Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [761-780] of 1284 Liberty quotesLiberty QuotesLiberty Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes The Shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shephard as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as a destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty.~ Abraham Lincoln Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step over the ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! -- All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a Thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. ~ Abraham Lincoln Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except Negroes and foreigners and Catholics." When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy hypocrisy.~ Abraham Lincoln Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.~ Abraham Lincoln We have forgotten the gracious hand which has preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving Grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.~ Abraham Lincoln I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from ... the Declaration of Independence ... that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence ... I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it.~ Abraham Lincoln The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty.~ Abraham Lincoln That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.~ Abraham Lincoln As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.~ Abraham Lincoln Where slavery is, there liberty cannot be; and where liberty is, there slavery cannot be.~ Abraham Lincoln In a free society the state does not administer the affairs of men. It administers justice among men who conduct their own affairs.~ Walter Lippmann Private property was the original source of freedom. It still is its main bulwark.~ Walter Lippmann The unexamined life, said Socrates, is unfit to be lived by man. This is the virtue of liberty, and the ground on which we may justify our belief in it, that it tolerates error in order to serve truth.~ Walter Lippmann Whereas each man claims his freedom as a matter of right, the freedom he accords to other men is a matter of toleration.~ Walter Lippmann In a democracy, the opposition is not only tolerated as constitutional, but must be maintained because it is indispensable.~ Walter Lippmann I have no reason to suppose, that he, who would take away my liberty, would not, when he had me in his power, take away every thing else.~ John Locke The Natural Liberty of Man is to be free from any Superior Power on Earth, and not to be under the Will or Legislative Authority of Man, but to have only the Law of Nature for his Rule.~ John Locke Where there is no law there is no freedom.~ John Locke Any single man must judge for himself whether circumstances warrant obedience or resistance to the commands of the civil magistrate; we are all qualified, entitled, and morally obliged to evaluate the conduct of our rulers. This political judgment, moreover, is not simply or primarily a right, but like self-preservation, a duty to God. As such it is a judgment that men cannot part with according to the God of Nature. It is the first and foremost of our inalienable rights without which we can preserve no other.~ John Locke Freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that society and made by the legislative power vested in it and not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, arbitrary will of another man.~ John Locke Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print