Excess of liberty, whether it lies in state or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery.

Plato  (427–347 BC)

The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.

Plutarch  (AD 46–120)

Where Liberty dwells, there is my country.

Benjamin Franklin  (1706–1790)

Those that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin  (1706–1790)

We may look up to Armies for our Defense, but Virtue is our best Security.  It is not possible that any State should long remain free, where Virtue is not supremely honored.

Samuel Adams  (1722–1803)

Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites...

Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.

Edmund Burke  (1729–1797)

Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.

George Washington  (1732–1799)

It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it.

George Washington  (1732–1799)

If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.

George Washington  (1732–1799)

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

Thomas Jefferson  (1743–1826)

When the government fears the people, there is liberty.  When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.

Thomas Jefferson  (1743–1826)

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

Thomas Jefferson  (1743–1826)

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.

James Madison  (1751–1836)

It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.

James Madison  (1751–1836)

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.  It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.

William Pitt the Younger  (1759–1806)

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.

Abraham Lincoln  (1809–1865)

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  (1809–1865)

People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.

Soren Kierkegaard  (1813–1855)

Liberty never came from government.  The history of liberty is a history of resistance.  The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it.

Woodrow Wilson  (1856–1924)
Speech in New York, September 9, 1912

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that, too.

Somerset Maugham  (1874–1965)

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels.  For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.

Henry Mencken  (1880–1956)