But what more oft in nations grown corrupt,
And by their vices brought to servitude
Than to love bondage more than liberty –
Bondage in ease, than strenuous liberty? John Milton, Samson Agonistes
Licence they mean when they cry liberty;
For who loves that, must first be wise and good. John Milton, Sonnet 12 ‘I Did But Prompt the Age’, 1673
For this is not the liberty which we can hope, that no grievance ever should arise in the Commonwealth, that let no man in this world expect; but when complaints are freely heard, deeply considered, and speedily reformed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty attained that wise men look for. John Milton, Areopagitica, 1644
Give me the liberty to know to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties. ibid.
For liberty there is a cost – it’s broken skulls and leather cosh,
From the boys in uniform – now you know whose side they're on –
With backing – with blessing,
From earthly gods not heaven,
A stone’s throw away from it all.
Whatever pleasures those who get – from stripping skin with rhino whip,
Are the kind that must be stopped – before their kind take all we’ve got –
With loving – with caring,
They take great pride in working,
The stone’s throw away from it all.
Whenever honesty persists – you’ll hear the snap of broken ribs,
Of anyone who’ll take no more – of the lying bastards’ roar –
In Chile – In Poland, Johannesburg – South Yorkshire,
A stone’s throw away: Now we’re there. The Style Council, A Stone’s Throw
O Liberty! Liberty! What crimes are committed in your name. Madame Roland, upon guillotine 1793
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is in itself the highest political end. Lord Acton, 1834–1902, British historian
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman
The risks of liberty we must let everyone take; but the risks of ignorance and self-helplessness are another matter. George Bernard Shaw, Misalliance
What more felicity can fall to creature,
Than to enjoy delight with liberty. Edmund Spenser, Muiopotmos, 1591
I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death! Patrick Henry speech 23rd March 1775
It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have been forged in controversies involving not very nice people. Felix Frankfurter, 1882-1965, American judge
Why, headstrong liberty is lashed with woe. William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors II i 15, Luciana to Adriana
From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty. William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure I ii 117, Claudio
I had as life have the foppery of freedom as the morality of imprisonment. ibid. I ii 125-126, Lucio
Liberty is, to the lowest rank of every nation, little more than the choice of working or starving. Samuel Johnson, The Bravery of the English Common Soldier
Now, methinks, I see the ardour for liberty catching and spreading; a general amendment beginning in human affairs; the dominion of kings changed for the dominion of laws, and the dominion of priests giving way to the dominion of reason and conscience. Richard Price, A Discourse on the Love of our Country
Both liberty and equality are among the primary goals pursued by human beings throughout many centuries; but total liberty for wolves is death to the lambs, total liberty of the powerful, the gifted, is not compatible with the rights to a decent existence of the weak and the less gifted. Isaiah Berlin, The Crooked Timber of Humanity
Liberty is liberty, not equality or fairness or justice of human happiness or a quiet conscience. Isaiah Berlin, British philosopher, 1909
In later work on the concept of freedom, Isaiah Berlin (1969) argued that positive liberty enables the individual to take control of their life. Positive liberty can therefore be understood to mean the freedom to perform an action of some description. As such, positive liberty facilitates the creation of a welfare state. Negative liberty however reflects the absence of barriers and constraints. We thereby possess negative liberty to the extent that actions are available to us. Of the two, Berlin actually favoured negative freedom because it means we are the masters of our own destiny. Negative freedom upholds the notion of the unencumbered self, whereas despotism is made possible when the state decides what is in our best interests. A state that provides for our welfare needs from cradle to grave ultimately has the ability to take liberty away from us. Tutor2u online article, ‘Negative & Positive Freedom’
The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law and particularly to deny him the judgement of his peers is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist. Winston Churchill, telegram to Home Secretary
It is above all in the present democratic age that the true friends of liberty and human grandeur must remain constantly vigilant and ready to prevent the social power from lightly sacrificing the particular rights of a few individuals to the general execution of its designs. In such times there is no citizen so obscure that it is not very dangerous to allow him to be oppressed, and there are no individual rights so unimportant that they can be sacrificed to arbitrariness with impunity. Alexis de Tocqueville
Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of the government. The history of government is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is the history of the limitation of government, not the increase of it. Woodrow Wilson
The true test of liberty is the right to test it, the right to question it, the right to speak to my neighbors, to grab them by the shoulders and look into their eyes and ask, ‘Are we free?’ I have thought that if we are free, the answer cannot hurt us. And if we are not free, must we not hear the answer? Gerry Spence, Give Me Liberty
Machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines, you are not cattle, you are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate: only the unloved hate, the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers, don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty! You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You the people have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure! Then, in the name of democracy, let us use that power. Let us all unite! Let us fight for a new world, a decent world. Charles Chaplin
The liberty of the individual is no gift of civilization. It was greatest before there was any civilization. Sigmund Freud
Small tyrants, threatened by big,
sincerely believe
they love liberty. W H Auden
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed – and hence clamorous to be led to safety – by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. H L Mencken
All government, of course, is against liberty. H L Mencken
Most people want security in this world, not liberty. H L Mencken
Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place. Frederic Bastiat, The Law
No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session. Gideon John Tucker
The fact is that the modern implementation of the prison planet has far surpassed even Orwell’s 1984 and the only difference between our society and those fictionalized by Huxley, Orwell and others, is that the advertising techniques used to package the propaganda are a little more sophisticated on the surface.
Yet just a quick glance behind the curtain reveals that the age old tactics of manipulation of fear and manufactured consensus are still being used to force humanity into accepting the terms of its own imprisonment and in turn policing others within the prison without bars. Paul Joseph Watson
The story of liberty is a history of the limitation of a government power, not the increase of it. William J Federer, Change to Chains
Freedom or prison – what’s the difference? A man must develop unwavering will power subject only to his reason. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The First Circle