to do what we ought."
 
"At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities, that have prevailed by associating themselves with auxiliaries whose objects differed from their own; and this association, which is always dangerous, has been sometimes disastrous, by giving to opponents just grounds of opposition."
 
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern."
 
"Socialism means slavery."

Adams, John Quincy (deceased)

"Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will [the United States'] heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom." – July 4 1821

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other." – Address to the military, Oct 11 1798

Adams, Samuel (deceased)

"A general dissolution of the principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. … While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but once they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader. … If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security."
 
"[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend of the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen onto any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man."
 
"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 nor arms. May your chains set lightly upon you and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
 
"The Constitution of the United States shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."
 
"It does not take a majority to prevail ... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men."

Anslinger, Harry Jacob (deceased)  other quotes

"Now this [hemp] is the finest fiber known to mankind, my God, if you ever have a shirt made of it, your grandchildren would never wear it out. You take Polish families. We'd go in and start to tear it up and the man came out with his shotgun yelling, 'These are my clothes for next winter!' "

Anthony, Susan Brownell (deceased)

"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires."

Armentano, Dominick T

"If you have a right to affordable housing, then presumably I have an obligation to supply it to you. If you have a right to reasonably priced medical care, then I have a duty to make such care available to you. This approach to rights appears to divide society into demanders with entitlements on the one side and suppliers with unchosen obligations on the other. But such an approach to rights appears incompatible with traditional notions of liberty and justice in America. This commentary on specific entitlement rights does not mean that the concept of rights is entirely meaningless in a political context. Not at all. It simply means that we must define rights more carefully and in a manner that offends neither economic reality nor basic notions of liberty." – "The Confusion over Rights", Feb 1994

Ashcroft, John David  other quotes

"We do not provide the government with phone jacks outside our homes for unlimited wiretaps. Why, then, should we grant government the Orwellian capability to listen at will and in real time to our communications across the Web?"– 1997
motherjones.com/news/feature/2002/03/ashcroft.html

"If liberty is the exercise of freedom with responsibility, license is the suggestion that you can exercise freedom without responsibility. Unfortunately, it is possible to exercise freedom irresponsibly. But it is not possible to exercise freedom inconsequentially." – Louisiana Republican Party Convention, Jan 27 1996

Austin, Alfred

"So long as faith with freedom reigns
And loyal hope survives,
And gracious charity remains
To leaven lowly lives;
While there is one untrodden tract
For intellect or will,
And men are free to think and act,
Life is worth living still
Is Life worth living."

 
Bailey, Frederick Augustus Washington

"Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want rain without thunder and lightning."

Bastiat, Claude Frederic

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living in society, they create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." – The Law, 1850

Beard, Charles Austin

"There is but one way to know the truth, and that is not a golden one. It is fraught with toil and sacrifice and perhaps ridicule. The seeker of the truth must be fearless, he must not be afraid to enter the innermost holies of holies, and to tear down the veils of superstition that hang about any human and so-called divine institution. It is the truth that makes men free. If the truth tears down every church and government under the sun, let the truth be known and this truth only will be known when men cease to swallow the capsules of ancient doctors of divinities and politics; and when men begin to seek the truth in the records of history, politics, religion, and science." – 1898
 
"You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as dangerous citizen these days is go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in their struggle for independence."

Berlin, Isaiah Mendelevich (deceased)

"I am normally said to be free to the degree to which no man or body of men interferes with my activity. Political liberty in this sense is simply the area within which a man can act unobstructed by others. If I am prevented by others from doing what I could otherwise do, I am to that degree unfree; and if this area is contracted by other men beyond a certain minimum, I can be described as being coerced, or, it may be, enslaved. Coercion is not, however, a term that covers every form of inability. If I say that I am unable to jump more than ten feet in the air, or cannot read because I am blind … it would be eccentric to say that I am to that degree enslaved or coerced. Coercion implies the deliberate interference of other human beings within the area in which I could otherwise act. You lack political liberty or freedom only if you are prevented from attaining a goal by other human beings." – from "Two Concepts of Liberty", Four Essays on Liberty, pg 122, 1969

Biko, Steve (deceased)

"The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed."

Birkett, Richard James

"The challenge for the Democratic Party is to keep the number of Democrats abandoning their party below the number of new Democrats born. The challenge for the Republican Party is to recruit more new Republicans faster than Republicans die." – Sept 7 2011
 
"Old ideas were once new, and new ideas will become old. Truly original ideas are rare." – Oct 9 2010
 
"A speaker or writer says as much or more about themselves than whom or what they're talking about." – Apr 12 2010
 
"Know your allies, and know your critics better." – Dec 3 2009
(a different take on "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.")
 
"I'd rather live with the excesses of too much freedom than the repression of too little freedom." – Sept 1 2009
 
"War is like marriage: too easy to get into, too hard to get out of."
–conversely–
"Marriage is like war: too easy to get into, too hard to get out of." – Jan 11 2007
 
"So, President Bush thinks America has an addiction to oil. I suggest President Bush try pushing (pun intended) the same strategy he's using to end drug addiction: long prison terms for oil addicts and their gas station dealers and kingpin oil company traffickers, seize and burn oil as contraband and automobiles as paraphernalia, intercept and seize oil traffickers at sea including shipments to other countries, eradicate oil at its source regardless of the environmental consequences, provide military aid to countries that cooperate, and impose economic sanctions and overthrow leaders of countries that don't. Furthermore, addicts better not claim any life-saving need for oil; they are still criminals nonetheless. Absurd? Absolutely! Unfortunately, too many Americans don't think this strategy is absurd when applied to drug addiction." – Feb 1 2006

Bourne, Randolph

"War is the health of the State." – "War is the Health of the State", 1918

Brandeis, Louis D (deceased)

"Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy." – 1928
 
"They conferred, as against the Government, the right to be let alone – the most prehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men."

Branden, Nathaniel

"If you want to be free, tell the truth." – from interview with Brian Lamb, Book TV, CSPAN, June 27 1989

Brennan, William J, Jr

"If there is a bedrock principle of the first amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable." – Texas v Johnson, 1989

Browne, Harold (deceased)

"Freedom is living your life as you want to live it." – from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World, 1973

Bruce, Lenny (deceased)

"If you can't say 'fuck', you can't say 'fuck the government'."

Buchanan, James M

"Let those who would use the political process to impose their preferences on the behavior of others be wary of the threat to their own liberties. The liberties of some cannot readily be restricted without limiting the liberties of all."

Buchanan, Patrick J

"To hell with empire, we want our country back."

Buckley, William F, Jr (deceased)

"Pot is harmful, but people shouldn't go to jail for it" – 1974

"The problem would not exist, except that in the United States there is a market for the stuff, and that the stuff is priced very high. If we cannot effectively prevent its insinuating its way into the country, what is it that we can prevent? The answer, of course, is its price. The one thing that could be done, overnight, is to legalize the stuff. Exit crime, and the profits of vice. What we have now is a drug problem plus a crime problem, plus a problem of huge export of capital to the dope-producing countries."

Burke, Edmund (deceased)

"Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be found."

Bush, George Walker

"[W]e must remember that the best health-care decisions are not made by government and insurance companies, but by patients and their doctors." – State of the Union, Jan 23 2007

"The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to humanity." – State of the Union, 2003

 
Carlson, Tucker

"I'm conservative about most things. I have libertarian spirit and [am] not that interested in being told what to do by the government." – from The Early Show, CBS, aired Sept 16 2003
 
"You wouldn't want libertarians in charge of a government. On the other hand, politics informed by libertarian instincts – the libertarian spirit rather than actual libertarianism – is a good thing." from New York mag, Jan 21 2002
 
“I have to say I think these [ONDCP anti-drug] spots are a waste of $3.5 million."

Carter, Jimmy

"Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself" – Message to Congress, Aug 2 1977
 
"I do favor the decriminalization of marijuana."
 
"War is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children." – Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech

Chapman, Stephen

"If the first casualty of war is truth, the second is human lives, and what is true of other wars is also true of the war on drugs. Last week, the federal government defiantly ignored the truth about marijuana in announcing a new policy that will undoubtedly cause suffering and death. ... The Public Health Service's message to these people: Drop dead. The bureaucrats admit that 'HIV-wasting syndrome' is a serious and growing problem, that not much is known about it and that 'there are currently no commercially available effective treatments' for it. They don't deny that marijuana helps. But if some people with AIDS will die sooner rather than later because they can't get pot, the people at the Public Health Service are bravely resolved to accept that sacrifice." – Chapman's syndicated column, Mar 16 1992

Chomsky, Noam Avram

"The Libertarian Party – is familiar here – unknown elsewhere. There's a long tradition of Anarchism, Libertarian thought outside the United States, which is diametrically opposed to the positions of the Libertarian Party – but it's unknown here. That's the dominant position of what's always been considered Socialist Anarchism. Now, the Libertarian Party, is a Capitalist Party. It's in favor of what I would regard a particular form of authoritarian control. Namely, the kind that comes through private ownership and control, which is an extremely rigid system of domination – people have to – people can survive, by renting themselves to it, and basically in no other way." – from "Chomsky on Capitalism, Libertarian Party, Anarchism", Pozner/Donahue, Feb 14 1992

Churchill, Winston Leonard Spencer (deceased)

"There are two places only where socialism will work; in heaven where it is not needed, and in hell where they already have it."
 
"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may be even a worse fate. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."
 
"Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."
 
"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery."

Clemens, Samuel aka Mark Twain (deceased)

"Prohibition only drives drunkenness behind doors and into dark places, and does not cure it, or even diminish it." – Letter to the Alta Californian newspaper, May 28 1867
 
"Now what I contend is that my body is my own, at least I have always so regarded it. If I do harm through my experimenting with it, it is I who suffers, not the state."
 
"Irreverence is the champion of liberty."
 
"The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin."

Confucius (deceased)

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance."
 
"When words lose their meaning, people will lose their liberty."

Coolidge, John Calvin ,Jr (deceased)

"Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery."

