Liberty quotes

[MTPorcupine3]

"I didn't know I was a slave until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted." ~ Frederick Douglass

[Friday]

The terrific urge to prevent another person from making a "mistake" must be resisted if liberty is to be preserved. The "protective spirit" that leads a fond parent to prohibit his child from acquiring mature judgments, as he substitutes his own opinions for those of the child, leads the dictator to act as he does in "protecting" his political children.

— F.A. Harper

[Kat Kanning]

On oldie but a goodie.

"I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as
necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful
rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the
people, which produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest
republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not to
discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of
government."
-- Thomas Jefferson

[MTPorcupine3]

"All living souls welcome whatever they are ready to cope with; all else
they ignore, or pronounce to be monstrous and wrong, or deny to be
possible."

-George Santayana, philosopher (1863-1952)

"The best way to be more free is to grant more freedom to others."
-Carlo Dossi, author and diplomat (1849-1910)

[Silent_Bob]

"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." –Plato

[Sam A. Robrin]

"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." –Plato

"One of the penalties for participating in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." –Sam A. Robrin

[Silent_Bob]

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological
personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the
corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a
condition to which they are quickly addicted."

Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse Dune

[Russell Kanning]

Ok, that helps.  I work with a woman whose son got in trouble at school for fighting back when someone started a fight with him and I wanted to eloquently convey that I don't think there's anything wrong with that, and that Ghandi himself had conveyed that point.  If that's not on the right track, let me know.

Did Gandhi physically fight back?
it makes sense that he would not condone the british rules against guns and such .... but he would not advocate using them, if you want to live in a non-violent society.
You can find self defense quotes pretty much everywhere other than from him.

[shyfrog]

"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself."  ~Thomas Paine

[Kat Kanning]

"All living souls welcome whatever they are ready to cope with; all else
they ignore, or pronounce to be monstrous and wrong, or deny to be
possible."

-George Santayana, philosopher (1863-1952)

"The best way to be more free is to grant more freedom to others."
-Carlo Dossi, author and diplomat (1849-1910)

Great quotes

[KBCraig]

Albert Guerard's essay for Edward R. Murrow's "This I Believe" program. It's a good read, but go here to both read it and listen to the audio. It's short, just a few minutes.

The line that caught my attention:

"My country right or wrong," is the most insidious of blasphemies. It means thou shalt have no other God beside thy country, not even God.

[MTPorcupine3]

During one of Ayn Rand's speeches someone in an audience pointed out that she was foreign-born.

"That's right," she said. "I chose to become an American. What did you do besides being born?"

[MTPorcupine3]

Here are a bunch of great quotes, some familiar, some not, that I just lifted from a Facebook friend's page.

====

"Our sky is the shore of the cosmic ocean"
- Carl Sagan

"The greater the continent of knowledge,
the longer the shore of mystery"
- Huston Smith

"Question the boldness, even the existence of God,
because if there be one, he must more approve of the
homage of reason than that of blind faith."
- Thomas Jefferson

"...one is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that
the wicked have committed, but by the punishments
that the good have inflicted."
- Oscar Wilde

"There are no atheists in foxholes" isn't an argument against atheism, it's an argument against foxholes.
- James Morrow

"I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it."
- Mark Twain

"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."
- H.L. Mencken

"Never attribute to malice
what can be explained by stupidity"
- Robert A. Heinlein

"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest."
- Gandhi

"The best defense of our country is to keep it at all
times WORTH defending."
- Sam Levenson

"When buying and selling are controlled by Washington,
the first things to be bought and sold are politicians."
- P.J. O'Rourke

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible
will make violent revolution inevitable."
President John F. Kennedy

"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.
- Ronald Reagan

During one of Ayn Rand's speeches someone in an audience pointed out that she was foreign-born.
"That's right," she said. "I chose to become an American. What did you do besides being born?"

If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.
- Jack Handy

"It's a pity that things weren't arranged so that an empty head, like an empty stomach,
would not let us rest until we put something in it."
- Red Gray

"I am made from the dust of the stars, and the oceans flow in my veins"
– Peart of Rush"PrestoNeil"

"Without love, breath is just a clock ticking"
- Equilibrium

[shyfrog]

"No government has the right to decide on the truth of scientific principles, nor to prescribe in any way the character of the questions investigated. Neither may a government determine the aesthetic value of artistic creations, nor limit the forms of literacy or artistic expression. Nor should it pronounce on the validity of economic, historic, religious, or philosophical doctrines. Instead it has a duty to its citizens to maintain the freedom, to let those citizens contribute to the further adventure and the development of the human race."
— Richard P. Feynman

[Friday]

"I am not the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a bandage for their wounds, I am not a sacrifice on their altars" – Ayn Rand