Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [841-860] of 1284 Liberty quotesLiberty QuotesLiberty Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes There are two good things in life -- freedom of thought and freedom of action.~ W. Somerset Maugham Liberty, understood by materialists as the right to do or not to do anything not directly injurious to others, we understand as the faculty of choosing, among the various modes of fulfilling duty, those most in harmony with our own tendencies.~ Giuseppe Mazzini The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty.~ Eugene McCarthy Freedom is not a fixed and possessed thing. It is a quality of life. And like action itself, it is something experienced only by individuals.~ Neil A. McDonald Whatever the immediate gains and losses, the dangers to our safety arising from political suppression are always greater than the dangers to the safety resulting from political freedom. Suppression is always foolish.~ Neil A. McDonald The highest patriotism is not a blind acceptance of official policy, but a love of one's country deep enough to call her to a higher standard.~ George McGovern If the words 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' don't include the right to experiment with your own consciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn't worth the hemp it was written on.~ Terence McKenna The purpose of education is to make the choices clear to people, not to make the choices for people.~ Peter McWilliams That the religious right completely took over the word Christian is a given. At one time, phrases such as Christian charity and Christian tolerance were used to denote kindness and compassion. To perform a "Christian" act meant an act of giving, of acceptance, of toleration. Now, Christian is invariably linked to right-wing conservative political thought -- Christian nation, Christian morality, Christian values, Christian family.~ Peter McWilliams Freedom is always wise.~ Alexander Meiklejohn In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas Unity in things Necessary, Liberty in things Unnecessary, and Charity in all.~ Rupertus Meldenius We Americans are the peculiar, chosen people — the Israel of our time; we bear the ark of the liberties of the world.~ Herman Melville Liberty ... was a two-headed boon. There was first, the liberty of the people as a whole to determine the forms of their own government, to levy their own taxes, and to make their own laws.... There was second, the liberty of the individual man to live his own life, within the limits of decency and decorum, as he pleased -- freedom from the despotism of the majority.~ H. L. Mencken I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air -- that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave.~ H. L. Mencken I believe there is a limit beyond which free speech cannot go, but it's a limit that's very seldom mentioned. It's the point where free speech begins to collide with the right to privacy. I don't think there are any other conditions to free speech. I've got a right to say and believe anything I please, but I haven't got a right to press it on anybody else. .... Nobody's got a right to be a nuisance to his neighbors.~ H. L. Mencken It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.~ H. L. Mencken All I ask is equal freedom. When it is denied, as it always is, I take it anyhow.~ H. L. Mencken I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone.~ H. L. Mencken Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, cruel, grasping and unintelligent.~ H. L. Mencken The only kind of freedom that the mob can imagine is freedom to annoy and oppress its betters, and that is precisely the kind that we mainly have.~ H. L. Mencken Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print