Cooney, Ronald F

"One must have a commodious faith indeed to believe that the criminal, once disarmed, will go and rob, rape, and murder no more, or that the very element of society in whose best interest it is to ignore gun-control laws will accept them and obey them. The ordinary law-abiding citizen is doubly vulnerable if he obeys the law and surrenders the gun with which he protects his life and property because other laws have failed, or he feels they have failed, to protect him. Should he choose to disregard the law he, and all like him who were not criminals before, become de facto criminals in the eyes of the courts, a situation not unlike Prohibition, when a bad law enacted with the best of intentions did less to stop drinking than shatter respect for law itself.
   The simplistic view of criminal human nature held by the pro-legislation group is exceeded only by its unshakeable conviction in the talismanic properties of coldly mechanical statute. They leave the distinct impression that guns, and not the persons wielding them, are responsible for crime and that by banning guns through legislative fiat one is striking at the heart of the problem. Admittedly, this would be a simpler and tidier world if such things could be, but it is far easier to outlaw guns than to wish away the evil impulses which guns so often serve.
   Any free society worthy of the name does not deny the reality of these impulses, does not dispute that there is a darker side of man. Still, the truly free society is less engaged in reforming man-brave and heroic aspiration -than in allowing him to realize his potential for nobility and hence to reform himself. No one claims that freedom showers unmixed blessings, nor that it does not extract a toll." – from "A Freedom Under Fire", The Freeman, vol 25, no 11, Nov 1975

Coop, W Howard

"We have freedom to choose, but we do not have freedom to choose the consequences of our choices. … If true freedom is to prevail and our cherished heritage is to be preserved, citizens must be willing not only to claim their rights but also to assume their responsibilities." from "Responsibility Goes With Freedom", Scottish Rite Journal of Freemsonry, Southern Juridiction, USA, Jun 2003

Copernicus, Nicolaus (deceased)

"If there should chance to be any mathematicians who, ignorant in mathematics yet pretending to skill in that science, should dare, upon the authority of some passage of Scripture wrested to their purpose, to condemn and censure my hypothesis, I value them not, and scorn their inconsiderate judgement." – from De Revolutionibus Coelestibus

Coulter, Ann Hart  other quotes

"I think we had enough laws about the turn-of-the-century. We don't need any more." – Politically Incorrect, May 7 1997

Cronkite, Walter

"We should begin by recognizing [the war on drugs'] costly and inhumane dimensions. Much of the nation, in one way or another, is victimized by this failure – including, most notably, the innocents, whose exposure to drugs is greater than ever.
   This despite the fact that there are housed in federal and state prisons and local jails, on drug offenses, more than 500,000 persons – half a million people! Clearly, no punishment could be too severe for that portion of them who were kingpins of the drug trade and who ruined so many lives. But by far the majority of these prisoners are guilty of only minor offenses, such as possessing small amounts of marijuana. That includes people who used it only for medicinal purposes.
   The cost to maintain this great horde of prisoners is more than $10 billion annually. And that's just part of the cost of this war on drugs: The federal, state and local drug-control budgets last year added up to almost $40 billion. ...
   There are awful tales of tragedy and shocking injustice hidden in those figures – the product of an almost mindlessly draconian system called 'mandatory sentencing' in which even small offenses can draw years in prison.
   Thousands of women, many of them mothers of young children, are included among those minor offenders. Those children left without motherly care are the most innocent victims of the drug war and the reason some call it a 'war on families' as well as on drugs.
   Women are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. prison population, with almost 80 percent of them incarcerated for drug offenses. The deep perversity of the system lies in the fact that women with the least culpability often get the harshest sentences. Unlike the guilty drug dealer, they often have no information to trade for a better deal from prosecutors and might end up with a harsher sentence than the dealer gets. ...
   Nonviolent first offenders, male and female, caught with only small amounts of a controlled substance frequently are given prison sentences of five to 10 years or more. As a result, the number of nonviolent offenders in the nation's prisons is filling them to overflowing, literally. The resulting overcrowding is forcing violent felons onto the streets with early releases. ... And college students caught in possession of very small amounts of illegal substances are denied student loans and even food stamps.
   The [Drug Policy] Alliance and other organizations are working to reform and reframe the war on drugs. And they are finding many judges on their side, who are rebelling against this cruel system. We can expect no federal action during the congressional hiatus in activity ahead of the November elections, but it would be of considerable help if, across the country, campaigning politicians put this high on their promises of legislative action, much sooner than later." – "Mandated Injustice", 2004
 
"Every American was shocked when Robert McNamara, one of the master architects of the Vietnam War, acknowledged that not only did he believe the war was 'wrong, terribly wrong', but that he thought so at the very time he was helping to wage it. That's a mistake we must not make in this 10th year of America's all-out war on drugs. It's surely time for this nation to stop flying blind, stop accepting the assurances of politicians and other officials, that if we only keep doing what we are doing, add a little more cash, break down a few more doors, lock up a few more Jan Warrens and Nicole Richardsons, then we will see the light at the end ot the tunnel. Victory will be ours. Tonight we have seen a war that in it's broad outline is not working. And we've seen some less war-like ideas that appear to hold promise. We've raised more questions than we've answered, because that's where the drug war stands today. We're a confused people, desperately in need of answers and leadership. Legalization seems to many like too dangerous an experiment. To others, the war on drugs as is now conducted, seems inhumane and too costly. Is there a middle ground? Well, it seems to this reporter, that the time has come for President Clinton to do what Presdient Hoover did when prohibition was trearing the nation apart: a blue-ribbon panel to re-appraise our drug policy right down to its very core, a commission with full investigative authority and the prestige and power to override bureaucratic concerns and political consdierations. Such a commission could help us focus our thinking, escape the cliches of the drug war in favor of scientific fact, and more rationally analyze the real scope of the problem, answer the questions that bedevil us, and present a comprehensive drug policy for the future. We cannot go into tomorrow with the same formulas that are failing today. We must not blindly add to the body count and the terrible cost of the war on drugs, only to learn from another Robert McNamara 30 years from now that what we've been doing is 'wrong, terrilby wrong'." – "The Drug Dilemma-War or Peace?", The Cronkite Report, first aired June 20 1995
 
"Anyone concerned about the failure of our $69 billion-a-year War on Drugs should watch this 12-minute [LEAP] program. You will meet front line, ranking police officers who give us a devastating report on why it cannot work. It is a must-see for any journalist or public official dealing with this issue."

 
Dangerfield, Rodney (deceased)

"Booze is the real culprit in our society. Booze is traffic accidents, booze is wife beating. In my life I've seen many doctors and psychiatrists, and all of them have told me that I'm better off with pot than with booze." – from autobiographical It's Not Easy Being Me: A Lifetime of No Respect But Plenty of Sex and Drugs

Daniels, Mitchell Elias Jr

"Hayek, when I thumb back through it [The Road to Serfdom] and look at what I marked when I first read it, was the book that, to me, convincingly demonstrated what was already intuitive: namely, the utter futility, the illusion of government planning as a mechanism for uplifting those less fortunate. I read it together with dozens of other books, but the way he dissected and depicted the inexorable tendencies in statism to self-perpetuation of bureaucracies, matched what I thought was the evidence I saw around me. ... At the time, in the 1970s, it wasn’t hard to look at the wreckage, and say, ‘This isn’t working – and the more government tries to do, the more bureaucracies it piles up, the more regulations it writes, the less well off people at large seem to be. ... It was an environmental management agency and I told them then, and I’ve told them since, that we did not intend to weaken or moderate a single rule that I knew of, in terms of environmental standards. But I said that what we were determined to do was to make regulation consistent, predictable and quick. We worked very hard on that. We measured to see if we were getting there. So I guess that, if you say, correctly, that this job involves overseeing necessary regulatory activity, that mentality came in some part from books like Hayek’s. ... By his [Charles Murray's] definition [of a libertarian] I guess I’d say so [I'm a libertarian]. Like all these labels these days, a lot of them have been transmuted out of their original meaning." – interview in FiveBooks
thebrowser.com/interviews/mitch-daniels-on-how-libertarians-can-govern

Douglas, William Orville

"The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom."
 
"As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight. And it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."

Douglass, Frederick (deceased)

"If there is no struggle, there is not progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. they want the ocean without the awful roar of it's many waters. ... This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both mental and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. ... It never did ... and it never will. ... Find out just what the people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." – 1857 (or 1849 or both?)
 
"Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right they first of all strike down."
 
"Who would be free themselves must strike the blow. Better even to die free than live slaves."
 
"Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave."

Downs, Hugh

"The reasons the pro-marijuana lobby wants marijuana legal have little to do with getting high, and a great deal to do with fighting oil giants like Saddam Hussein, Exxon and Iran. The pro-marijuana groups claim that hemp is such a versatile raw material that its products not only compete with petroleum, but with coal, natural gas, nuclear energy, pharmaceutical, timber and textile companies. It is estimated that methane and methanol production alone from hemp grown as bio-mass could replace 90% of the world's energy needs. If they're right, this is not good news for oil interests, and could account for the continuation of marijuana prohibition." – 1995

 
Edison, Thomas Alva (deceased)

"Religion is bunk."

Edwards, Alan James

"Isaiah Mendelevich Berlin acknowledged that there were many various schools of thought when it came to the study of liberty and freedom. His distinction therefore, was an attempt to bring together renaissance, contemporary, marxist, and idealist philosophy, under one umbrella. Negative liberty, with its renaissance/reformation philosophical origins, would appeal to those who advocated the views of Hobbes, Bentham and Mill. Berlin not only separated negative from positive freedom, but put them in order of priority. To Berlin, negative freedom was the superior notion, the most significant. Positive freedom had a much more individualistic focus, and clear negative liberty, freedom from others, was seen as a more critical, desirable goal. Positive liberty was all to easily corrupted.
   'The positive sense of the word 'liberty' derives from the wish on the part of the individual to be his own master'. Self realisation and personal growth were the keys to positive liberty, human beings are complex rational creatures, not automatons. Berlin continued, 'I wish, above all, to be conscious of myself as a thinking, willing, active being, bearing responsibility for my choices.' …
   Perhaps a more persuasive discussion of liberty is MacCallum's 'triadic presentation'. … He suggested that freedom was where, 'X was free from Y to do or become Z', thus incorporating negative and positive liberty. …
   Berlin's distinction between positive and negative liberty does present two aspects of liberty, but true liberty cannot be fragmented. Berlin identified negative liberty as 'freedom from', and positive liberty as 'freedom to', but true liberty consists of both." – from "How Persuasive is Berlin's distinction between positive and negative liberty?"
home.clara.net/alaedw/concepts.htm (2006)
also see Isaiah Mendelevich Berlin, Gerald C MacCallum Jr

Edwards, John Reid

"What I will do as president is, we will not be going in and raiding the use of marijuana for medical purposes in states that have legalized it. I think where democracy has worked, where voters have decided this should be legalized, I will not as president go in and run contrary to the will of the people in those states where it has been legalized. These raids that are being done against patients, I will not do this as president of the United States and would put a stop to it. I really think that we need to put the FDA in charge of this." – Town Hall meeting in Derry NH, June 8 2007
cannabisculture.com/articles/5101.html
 
When asked "As president, would you stop arresting [medical marijuana] patients?" Edwards responded, "I think the simple way to do this is for the President of the United States to set up this commission, give them a short deadline and, assuming their recommendation makes medical sense, to follow what their recommendation is." Then when asked "What happens in that time, while this study is going on?" Edwards responded, "I don't think you can say to people who work for you `no, ignore violations of the law.' I think that's irresponsible for the president to do. ... [I]t is what I believe is the right answer right now," Then asked, "Even though it's legal in [some] states?" Edwards replied, "My basic view is ... I believe this is the right way to deal with this." – Town Hall meeting at Salem Middle School, Salem, NH, Aug 22, 2003

Einstein, Albert (deceased)

"The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this." – "My First Impression of the USA", 1921
uvm.edu/~rmelamed/Einstein.html
 
"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth"
 
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
 
"The ruling class at present, has the schools and press, usually the Church as well, under its thumb. This enables it to organize and sway the emotions of the masses, and make its tool of them."
 
"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own– a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human fraility. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism."
 
"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."

Elders, Jocelyn

"I know of no medical group that believes that jailing sick and dying people is good for them."

 
Ford, Jack

"I've smoked marijuana and I don't think that's so exceptional for people growing up in the 1960s. The fact that there's so much moral indignation over it is one of the reasons there are so any problems with the disillusionment and alienation of young people in this country."

Fox Quesada, Vicente

"Finally, we must consider legalizing the production, distribution and sale of drugs. Legalizing, in this sense, does not mean drugs are good or does not damage those who consume, this not the purpose, rather we must see this as a strategy to hit and break the economic structure that allows mafias to generate huge winnings for its trade that allows them to corrupt and increase covert power. Additionally, countries where they have already implemented this strategy, consumption has not risen significantly. Additional taxes on sales with steep tax rates, as is the case with tobacco, earmarking this revenue for attacking addiction, consumption reduction, rehabilitation and population health. Radical prohibition strategies have never worked. The cost of the fight against organized crime, and in particular narcotics trafficking, has been enormous in our country. What is happening is that this huge market of the United States in drug consumption, the largest in the world, is generating the weapons that are sold to Mexican cartels, and is generating the money that is laundered in the United States and brought to Mexico." – Aug 7 2010
blogvicentefox.blogspot.com
 
"I believe it's time to open the debate over legalizing drugs. ... It must be done in conjunction with the United States, but it is time to open the debate. ... I would like to see some steps taken here in the United States. We see the drugs are coming across the border and are distributed in Atlanta and Washington and Chicago and all parts of the country." – CNN, May 12 2009

Franklin, Benjamin (deceased)

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." – Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
  alternately –
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."?
 
"There never was a good war nor a bad peace."
 
"It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority."
 
"Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature."

Freeman, Tim

"When they took the fourth amendment, I was silent because I don't deal drugs. When they took the sixth amendment, I kept quiet because I know I'm innocent. When they took the second amendment, I said nothing because I don't own a gun. Now they've come for the first amendment and I can't say anything at all."

Friedman, David

"Ask not what the government can do for you. Ask what the government is doing to you."

Friedman, Milton R (deceased)

"Every friend of freedom, and I know you are one, must be as revolted as I am by the prospect of turning the United States into an armed camp, by the vision of jails filled with casual drug users and an army of enforcers empowered to invade the liberty of citizens on slight evidence. A country in which shooting down unidentified planes 'on suspicion' can be seriously considered as a drug war tactic is not the kind of United States that either you or I want to hand on to future generations." – Open letter to William J Bennett, Wall Street Journal, Sept 1989

Fromm, Erich Pinchas (deceased)

"While a class was fighting for its own liberation from domination, it believed itself to be fighting for human freedom as such and thus was able to appeal to an ideal, to the longing for freedom rooted in all who are oppressed. In the long and virtually continuous battle for freedom, however, classes that were fighting against oppression at one stage sided with the enemies of freedom when victory was won and new privileges were to be defended. … Is freedom only the absense of external pressure or is it also the presence of something–and if so, of what? … Can freedom become a burden, too heavy for man to bear, something he tries to escape from? Why then is it that freedom is for many a cherished goal and for others a threat? … in the Northern European countries, from the sixteenth century on, man developed an obsessional craving to work which had been lacking in a free man before that period. … Any understanding of freedom in modern society must start with that period in which the foundations of modern culture laid, for this formative stage of modern man permits us, more clearly than any later epoch, to recognize the ambiguous meaning of freedom which was to operate throughout modern culture: on the one hand the growing independence of man from external authorities, on the other hand his growing isolation and resulting feeling of individual insignificance and powerlessness. … the problem of freedom is not only a quantitative one, but a qualitative one; that we not only have to preserve and increase the traditional freedom, but that we have to gain a new kind of freedom, one which enables us to realize our own individual self, to have faith in this self and in life. … The peak in the evolution of freedom in the political sphere was the modern democratic state … Does freedom from all primary ties make the individual so alone and isolated that inevitably he must escape into new bondage? … the process of growing freedom does not constitute a vicious circle; and that man can be free and yet not alone, critical and yet not filled with doubts, independent and yet an integral part of mankind" – Escape From Freedom, 1941

 
Gaddafi, Muammar Abu Minyar al-

"Man’s freedom is lacking if somebody else controls what he needs, for need may result in man’s enslavement of man." – Qaddafi’s Green Book, pg 72, 1988

Galbraith, Gatewood

"We can restore liberty by taking government out of our bedrooms, our bloodstreams, our bladders, our brains, our businesses and our back-pockets." – 1995
 
"Did my father's generation hit the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima so their children would have to pee in a cup to hold a job in America?" – 1995
 
"We live in a police state. There's no doubt about it. When we walk out of our home, get in our car and go down the street, they can set up random roadblocks; make us get out of our car; bring up a dog to sniff us and our car's contents. Do you think John Wayne would have put up with that? John's riding his horse down a trail. They drop a log in front of him and say, "John, get down off that horse, let this dog sniff you, we're going to take blood out of your arm and make you pee in this bucket. I believe John Wayne would have said, 'I'm afraid not, Pilgrim. This is where I draw my line in the sand.' I think The Duke would be with me on this one." – 1991

"This new prohibitionist mentality is the cornerstone of a new, yet old, form of slavery where the 'status' criminal is the fodder for dealing anew in human beings. Fathers and mothers are condemned to extraordinary prison terms, torn from the arms of their distraught wives and crying children, replaying those tragic scenes of forced family separation on the auction block 150 years ago. The privatization of prisons has further institutionalized this dealing in human beings as a form of commerce and it is just as immoral and unchristian in this century as it was in the past. The madness of slavery revisited!" – The Synthetic Subversion

Galilei, Galileo (deceased)

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect intended us to forgo their use."

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual."

Gardner, Martin

"Let me stress once more that noncognitive ethics does not deny that cognitive elements enter into all moral problems. … The rub comes when justifications for moral rules are traced back to the most basic posits. Here are some examples: It is better to be alive than dead. It is better to be healthy than sick. It is better to be happy than miserable. It is better for a culture to survive than perish. It is better for the human race to survive than become extinct. Can such posits be justified by reason and science?" … "A free-will act cannot be fully predetermined. Nor can it be the outcome of pure chance. Somehow it is both. Somehow it is neither." – from The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener, 1983, pgs 91, 101

Germanos of Patras, Bishop (deceased)

"eleftheria i thanatos" – declares Germanos on Greek Independence Day, Mar 25 1821. The Greek phrase translates in English as "freedom or death".

Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand

"Freedom is like birth. Till we are fully free, we are slaves"
 
"Civil disobience becomes a sacred duty when the state becomes lawless and corrupt."
 
"First they ignore you. Then they mock you. Then they punish you. Then you win."

Gingrich, Newton Leroy  other quotes

"I don't think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering. I don't think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate." – Meet the Press, May 15 2011
msnbc.msn.com/id/43022759/ns/meet_the_press-transcripts
 
"On September 16, 1981, Representatives Stewart McKinney and I introduced legislation designed to end bureaucratic interference in the use of marijuana as a medicant. We believe licensed physicians are competent to employ marijuana, and patients have a right to obtain marijuana legally, under medical supervision, from a regulated source. The medical prohibition does not prevent seriously ill patients from employing marijuana; it simply deprives them of medical supervision and denies them access to a regulated medical substance. Physicians are often forced to choose between their ethical responsibilities to the patient and their legal liabilities to federal bureaucrats. Representative McKinney and I hope the Council will take a close and careful look at this issue. Federal policies do not reflect a factual or balanced assessment of marijuana's use as a medicant." – letter to Journal of the American Medical Association, Mar 19 1982
norml.org/library/medical-marijuana-reports/item/newt-gingrich-s-letter-supporting-medical-marijuana

Goethe, Johann Wofgang von

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."
 
"This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew."
 
"Which is the best government? That which teaches us to govern ourselves."

Goldstein, Emmanuel

"To understand the nature of the present war … for in spite of the regrouping which occurs every few years, it is always the same war … one must realize in the first place that it is impossible for it to be decisive."

Goldwater, Barry Morris (deceased)

"Moderation in the protection of liberty is no virtue; extremism in the defense of freedom is no vice."
 
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have."
 
"Everyone knows that gays have served honorably in the military since at least the time of Julius Caesar."
 
"Where is the politician who has not promised to fight to the death for lower taxes – and who has not proceeded to vote for the very spending projects that make tax cuts impossible?"
 
"I have little interest in streamlining government or making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugerate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution, or that have failed in their purpose, or impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attept to discover whether legislation is 'needed' before I have first determined that it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constiuents' 'interests', I shall reply that I was informed their main interest is liberty and that in that case I am doing the very best I can." – from The Conscience of a Conservative

 
Hamilton, Alexander (deceased)

"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything."
 
"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." – Federalist Papers
 
"Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things."

Hannah, Daryl

"I'm afraid of chemical-based drugs. But the ones derived directly from nature concern me less. Things like mushrooms, peyote, marijuana, shouldn't be illegal. You don't want people to operate heavy machinery while they're on those things, but I have no problem with their use."

Harris, Sidney

"It is my melancholy conviction that our renewed 'war on drugs' will have much the same results as Prohibition did: swelling the police bureaucracy, corrupting officials, increasing violent crime, enriching traffickers, adulterating the product and failing to diminish the number of consumers." – 1984

Havel, Vaclav

"When the internal crisis of the totalitarian system grows so deep that it becomes clear to everyone, and when more and more people learn to speak their own language and reject the hollow, mendacious language of the powers that be, it means that freedom is remarkably close, if not directly within reach." – Speech, Radio Marti, Sept 2003
 
"Without free, self-respecting, and autonomous citizens there can be no free and independent nations. Without internal peace, that is, peace among citizens and between the citizens and the state, there can be no guarantee of external peace."
 
"All my adult life, I was branded by officials as 'an exponent of the right' who wanted to bring capitalism back to our country, Today – at a ripe old age – I am suspected by some of being left-wing, if not of harbouring out-and-out socialist tendencies. What, then, is my real position? First and foremost, I have never espoused any ideology, dogma, or doctrine – left-wing, right-wing, or any other closed, ready-made system of presuppositions about the world. On the contrary, I have tried to think independently, using my own powers of reason, and I have always vigorously resisted attempts to pigeonhole me."
 
"I really do inhabit a system in which words are capable of shaking the entire structure of government, where words can prove mightier than ten military divisions."
 
"There can be no doubt that distrust of words is less harmful than unwarranted trust in them. Besides, to distrust words, and indict them for the horrors that might slumber unobtrusively within them – isn't this, after all, the true vocation of the intellectual?"

Hayek, Friedrich A von (deceased)

"A society that does not recognize that each individual has values of his own which he is entitled to follow can have no respect for the dignity of the individual and cannot really know freedom."
 
"… if we wish to preserve a free society, it is essential that we recognize that the desirability of a particular object is not sufficient justification for the use of coercion."

Hazlitt, Henry

"We need government to prevent or minimize internal and external violence and aggression and to keep the peace. But we obliged to recognize that no group of men can be completely trusted with power. All power is liable to be abused, and the greater the power the greater the likelihood of abuse. For that reason, only minimum powers should be granted to government. But the tendency of government everywhere has been to use even minimum powers to increase its powers."

Head, Jeffrey L

"Liberty is freedom from encumberance in an environment where the unalienable rights of mankind are both recognized and respected and where individual 'Free Will' is the avenue for interaction in society." – from "Liberty - It's Communicable", Sept 19 1999, republished Apr 22 2005

"Americans have shed their blood by the millions for freedom, and that freedom stretches from the United States throughout the world."

Heinlein, Robert Anson

"An armed society is a polite society."

Helveticus, Claude Adrien (deceased)

"The free man is the man who is not in irons, nor imprisoned in a gaol, nor terrorized like a slave by the fear of punishment ... it is not lack of freedom not to fly like an eagle or swim like a whale."

Henry, Patrick (deceased)

"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!" – Saint John's Church, Mar 1775

Hitt, Jack

"… The deployment of freedom and liberty, two alleged synonyms, tells the whole story. You almost never hear the word liberty anymore. Yet freedom rings in our speeches incessantly. Liberty has an old Jeffersonian quality to it. The word is suffused with that soaring founding spirit, suggesting that we had come up with a new idea that was much bigger than mere America. This was an idea that was "self-evident," that originated from the "Creator" and applied to "all men." The word freedom, as it's been used in the last half century, is a strangely smaller concept. We talk about "freedom and the America way." Freedom is a version of big wild liberty that's been, well, domesticated. Freedom can easily fit into as small a package as you want to wrap." – from "Liberty and Justice for Us", Mother Jones, Mar/Apr 2002, pgs 30-32

Hoffer, Eric (deceased)

"The aspiration toward freedom is the most essentially human of all human manifestations."
 
"The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do."
 
"Freedom released the energies of the masses not by exhilarating but by unbalancing, irritating, and goading."
 
"Every device employed to bolster individual freedom must have as its chief purpose the impairment of the absoluteness of power. The indications are that such an impairment is brought about not by strengthening the individual and pitting him against the possessors of power, but by distributing and diversifying power and pitting one category or unit of power against the other. Where power is one, the defeated individual, however strong and resourceful, can have no refuge and no recourse."
 
"Unless a man has talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. Of what avail is freedom to choose if the self be ineffectual? We join a mass movement to escape individual responsibility, or, in the words of the ardent young Nazi, 'to be free from freedom.' "
 
"Where freedom is real, equality is the passion of the masses. Where equality is real, freedom is the passion of a small minority."
 
"Those who see their lives as spoiled and wasted crave equality and fraternity more than they do freedom. If they clamor for freedom, it is but freedom to establish equality and uniformity. The passion for equality is partly a passion for anonymity: to be one thread of the many which make up a tunic; one thread not distinguishable from the others. No one can then point us out, measure us against others and expose our inferiority."
 
"To the frustrated, freedom from responsibility is more attractive than freedom from restraint. They are eager to barter their independence for relief from the burdens of willing, deciding and being responsible for inevitable failure. They willingly abdicate the directing of their lives to those who want to plan, command and shoulder all responsibility."
 
"To some, freedom means the opportunity to do what they want to do; to most it means not to do what they do not want to do. It is perhaps true that those who can grow will feel free under any condition."
 
"Freedom means freedom from forces and circumstances which would turn man into a thing, which would impose on man the passivity and predictability of matter. By this test, absolute power is the manifestation most inimical to human uniqueness. Absolute power wants to turn people into malleable clay."

Holmes, Oliver Wendall, Jr (deceased)

"If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought, not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate."

Hospers, John J

"The most important distinction in the discussion of freedom is between freedom – from and freedom – to. The Soviet expatriate in the U.S. is free from the dictatorship to which he was subject in the U.S.S.R.; the American businessman, after a regulatory act has been repealed, is now free from the restrictions imposed by that regulation. But once this freedom-from has been obtained, a person is free to do many things he could not do before: the Soviet expatriate is now free to choose his own line of work, to buy property, to become an entrepreneur and hire workers, and so on; the businessman is free to conduct his business in a way he was legally prohibited from doing before. The more one is free from restrictions, the more one is free to do things that he could not do while bound by restrictions.
   The two are thus intimately related, but they are not quite two sides of the same coin. If I go mountain climbing and fall into a crevasse, I am not free to move about, or do anything but remain there until help arrives; my choices are extremely limited. And yet, if I went on the expedition voluntarily, there is no question of my lacking freedom-from: nobody made me go, I was not responding to anyone's command, nobody coerced me. My present sad plight with regard to freedom-to is not the result of any lack of freedom-from. True, I am not free-from obstacles to my getting out of the crevasse-such as the height of the pit and the lack of rope, etc-but there are no man-made constraints. Much, then, depends on whether freedom-from is considered freedom from constraints or obstacles in general, or whether it is freedom from man-made constraints and obstacles. …
   In the writings of the Founding Fathers, freedom always meant freedom from tyranny and oppression. But in today's political climate, the appeal of freedom has largely shifted to freedom-to. …
   For the free market to operate there must be freedom from the whims of dictators and bureaucrats. The market can survive, though crippled, with some degree of interference, but when the interference becomes severe enough to keep a man from being able to estimate probabilities into the future, or when his taxes become so high that it is no longer worth his while to continue in operation, the market is no longer able to function so as to produce a vast quantity of goods and services at competitive prices. Freedom-from is indispensable to the market, and is indeed its chief condition.
   Freedom-to is a highly beneficial consequence of the unimpeded operation of the market. When entrepreneurs are free from economic controls imposed on their activities by others, they will produce a proliferation of goods, which the public is then free to consume. This freedom to on the part of the public is the direct result of freedom from controls which makes the market able to function." – from "The Meanings of Freedom", The Freeman, Sept 1984, vol 34, no 9

Hubbard, Elbert

"So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private individuals will occasionally kill theirs."

 
Ingersoll, Robert Green (deceased)

"When I became convinced that the Universe is natural – that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light, and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf, or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide world – not even in infinite space. I was free – free to think, to express my thoughts – free to live to my own ideal – free to live for myself and those I loved – free to use all my faculties, all my senses – free to spread imagination's wings – free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope – free to judge and determine for myself – free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds, all the 'inspired' books that savages have produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past – free from popes and priests – free from all the 'called' and 'set apart' – free from sanctified mistakes and holy lies – free from the fear of eternal pain – free from the winged monsters of the night – free from devils, ghosts, and gods. For the first time I was free. There were no prohibited places in all the realms of thought – no air, no space, where fancy could not spread her painted wings – no chains for my limbs – no lashes for my back – no fires for my flesh – no master's frown or threat – no following another's steps – no need to bow, or cringe, or crawl, or utter lying words. I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously, faced all worlds.
   And then my heart was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain – for the freedom of labor and thought – to those who fell in the fierce fields of war, to those who died in dungeons bound with chains – to those who proudly mounted scaffold's stairs – to those whose bones were crushed, whose flesh was scarred and torn – to those by fire consumed – to all the wise, the good, the brave of every land, whose thoughts and deeds have given freedom to the sons of men. And then I vowed to grasp the torch that they had held, and hold it high, that light might conquer darkness still." – Ingersoll's Vow
 
"An honest God is the noblest work of man."

 
Jackson, Andrew (deceased)

"It is a damned poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word."
or
"It is a damned poor mind indeed that can't think of at least two ways of spelling any word."
or
"It's a damned poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word."
 
"There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, showers its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing."

Jackson, LaToya

"Freedom is the most important thing in the world." – interview on Howard Stern Show

Jefferson, Thomas (deceased)

"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education." – letter to William C Jarvis, Sept 28 1820
 
"Instead of that liberty which takes root and growth in the progress of reason, if recovered by mere force or accident, it becomes with an unprepared people a tyranny still of the many, the few, or the one." – letter to Lafayette, 1815
 
"The remaining revenue on the consumption of foreign articles is paid chiefly by those who can afford to add foreign luxuries to domestic comforts, being collected on our seaboard and frontiers only, and incorporated with the transactions of our mercantile citizens, it may be the pleasure and the pride of an American to ask, What farmer, what mechanic, what laborer ever sees a tax gatherer of the United States?" – Second Inaugural Address, 1805
 
"Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, –entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigour, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; … freedom of religion; freedom of the press; freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected, –these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. … a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." – First Inaugural Address, Mar 4 1801
 
"We wish not to meddle with the internal affairs of any country, nor with the general affairs of Europe. Peace with all nations, and the right which that gives us with respect to all nations, are our object." – letter to C W F Dumas, 1793
 
"The fact well established in the system of agriculture is that the best hemp and the best tobacco grow on the same kind of soil. The former article is of first necessity to the commerce and marine; in other words, to the wealth and protection of the country. The latter, never useful and sometimes pernicious, derives its estimation from caprice, and its value from the taxes to which it was formerly exposed. This preference to be given will result from a comparison of them: Hemp employs in its rudest state more labor than tobacco, but being a material of manufactures of various sorts, becomes afterwards the means of support to numbers of people, hence it is to be preferred in a populous country. America imports hemp and will continue to do so, and sundry articles made from hemp, such as cordage, sail cloth, drilling linnen and stockings." – Mar 16 1791
 
"… God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. … And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." – Letter to William S. Smith, Nov 13 1787
 
"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as they are injurious to others." – "Notes on the State of Virginia (1781-1785)"
 
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." – June 1776
 
"The oppressed should rebel, and they will continue to rebel and raise disturbance until their civil rights are fully restored to them and all partial distinctions, exclusions and incapacitations are removed." – from "Notes on Religion", 1776
 
"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms ... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater ... confidence than an armed man." – Jefferson quoting Cesare Beccaria, On Crimes and Punishment, 1764
 
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
(Editor's note: This quote is similar to, and may be the basis for, the Wendell Phillips quote "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.")
 
"When the people fear the government you have tyranny … when the government fears the people you have liberty."
 
"Does the government fear us? Or do we fear the government? When the people fear the government, tyranny has found victory. The federal government is our servant, not our master!"
 
"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty, than those attending too small a degree of it."
 
"I have a right to nothing, which another has a right to take away ... a bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general and particular; and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference."
 
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be."
 
"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical."
 
"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
 
"Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others?"
 
"[W]e must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our calling and our creeds … we [will] have no time to think, no means of calling our miss-managers to account but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers. And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery. And the foreshores of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression."
 
"If the people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as the souls of those who live under tyranny."
 
"A little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."
 
"I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. I believe it might be much simplified to the relief of those who maintain it."
 
"Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations ... entangling alliances with none."
 
"State a moral case to a plowman and a professor. The former will decide it well, and often better than the latter, because he has not been led astray by artificial rules.""
 
"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground."
 
"The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free neither restraining nor aiding them in the pursuits."
 
"To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our choice between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy."
 
"Secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity"
 
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."
 
"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first."

Jesus (the Christ) of Nazareth (deceased)

"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Johnson, Gary E

"I'm not advocating breaking the law, but personally, I don't think you should go to jail for smoking marijuana." – Aug 11 1999
 
"Common sense or logic would dictate that when you take this issue on, when you talk about legalization or decriminalization, if you are going to talk about that, you are going to talk about taking it in steps, and certainly the first step would be marijuana. … All of us can make a list out of friends that have used drugs. Are our friends criminals for using drugs? Yes, they are today given the laws that we have. Should they be criminals? Are they criminals? For the most part, no they are not." – June 30 1999
 
"The nation's so-called War on Drugs has been a miserable failure. It hasn't worked. The drug problem is getting worse. I think it is the number one problem facing this country today ... We really need to put all the options on the table ... and one of the things that's going to get talked about is decriminalization ... What I'm trying to do here is launch discussion." – June 23 1999
 
"I'm going to enforce the laws that we have. But I think the laws need to be changed and I'm going to work within the system to change the law."
 
"We're spending more and we're locking more people up … Personally, I have a fundamental problem with putting people in jail for drug use."
 
"What I've done since I've been in office is I have just done a cost-benefit analysis of everything that's come across my desk … And right now, the glaring cost-benefit analysis that has incredible cost and no benefit is our war on drugs.

Johnson, Samuel (deceased)

"They make a rout about universal liberty without considering that all that is to be valued, or indeed can be enjoyed by individuals, is private liberty. Political liberty is good only so far as it produces private liberty." – 1768

 
Karzai, Hamid

"Thank God for liberation." – President of post-Taliban Afghanistan, June 14 2002

Kennedy, John Fitzgerald (deceased)

"Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth."
 
"The Bill of Rights, in the eyes of its framers, was a catalogue of immunities, not a schedule of claims. It was, in other words, a Bill of Liberties. When civil rights are seen as claims and civil liberties as immunities, the government’s differing responsibilities become clear. For the security of rights the energy of government is essential. For the security of liberty restraint is indispensable."
 
"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people."
 
"Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope; and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression."

"Those that make peaceful revolution impossible will make forceful revolution inevitable."
 
"… peace and freedom …" – Cuban Missle Crisis speech on TV

Kennedy, Robert (deceased)

"Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable."

King, Martin Luther, Jr (deceased)

"The stages of history are replete with the chants and choruses of the conquerors of old who came killing in pursuit of peace. Alexander, Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne and Napoleon were akin in seeking a peaceful world order, a world fashioned after their selfish conceptions of an ideal existence. Each sought a world at peace which would personify his egotistic dreams. Even within the life span of most of us, another megalomaniac strode across the world stage. He sent his blitzkrieg-bent legions blazing across Europe, bringing havoc and holocaust in his wake. There is grave irony in the fact that Hitler could come forth, following nakedly aggressive expansionist theories, and do it all in the name of peace. So when in this day I see the leaders of nations again talking peace while preparing for war, I take fearful pause..." – Feb 25 1967
 
"I have a dream … freedom … I'm free at last, I'm free at last …" – from "I have a dream" speech at Washington Mall, Washington, DC
 
"Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows."
 
"The time is always right to do what is right."
 
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
 
"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal."

Kirk, James Tiberius

"You said you wanted freedom. It's time you learned that freedom is never a gift. It has to be earned." – Kirk explains to Archonians who resist Landru, a merciless authoritarian computer simulation of its human creator of the same name, a long dead Archonian spiritual leader.
   "Without freedom of choice, there is no creativity. Without creativity, there is no life. The body dies." – Kirk responds to Landru computer simulation, arguing that it violates its own directive to "protect the life of the body", from "The Return of the Archons" episode of Star Trek, first aired Feb 9 1967
 
"You'll learn to build for yourselves, think for yourselves, work for yourselves, and what you create is yours. That's what we call freedom. You'll like it alot." – Kirk explains to the native inhabitants of Gamma Trianguli VI after the Enterprise kills their god Vaal, a computer, from "The Apple" episode of Star Trek, first aired Oct 13 1967
 
"It is the nature of our species to be free … We will cease to exist in captivity." – Kirk explains to the "Companion" alien, from the "Metamorphosis" episode of Star Trek, first aired Nov 10 1967
 
"We merely showed them the meaning of what they were fighting for. Liberty and freedom have to be more than just words. Gentlemen, the fighting is over here. I suggest we leave them to discover their history and their liberty." – Kirk explains to Mr Spock and Dr McCoy why their involvement in the Yang-Khom conflict did not violate the Prime Directive.

Kizer, John B

"Isaiah Berlin, in his Two Concepts of Liberty, discusses a question which is central to most arguments between libertarians and socialists – between 'voluntarists' and 'coercionists, ' The question is, what do we mean by freedom? Berlin points out that socialists accept a definition of freedom which he calls positive liberty, while libertarians assert that freedom is really negative liberty. Now positive liberty is the 'freedom to' have such things as employment, respect, and the like. Negative liberty is 'freedom from' restraint. Positive liberty is equivalent to what libertarians might refer to as power, that is, libertarians believe a given man is free to earn a million dollars per year even though it may not be in his power to do so, simply because he cannot provide the services required.
   But, as Berlin points out, the deceptively phrased 'positive liberty' has some nasty consequences. One of them is that since positive liberty is unrelated to freedom as we usually understand it, then being 'liberated' (and we often find this usage of the word in current liberation movements) is being forced to do something against our will because someone else thinks it is good. This encourages confusion in the discussion of freedom. To call negative liberty 'freedom' and positive liberty 'power' is to make a discrimination which is fundamental. To call them both liberty, as coercionists often do when it suits their argument, leads to confusion." – from "Two Concepts of Liberty", The Freeman, Sept 1976, vol 26, no 9
also see Isaiah Mendelevich Berlin

 
Kropotkin, Peter

"Where there is authority, there is no freedom."

 
LaGuardia, Fiolerro (deceased)

"Prohibition cannot be enforced for the simple reason that the majority of American people do not want it enforced and are resisting its enforcement. That being so, the orderly thing to do, under our form of governance, is to abolish a law which cannot be enforced, a law which the people of the country do not want enforced." – New York City Mayor LaGuardia, 1937

Lane, Rose Wilder (deceased)

"Freedom means self-control; no more, no less." – The Discovery of Freedom: Man's Struggle Against Authority, 1943

Leary, Timothy (deceased)

"They've outlawed the number one vegetable [cannabis] on the planet."

Lewis, Clive Staples (deceased)

"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may 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 satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." – God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics

Lincoln, Abraham (deceased)

"As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destoyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless." – Nov 21 1864
 
"In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free, – honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve." – Second Annual Message to Congress, Dec 1 1862
 
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it." – Inaugural Address, Mar 4 1861
 
"Those who would deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and under a just God, cannot long retain it." – 1849
 
"Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded." – Speech to the Illinois House of Representatives, Dec 18 1840
  
"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word, we do not mean the same thing."
 
"The perfect liberty they seek is the liberty of making slaves of other people."
 
"We the People are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts – not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."
 
"You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves."
 
"Let us be diverted by none of these sophistical contrivances wherein we are so industriously plied and belabored–contrivances such as groping for some middle ground between right and wrong; vain as the search for a man who should be neither a living nor a dead man."

 
Madison, James (deceased)

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
 
"Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded."
 
“It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be tomorrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?
   Another effect of public instability is the unreasonable advantage it gives to the sagacious, the enterprising, and the moneyed few over the industrious and uniformed mass of the people. Every new regulation concerning commerce or revenue, or in any way affecting the value of the different species of property, presents a new harvest to those who watch the change, and can trace its consequences; a harvest, reared not by themselves, but by the toils and cares of the great body of their fellow-citizens. This is a state of things in which it may be said with some truth that laws are made for the FEW, not for the MANY.
   In another point of view, great injury results from an unstable government. The want of confidence in the public councils damps every useful undertaking, the success and profit of which may depend on a continuance of existing arrangements. What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not but that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed? What farmer or manufacturer will lay himself out for the encouragement given to any particular cultivation or establishment, when he can have no assurance that his preparatory labors and advances will not render him a victim to an inconstant government? In a word, no great improvement or laudable enterprise can go forward which requires the auspices of a steady system of national policy.
   But the most deplorable effect of all is that diminution of attachment and reverence which steals into the hearts of the people, towards a political system which betrays so many marks of infirmity, and disappoints so many of their flattering hopes. No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable; nor be truly respectable, without possessing a certain portion of order and stability.” – Federalist Papers #62
 
"It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The freemen of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much … to forget it."
 
"The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation … (where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."
-or-
"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." – Federalist Papers #46, pgs 243-244
 
"From this view of the subject it may be concluded that a pure democracy… can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, befelt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert result from the form of government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions." – Federalist Papers #10
 
"It is a melancholy reflection that liberty should be equally exposed to danger whether the government have too much or too little power."
 
"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."
 
"Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history."

"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clregy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstitution, bigotry, and persecution."

"The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty."

Malcolm X (deceased)

"Power in defense of freedom is greater than power on behalf of tyranny and oppression."
 
"If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything."

Marti, Jose (deceased)

"One revolution is still necessary: the one that will not end with the rule of its leader. It will be the revolution against revolutions, the uprising of all peaceable individuals, who will become soldiers for once so that neither they nor anyone else will ever have to be a soldier again."

Mason, George

"To disarm the people [is] the best and most effectual way to enslave them."

McElroy, Wendy

"The freedom of individuals to choose, without intrusive state regulation, is the prerequisite of morality. A coerced 'choice' does not reflect virtue, only compliance. In other words, you cannot force a person to be moral; you can only make them conform. True morality requires freedom and cannot exist without it."

McWilliams, Peter Alexander (deceased)

"Responsibility is the price of freedom. So is tolerance."

Mencken, Henry Louis (deceased)

"All I ask is equal freedom. When it is denied, as it always is, I take it anyhow."
 
"I believe in only one thing: liberty; But I do not believe in liberty enough to force it upon anyone."

"Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule – and both commonly succeed, and are right."

Mikuriya, Tod H

"Cannabis is leading the way for a more holistic type of medical care, a general revolt against corporate rationed care and traditional pharmaceutical company approaches to medicine. Patients use marijuana to get off toxic drugs. They find fellowship in compassion clubs. They find empowerment in fighting against prohibition, standing up to police and demagogues. Our opponents can threaten our freedom, but they can't kill our spirit." – 2001

Mill, John Stuart (deceased)

"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community against his will is to prevent harm to others."

Milton, John

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

Muller, Herbert J

"In formal terms, freedom in this work will mean 'the condition of being able to choose and to carry out purposes.' This definition has three immediate implications: (1) the primary dictionary meaning–absence of external constraints; (2) practicable purposes, or an actual ability with available means; and (3) a power of conscious choice, between significant, known alternatives. It accordingly involves the common ideas of freedom from, freedom to, and freedom of, but it leaves open the question of freedom for what. In simple words, a man is free in so far as he can do something or choose not to do it, can make up his own mind, can say yes or no to any given question or command, can decide for himself the matter of duty or for what. He is not free in so far as he is prohibited from following his inclinations or is obliged to do something against his own volition." – Issues of Freedom, 1960

Murphy, Patrick V

"I look forward to working in the growing reform community and to expanding support for better drug policies. By saying that our drug laws need to be overhauled, I am representative of the nation's police chiefs. ... A 1996 Police Foundation survey showed that 85 percent of chiefs want major changes in drug policy; 60 percent said that law enforcement has not reduced the problem. Current drug laws assign police a `mission impossible.' Those laws must be re-examined." – 1996

 
Nadler, Jerrold

"If the flag needs protection at all, it needs protection from members of Congress who value the symbol more than the freedoms that the flag represents." – June 22 2005

Nelson, Willie

"Hemp is petroleum, hemp is food, hemp is clothing, hemp is paper, hemp is 10,000 different things from dynamite to cellophane to rope to canvas. It's a shame our farmers can't grow it. I'm in favor of a war on drugs, but I'm not in favor of a war on flowers and herbs. I think that's a waste of money. Stress is the greatest killer on this planet and the greatest medicine for stress is cannabis. Marijuana is not drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If he put it here and wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say God is wrong?"

Nicholson, Jack

"They're not scared of you, they're scared of what you represent – freedom." – fictional George Hanson portrayed by Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider, 1969

Niemoeller, Martin

"In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."
-or-
"First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up for me."
Editor's note: With such disparate differences between the two versions above, I wonder how many other versions of this quote are out there. Niemoeller (or Niemoller), being German, probably stated it in German, so translation into English can be a source of disparities. If you have good reason(s) to believe any one version was actually written or spoken by Niemoeller (or Niemoller), and/or was more accurately translated, please email us. Also, email us if you know which spelling of his last name Martin preferred.

Nofziger, Franklyn C "Lyn" (deceased)

"I am a Republican because I believe that freedom is more important than government-provided security. Sometimes I wish I were a Democrat because Democrats seem to have more fun. At other times I wish I were a Libertarian because Republicans are too much like Democrats." – from Lyn Nofziger.com, Oct 19 2004
 
"Before she [Nofziger's daughter] died she underwent heavy chemotherapy that caused nausea, diarrhea and loss of appetite. None of the legal medications including the marijuana substitute Marinol helped to alleviate the symptoms. In desperation, we turned to marijuana to see if that would help. Fortunately, people know a lot more about where to find marijuana than people of my generation. And the marijuana did help reduce the side effects of the chemotherapy to the point where she regained her appetite and actually began putting on weight. Obviously, it did not save her life nor did we think it would. However, it made a portion of the last weeks of her life considerably more bearable both to her and to her family. Since then I have learned that marijuana can also help persons with glaucoma, the wasting symptoms of AIDS, multiple sclerosis and other afflictions. Because of this I have become an avid supporter of efforts to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes. An administration that claims to be both compassionate and conservative should enthusiastically support legislation that truly is compassionate and that also returns rights to the states that the Tenth Amendment theoretically guarantees to them." – from "Former Reagan Aide Among Medical Marijuana Supporters" by Jim Burns, July 25 2002
 
"When our daughter was undergoing chemotherapy for lymph cancer, she was sick and vomiting constantly as a result of her treatments. No legal drugs, including Marinol, helped her. We finally turned to marijuana. With it, she kept her food down, was comfortable and even gained weight. Those who say Marinol and other drugs are satisfactory substitutes for marijuana may be right in some cases but certainly not in all cases. If doctors can prescribe morphine and other addictive medicines, it makes no sense to deny marijuana to sick and dying patients when it can be provided on a carefully controlled, prescription basis." – from "Medical Marijuana: Reagan Aide Lyn Nofziger Dead at 81 – Supported Patients' Rights"
 
"It seems to me that the very definition of compassionate conservatism should convince President Bush to support legislation that would allow states to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes. In fact, if the president understands the meaning of those two words ('compassionate conservative'), not to support Frank is to reject the philosophy for which he says he stands and on which he ran for president." – from "Medical Marijuana: Reagan Aide Lyn Nofziger Dead at 81 – Supported Patients' Rights"
 
"I don't like government."

Nugent, Ted

"To my mind it is wholly irresponsible to go into the world incapable of preventing violence, injury, crime, and death. How feeble is the mindset to accept defenselessness. How unnatural. How cheap. How cowardly. How pathetic."

Nutt, Mae (deceased)

"In a nation of 250 million people the FDA only has enough compassion to help 34 seriously ill patients. This is absurd! People's lives are at stake."

 
Obama, Barack Hussein  other quotes

"I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana users. It’s not a good use of our resources."

O'Rourke, Patrick Jake (P J)

"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." – Parliament of Whores, 1991

"There's only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences."
 
"No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for for stupidity , ignorance, greed and love of power."

Ortega y Gasset, Jose

"Order is not pressure which is imposed on society from without, but an equilibrium which is set up from within."
 
"Life cannot wait until the sciences may have explained the universe scientifically. We cannot put off living until we are ready. The most salient characteristic of life is its coerciveness: it is always urgent, 'here and now' without any possible postponement. Life is fired at us point-blank."

Orwell, George (deceased)

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." – from Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, 1943
 
"War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength" – from 1984, 1949
 
"All that is needed [for control] is that a state of war should exist."– from 1984, 1949
 
"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."
 
"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."
 
"If large numbers of people believe in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech even if the law forbids it. But if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them."
 
"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
 
"Political language – and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists – is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."
 
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."
 
"But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought."
 
The Most Misquoted Quote:
"Men sleep peacefully in their beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
"People sleep peacefully in their beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
"We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."
"We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would harm us."
"We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.”
 
"On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good and not quite all the time."
 
"…the consequences of being at war, and therefore danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival."
 
"Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them."

 
Paine, Thomas (deceased)

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." – The American Crisis, 1776
 
"What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a price upon its goods, and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated." – 1776

Palin, Sarah Heath

"I think we need to prioritize our law enforcement efforts. And if somebody is going to smoke a joint in their house and not do anybody else any harm, then perhaps there are other things our cops should be looking at to engage in and clean up some of the other problems we have in society that are appropriate for law enforcement to do and not concentrate on such a, relatively speaking, minimal problem that we have in the country." – Freedom Watch, June 12 2010

Paul, Ronald Ernest

"I would like people who are dying with cancer and AIDS to have access to whatever they want and make their own choices, especially under a state law." – Response to inquiry into Paul's position on federal raids of medicinal cannabis clubs, Londonderry NH, Aug 19 2007
granitestaters.com/candidates

"I would like to see all governments out of the marriage question." – 2007
alankeyes.com/pdf/iowa_tabloid.pdf

Phillips, Wendell

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." – Speech before Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Boston, Massachusetts, Jan 28 1852
(Editors note: This quote is similar to, and may have been derived from, the Thomas Jefferson quote "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.")

Pickering, Thomas Reeve

"In archaeology you uncover the unknown. In diplomacy you cover the known."

Pitt, William (deceased)

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom: it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." – Speech before Great Britain Parliament, 1783

Polanyi, Michael

"There are two ways of holding beliefs. Some are held by the explicit profession of certain articles of faith, as the Apostles' Creed when recited in the words of the Book of Common Prayer. The other form of belief is held implicitly by reliance on a particular conceptual framework by which all experience is interpreted. … The resistance of an idiom of belief against the impact of adverse evidence, which would impel it to modify its conceptual framework in favour of alternative conceptions, may be regarded under three headings … [1] power of a system of implicit beliefs to defeat valid objections one by one is due to the circularity of such systems. By this I mean that the convincing power possessed by the interpretation of any particular new topic in terms of such a conceptual framework is based on past applications of the same framework to a great number of other topics not now under consideration; while if any of these other topics were questioned now, their interpretation in its turn would similarly rely for support on the interpretation of all the others. … [2] To the stabilising power of circularity we may add secondly the capacity of a well developed interpretative framework to supply secondary elaborations to its beliefs which will cover almost any conceivable eventuality, however embarrassing this may appear at first sight. … [3] This third defence mechanism of implicit beliefs may be called the principle of suppressed nucleation. It is complementary to the principle of circularity. Circularity protects an existing system of beliefs against doubts arising from any adverse piece of evidence, while suppressed nucleation prevents the germination of any alternative concept on the basis of any single new piece of evidence. … Circularity, combined with a readily available reserve of epicyclical elaborations and the consequent suppression in the germ of any rival conceptual development, lends a degree of stability to a conceptual framework which we may describe as the measure of its completeness. We may speak of the completeness or comprehensiveness of a language and the system of conceptions reflected by it … without in any way implying approval of the system as a true belief. … The assimilative power of an existing scientific framework thus appears no less creative and offers no less scope for the application of scientific genius, than its capacity to sprout into new and entirely unexpected forms. Indeed the conservative and the reforming aspects of discovery remain always combined; we have assimilation to the extent to which new conceptions form an extension of the old and innovation in so far as the new stands in contrast to the old. … Contradictions to current scientific conceptions are often disposed of by calling them 'anomalies'. This is among the most handy assumptions in the epicyclical reserve that is available for the adaptation of any theory, in the face of adverse evidence. … The confident use of any expressions including the word 'science' or its derivatives like 'scientific method', 'scientific observation', 'natural law', etc., convey the writer's belief in a certain body of allegations, in the rightness of a certain procedure for arriving at such allegations and of confirming them, without his ever having taken the responsibility for affirming this belief. The use of the scientific idiom by writers of scientific method establishes in fact from the start a tacit understanding between them and their readers on the trustworthiness of the method which they arc setting out to analyses. Writers on the nature of science who unquestioningly believe in science and may assume the same of their readers, will find no difficulty in carrying out an analysis of science in objective terms.They may define science as the simplest description of the facts or the most economical survey of sense data; they may pretend that science is not concerned with the truth or that it only makes provisional statements so as to provide stimulus for new experiments. They may say that science is a free creation of the mind, forming part of a conventional game or that its value lies entirely in its usefulness. As long as everybody is tacitly agreed about the nature of science and implicitly accepts the authority of science, it may not become apparent that statements of this kind only refer to certain formal aspects of science which do not account for its authority. " – "The Stability Of Beliefs", 1952

 
Quayle, James Danforth

"Congress should definitely consider decriminalizing possession of marijuana … We should concentrate on prosecuting the rapists and burglars who are a menace to society." – Mar 1977

 
Radner, Ephraim

"In most cases, liberationist theologies have taken root in situations that call for freedom from existing government and economic structures. In the U.S., issues of hunger are most frequently linked to lack of money, not arable land, and lack of money is linked either to un- or underemployment or entitlements. Addressing these issues does not necessarily require a complete political restructuring. A religious culture seeking an effective, faithful response to these issues would not pursue freedom from existing government and economic structures, but would manipulate them in order to strengthen an alternative community, a community formed by a coherent set of values that are at odds with the surrounding culture. This response forms an identity of "exile," not liberation. Ironically, the notion of exile is poorly understood by Americans, even though immigration and assimilation are the basis of our vigorous commonwealth. In other parts of the world, exile is both a legal construct and a way of life." – from The Christian Century, Oct 18 1989, pgs 931-934

Rand, Ayn (deceased)

"There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. That and nothing else." – from Anthem, 1938
 
"Above all, do not join the wrong ideological groups or movements, in order to 'do something.' By 'ideological' (in this context), I mean groups or movements proclaiming some vaguely generalized, undefined (and, usually, contradictory) political goals. (E.g., the Conservative Party, which subordinates reason to faith, and substitutes theocracy for capitalism; or the 'libertarian' hippies, who subordinate reason to whims, and substitute anarchism for capitalism.) To join such groups means to reverse the philosophical hierarchy and to sell out fundamental principles for the sake of some superficial political action which is bound to fail. It means that you help the defeat of your ideas and the victory of your enemies."
 
"For the record, I shall repeat what I have said many times before: I do not join or endorse any political group or movement. More specifically, I disapprove of, disagree with and have no connection with, the latest aberration of some conservatives, the so-called 'hippies of the right,' who attempt to snare the younger or more careless ones of my readers by claiming simultaneously to be followers of my philosophy and advocates of anarchism. Anyone offering such a combination confesses his inability to understand either. Anarchism is the most irrational, anti-intellectual notion ever spun by the concrete-bound, context-dropping, whim-worshiping fringe of the collectivist movement, where it properly belongs."
 
"Any alleged 'right' of one man, which necessitates the violation of the rights of another, is not and cannot be a right."
 
"There are only two means by which men can deal with one another: guns or logic. Force or persuasion. Those who know that they cannot win by means of logic, have always resorted to guns."
 
"The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities."
 
"Of all the statist violations of individual rights in a mixed economy, the military draft is the worst. It is an abrogation of rights.
   It negates man's fundamental right–the right to life–and establishes the fundamental principle of statism: that a man's life belongs to the state, and the state may claim it by compelling him to sacrifice it in battle. Once that principle is accepted, the rest is only a matter of time."
 
"If the state may force a man to risk death or hideous maiming and crippling, in a war declared at the state's discretion, for a cause he may neither approve of nor even understand, if his consent is not required to send him into unspeakable martyrdom–then, in principle, all rights are negated in that state, and its government is not man's protector any longer. What else is there left to protect?
   The most immoral contradiction–in the chaos of today's anti-ideological groups–is that of the so-called 'conservatives', who posture as defenders of individual rights, particularly property rights, but uphold and advocate the draft. By what infernal evasion can they hope to justify the proposition that creatures who have no right to life, have the right to a bank account? A slightly higher–though not much higher–rung of hell should be reserved for those 'liberals' who claim that man has the "right" to economic security, public housing, medical care, education, recreation, but no right to life, or: that man has the right to livelihood, but not to life."

"The moral justification of capitalism does not lie in the altruist claim that it represents the best way to achieve 'the common good'. It is true that capitalism does–if that catch-phrase has any meaning–but this is merely a secondary consequence. The moral justification for capitalism lies in the fact that it is the only system consonant with man's rational nature, that it protects man's survival qua man, and that its ruling principle is: justice."
 
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws." – from Atlas Shrugged
 
"Civilization is the progress of society towards privacy."
 
"Degress do not matter... one does not bargain about inches of evil."
 
"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleased, while the citizens may act only by permission."
 
"Civilization is progess toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."
 
"When you see that trading is done, and not by consent, but by compulsion. When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing. When you see money flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors. When you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you. When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming self-sacrifice, you may know that your society is doomed.
 
"The question isn't who is going to let me. It's who is going to stop me.

Reagan, Michael

"Of course Dad [Ronald Wilson Reagan] was for [cannabis] legalization. He wasn't crazy. He didn't want his kids in jail!" – 2002
newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/5/11/12343.shtml

Reagan, Ronald Wilson (deceased)  other quotes

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." – 1986
 
"Freedom is not the sole perogative of a lucky few, but the inalienable and universal right of all human beings." – London, June 1982
 
"... because I don't think government has a right to take one dollar more than government needs, we gave the surpluses back to the people in the form of tax rebates. We gave back over eight years $5.7 billion to the people of California. We stopped the bureaucracy dead in its tracks, the same way I would like to stop it at its national level." – Washington Post, Apr 27 1980
 
"I just don't believe the farmer should be made to pay a special price for our diplomacy, and I'm oppose to [the Soviet grain embargo]." – Jan 7 1980, Washington Post, pub Jan 8 1980
 
"If adults want to take such chances [using cannabis], that is their business." – Radio address, Aug 1979
newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/5/11/12343.shtml

"For many years the United Nations has had before it two covenants, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the United Nations Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Both specifically omit the right to own property or to be protected from arbitrary seizure without compensation ... What is apparently little known by the American people is that President Carter has signed both of these United Nations covenants which, in effect, nullify the inalienable right of an individual to own property–if they are ratified by the United States Senate, United Nations treaties become laws of the land, superceding all other laws." – Radio address, Mar 1978
 
"You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream – the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order – or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, 'The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.' " – Oct 27 1964
 
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."
 
"We will never disarm any American who seeks to protect his or her family from fear and harm."
 
"No nation ever taxed itself into prosperity."
 
"Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. ... We've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of government himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price."
 
"The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other."

Reese, Charlie

"Americans who value freedom had better be more concerned about the gun control crowd than the criminals. The criminals want your money. The Neo-Totalitarians want your freedom."

Rice, Condoleezza

"I’m generally pretty libertarian in these matters, because Americans are quite good, actually, at finding a way to deal with these extremely divisive and difficult moral issues. And it’s not that I’m a relativist. It’s not that I believe everybody has their own morality. But I do understand that there are different ways of thinking about how these issues are going to play out in people’s lives, and I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt in governing their own lives. Sometimes when things are out of whack the government has no choice but to step in. But I’m wary of the government stepping in to too many issues. ... I don’t like the government involved in these really hard moral decisions. While I don’t think the country is ready for legislation to overturn Roe v. Wade, certainly I cannot imagine why one would be in favor of partial birth abortion. I also can’t imagine why one would take these decisions out of the hands of the family. ... I have lots of respect for people on both sides of this [same-gender marriage] divide, because there are really hard issues. I don’t ever want anybody to be denied rights within our country. I happen to think marriage is between a man and a woman. That’s tradition, and I believe that that’s the right answer. But perhaps we will decide that there needs to be some way for people to express their desire to live together through civil union." – interview with Christianity Today, Dec 2010
kylemcdanell.com/2010/12/to-legislate-or-not-condoleezza-rice.html

Roberts, Stephen

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."

Robertson, Marion Gordon (Pat)

"We’re locking up people that take a couple of puffs of marijuana and the next thing you know they’ve got ten years – they’ve got mandatory sentences and these judges, they throw up their hand and say ‘What can we do, it’s mandatory sentences.’ We’ve got to take a look at what we’re considering crimes, and that’s one of them. I mean, I’m not exactly for the use of drugs, don’t get me wrong, but I just believe criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of just a few ounces of pot, and that kind of thing, I mean it’s costing us a fortune, and it’s ruining young people. The young people go into prisons, they go in as youths, and they come out as hardened criminals." – 700 Club, Dec 22 2010
stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy/2010/dec/23/pat_robertson_says_legalize_mari

Romney, George Wilcken (deceased)

Vietnam war "the most tragic foreign policy mistake in the nation's history." – 1967? or 1968?
 
Romney received "the greatest brainwashing that anybody can get" – Interview with Lou Gordon, Sept 4 1967

Romney, Willard Mitt  other quotes

"I am prolife. I believe that abortion is the wrong choice except in cases of incest, rape, and to save the life of the mother." – Boston Globe, 2005
 
"I will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose and am devoted and dedicated to honoring my word in that regard." – gobernatorial debate, 2002
 
"America's greatest innovation is freedom. Without freedom, we have nothing, With freedom, nothing can hold us back." – mittromney.com

 
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (FDR) (deceased)

"In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression – everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way – everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants – everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor – anywhere in the world." – Jan 6 1941
 
"Taxes are paid in the sweat of every man who labors. If those taxes are excessive, they are reflected in idle factories, in tax-sold farms, and hordes of hungry people, tramping streets and seeking jobs in vain. Our workers may never see a tax bill, but they pay. They pay in deductions from wages, in increased cost of what they buy or in unemployment throughout the land." – Oct 19 1932

Roosevelt, Theodore (deceased)

"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else." – May 7 1918

Rothbard, Murray N (deceased)

"Freedom is a condition in which a person's ownership rights in his own body and his legitimate material property are not invaded, are not aggressed against." – from For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, 1973
 
"If liberty should be the highest political end, then what is the grounding for that goal? It should be clear ... that, first and foremost, liberty is a moral principle, grounded in the nature of man. In particular, it is a principle of justice, of the abolition of aggressive violence in the affairs of men. ... Justice, not the weak reed of mere utility, must be the motivating force if liberty is to be attained."

 
Samper Pizano, Ernesto

"If repressive action fails, the road left is legalization of drugs." – 1990

Schmoke, Kurt L

"I recommend we eliminate criminal penalties for marijuana possession and redirect funding from law enforcement efforts to prevention and education programs. The war of drugs should be led by the surgeon general, not the attorney general."

Sobran, Joseph

"By a very conservative estimate, a hundred million people have died at the hands of their own governments in this century. Given that record, how bad could anarchy be?"

Soros, George

"I must explain what I mean by a global open society. I emphatically do not mean a global government. Governments by their very nature interfere with individual freedom. When there are many countries to choose from, one can emigrate; but a global government would be oppressive almost by definition. ... A global open society has to recognize that all rules are imperfect and subject to improvement. We also need rules for changing the rules ..." – from The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror, pg Prologue xiv, 2006

Sowell, Thomas

"A special wariness is necessary in discussions of freedom, not only because of the inherent problems of the concept, but also because an Orwellian Newspeak has made it fashionable to describe the trade-off of freedom for other things as an expansion of 'new freedoms' or of freedom in some 'larger' sense. The incremental trade-off of freedom for other things is accepted by everyone except a pure anarchist. But the extent of this historic trade-off is too momentous an issue to be concealed or confused by pretty words. Force is the antithesis of freedom, but force must be used, if only to defend against other force. Force against murder, for example, includes … innocent third parties who may be detained or subpeonaed as witnesses or forced by law to serve as jurors. … the question at any point is how much more freedom are we prepared to sacrifice for how much prospect of reducing the murder rate–or how much more freedom are we going to demand at the cost of how many more lives of murder victims? Trade-offs involving freedom are often painful, if only because only other urgent needs are considered worthy of weighing and balancing with it. … It is instead muddied over by those who define freedom as options (freedom to) –and who have many options to promise in exchange for our freedom. … The mere fact that something may outrank freedom does not make that something become freedom. … Much verbal sleight of hand is practiced with such statements as 'security is merely an aspect of freedom.' " – from Knowledge and Decisions, 1980, pgs 116-118
 
"What would make still more sense would be to admit that we are not God, that we cannot live other people's lives or save people who don't want to be saved, and to take the profits out of drugs by decriminalizing them. That is what destroyed the bootleggers' gangs after Prohibition was repealed."
 
"What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don't expect freedom to survive very long."
 
"One of the bitter ironies of the 20th century was that communism, which began as an egalitarian doctrine accusing capitalism of selfishness and calloused sacrifices of others, became in power a system whose selfishness and callousness toward others made the sins of capitalism pale."
 
"If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today."
 
"Blacks were not enslaved because they were black but because they were available. Slavery has existed in the world for thousands of years. Whites enslaved other whites in Europe for centuries before the first black was brought to the Western hemisphere. Asians enslaved Europeans. Asians enslaved other Asians. Africans enslaved other Africans, and indeed even today in North Africa, blacks continue to enslave blacks."

Spence, Gerald L

"[P]eople have not yet discovered they have been disenfranchised. Even lawyers can't stand to admit it. In any nation in which people's rights have been subordinated to the rights of the few, in any totalitarian nation, the first institution to be dismantled is the jury. I was, I am, afraid."

Spencer, Herbert

"The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools."

Spooner, Lysander (deceased)

"... if the people had reserved for themselves no veto upon the acts of the government, the government, instead of being a mere servant and agent of the people, would be an absolute despot over the people. It would have all power in its own hands, because the power to punish carries all other powers with it." – Essay on Trial By Jury, 1852

"For more than six hundred years – that is, since Magna Carta, in 1215 – there has been no clearer principle of English or American constitutional law, than that, in criminal cases, it is not only the right and duty of juries to judge what are the facts, what is the law, and what was the moral intent of the accused; but that it is also their right, and their primary and paramount duty, to judge the justice of the law, and to hold all laws invalid, that are, in their opinion, unjust or oppressive, and all persons guiltless in violating, or resisting the execution of, such law." – The Right of Juries

Stauffer, Titus

"Freedom From Freedom Froms cautions the reader that freedom can mean enslavement. 'Freedom from want' can mean that government will make your charity choices for you, 'freedom from overpopulation and starvation' can mean that the government will control your reproduction, "freedom from drugs' means they'll break your door down in the middle of the night, lest you destroy some 'evidence', and 'freedom from sin' means they'll decide how you will worship, among many other things. 'Freedom from pollution' means that the Superfund will extort money from small businesses (and hence, from consumers) for cleaning up the 'toxics' in discarded pizzas and cardboard boxes, accomplishing little other than the enrichment of environmental lawyers. 'Freedom from Un-American Activities' meant that they'd nab you for scratching your butt during the National Anthem. And more of the same. Beware, then, of false freedoms, as well as false prophets; seek 'Freedom From Freedom Froms'." – Introduction, Freedom From Freedom Froms

Stern, Howard

"I'm for personal freedom. I'm for freedom of the marketplace … And if Donald Trump delivered the mail, you could send letters for 12 cents, and also gamble with the stamps." – Libertarian Party News, May 1994

Stone, Oliver

"Legalization is the only way to beat it. Let kids try it. Take out the allure, take out the mystique and take off the price tag."

Sullivan, Andrew Michael

"Is there nothing that smoking pot cannot help? No wonder it's illegal. It could put some pharmaceutical companies out of business." – "Marijuana Vs Alzheimers", The Daily Dish, Oct 12 2006

Sweet, Robert W

"... marijuana [gives] a sense of relaxation and ease. What then is wrong? As to marijuana, particularly today, the answer is nothing. It is reported to be our fourth most important cash crop. In 1972, President Nixon's Commission on drug laws recommended the regulation and taxation of marijuana, a recommendation repeated in 1982 by the National Academy of Science, Whatever can be said about heroin, cocaine and synthetic drugs, 27 years is long enough to learn that the prohibition against marijuana should be abolished."
 
"It is time to abolish prohibition–to cease treating indulgence in mind-alteration as a crime."
 
"The war on drugs has failed to stop the traffic, or alter the social patternes which produce the phenomena ... It is expensive and diverting, and has come close to causing foreign excursion, subversions, and has caused us to reconsider whether or not as a nation we wish employ assassination as an expression of policy."

Swift, Jonathan

"For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery."

 
Tancredo, Thomas G  other quotes

"It’s not about marijuana, it's about states' rights. The federal government has no right to interfere when a state makes that kind of decision. ... The federal government should stay the hell out of it." – Response to inquiry into Tancredo's position on federal raids of medicinal cannabis clubs, Londonderry NH, Aug 19 2007

Thompson, Hunter Stockton

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."

Thoreau, Henry David (deceased)

"I heartily accept the motto, 'That government is best which governs least'; and I should like to see it acted upon more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe–'That government is best which governs not at all'; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have." from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, 1849
 
"Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?…it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to put out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?" from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, 1849
 
"There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly." from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, 1849

Tocqueville, Alexis de (deceased)

"Liberty is generally born in stormy weather."
 
"All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it."
 
"... liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith."
 
"Americans are so enamored of equality, they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom."
 
"In order to enjoy the inestimable benefits that the liberty of the press ensures, it is necessary to submit to the inevitable evils it creates …"
 
"Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. 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."

Truman, Harry S (deceased)

"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."

Trump, Donald J

"We're badly losing the war on drugs. You have to legalize drugs to take the profit away from these drug czars."

Tutu, Desmond

"History has shown us that neither systems, nor governments, nor dictators are eternal, but the spirit of freedom is."

 
Voltaire, Francois

"The art of government is to make two-thirds of a nation pay all it possibly can for the benefit of the other third."
 
"So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men."
 
"Let the laws be clear, uniform and precise; to interpret laws is almost always to corrupt them."

 
Walberg, Timothy L

"House must work together to balance the budget and make certain that taxpayer dollars are going to meaningful programs. We must restore fiscal responsibility in our government. ... From Battle Creek to Adrian, men and women in the 7th District continue to stress to me that they want health care decisions to be made by patients and doctors, not by the government and insurance companies. I look forward to studying the market-based health care reforms proposed by the President. ... The war on terrorism is the calling of our time, and we cannot shirk our obligation to protect our families and nation from the enemies of freedom." – "Walberg Weekly Wrapup", Jan 26 2007

Washington, George (deceased)

"Make the most of the hemp seed and sow it everywhere. From trade our citizens will not be restrained, and therefore it behooves us to place it in the most convenient channels, under proper regulation. Free as much as possible, from those vices which luxury, the consequences of wealth and power, naturally introduce." – 1794
 
"Sowed Hemp at Muddy hole by swamp. ... began to separate the male from female Hemp at Dawn ... rather too late." – Diary, 1765
 
"What was done with the seed saved from Indian hemp last summer? It ought to have been sewn again ... as it is more valuable than common hemp."
(Editor's note: This quote shows Washington knew Indian hemp (cannabis) was used for purposes more valuable than hemp fiber. Indian hemp was typically used to make hashish back then.)
 
"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them."
 
"Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty, teeth and keystone under independence. The church, the plow, the prairie wagon and citizens' firearms are indelibly related. From the hour the Pilgrims landed to the present day, events, occurrences and tendencies prove that, to ensure peace, security and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable. Every corner of this land knows firearms, and more than 99 and 99-100 percent of them by their silence indicate they are in safe and sane hands. The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil influence. They deserve a place of honor with all that's good. When firearms go, all goes. We need them every hour."
 
"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government."
 
"Government is not reason. Government is not eloquence. It is force. And, like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."

Webster, Daniel (deceased)

"I apprehend no danger to our country from a foreign foe … Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence, I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants, and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing. Make them intelligent, and they will be vigilant; give them the means of detecting the wrong, and they will apply the remedy." – June 1 1837
 
"God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it."
 
"No man can suffer too much, and no man can fall too soon, if he suffer or if he fall in defense of the liberties and Constitution of his country."
 
"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."

Webster, Noah (deceased)

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States."

Weil, Andrew

"The laws designed to solve the drug problem are the drug problem."

Wilde, Oscar

"When liberty comes with hands dabbled in blood it is hard to shake hands with her."
 
"Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion."

Wilson, Robert Anton

"Language creates spooks that get into our heads and hypnotize us."

Wilson, Robert C

"The 'permissive' lawmaker would sanction such vices as drinking, pornography and the rest of the current issues. The 'disciplinary' legislator would do away with those indulgences of which he disapproves. In either case, the right of the state to grant permission is considered obvious and a priori. Thus the advocate of limited government can be made to sound more libertine than libertarian – as if opposing prohibition and advocating drunkenness were one and the same thing." – from "Permissiveness or Liberty?", The Freeman, June 1973, vol 23, no 6

Wilson, Woodrow (deceased)

"The history of Liberty is the history of resistance."

 
Zabin, Earl

"The free market offers us the opportunity to get rich, or poor, in competition with everyone else. The free market doesn't offer us special privileges, favors, subsidies, breaks, exemptions, monopolies, handouts. And it is this that accounts for the free market's unpopularity."

Zappa, Frank Vincent (deceased)

"Censoring what you say is one of the ways in which people who are not nice can take away your personal freedom."
 
"Bad facts make bad law, and people who write bad laws are in my opinion more dangerous than songwriters who celebrate sexuality."
 
"The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced."
 
"I've smoked ten marijuana cigarettes in my life. And they've given me a sore throat, a headache, and made me sleepy. I can't understand why anyone would wanna use the stuff. It seems such an impractical pastime as you can get sent to jail for it."
 
"People like to own things."
 
"Religion has mostly proven to be a real-estate scam."

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armedfemalesofamerica.com/notablequotes.htm

Bartlett's Fimiliar Quotations

education.yahoo.com/reference/bartlett/index.html

BrainyQuote

brainyquote.com

Jeff Christen-Mitchell's "Art of the Quote"

jeffchristen-mitchell.com

Freedom Keys

freedomkeys.com, freedomkeys.com/quotes.htm, freedomkeys.com/collectivism.htm, email quotes@freedomkeys.com

Freedom's Nest's Quotes

freedomsnest.com/quotes.html

Fully Informed Jury Association's Quotes

fija.org/links.htm

Haff's "The Theory and Reality of Government"

home.comcast.net/~ghaff/lword/gov.html

Mann's "The Nature of Freedom"

mind-trek.com/reports/tl05a.htm

Marihemp's Anslinger Quotes

cannabinoid.com/boards/msg3x3122.shtml

QuoteDB

quotedb.com
Freedom quotedb.com/categories/freedom

Radical Academy's Philosophical Quotations

radicalacademy.com/philosophicalquotations.htm

D Scott Scheibe's Right to Keep Arms & Liberty Quotes

home.earthlink.net/~dsscheibe/rkbaq.htm

ThinkExist

en.thinkexist.com
Aka: ThinkExist.com

Wikiquote

en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Main_Page

Walter E Williams' Quotations From Framers of the Constitution ... and Others

gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/quotes.html