Freedom, Knowledge and Truth Quotations
A collection of quotations from historical figures, thinkers, authors, film, fiction and more on the subjects of freedom, knowledge and truth.
"Democracy - two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner."
Thomas Jefferson
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"When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated." Thomas Jefferson.
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"The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334
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"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." Thomas Jefferson
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"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." Thomas Jefferson, quoting Cesare Beccaria
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"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty
than to those attending too small a degree of it."
Thomas Jefferson to A. Stuart, 1791
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"Do not bite the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it." Thomas Jefferson
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"Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear." Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787
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"If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?" Thomas Jefferson
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"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever." Thomas Jefferson
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"...reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality
can prevail in the exclusion of religious principle."
George Washington
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The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend on God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die. George Washington
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There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it
steadily.
George Washington
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If men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences that can invite the consideration of mankind, reason is of no use; the freedom of speech may be taken away, and dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter. George Washington
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"...the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God governs in the affairs of men...We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings , that "except the Lord build this house they labour in vain that build it." Benjamin Franklin
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"We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the
capacity of mankind for self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern
ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of
God."
James Madison
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"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ! For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity and freedom to worship here." Patrick Henry
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"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government." Edward Abbey
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Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who
have... a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most
dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean the characters and conduct of their rulers.
John Adams
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Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people. John Adams
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Be not intimidated... nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice. John Adams
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The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. John Adams
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The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing. John Adams
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A general dissolution of the principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy.... While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but once they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.... If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security. Samuel Adams
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And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms; or to raise standing armies, unless necessary for the defense of the United States, or of some one or more of them; or to prevent the people from petitioning, in a peaceable and orderly manner, the federal legislature, for a redress of grievances; or to subject the people to unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons, papers or possessions. Samuel Adams
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Driven from every other corner of the earth, freedom of thought and the right of private judgment in matters of conscience, direct their course to this happy country as their last asylum. Samuel Adams
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The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men. Samuel Adams
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"Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest, of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." Letter to Pennsylvania House of Representatives member, John Murray, dated October 12, 1816, cited in William Jay, The Life of John Jay: With Selections from His Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers, 1833: J. & J. Harper, 376
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"Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until
after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious."
George Orwell - 1984
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“Ridicule is the tribute that mediocrity pays to genius.” Anonymous
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“All truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is
violently opposed. Finally it is accepted as self-evident.”
Schoepenhouer
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“There are none so enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free.” Goethe
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“Wisdom is knowing how little we know.” Socrates
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“If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.”
Mark Twain
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“It can’t happen here” is number one on the list of famous last
words.”
David Crosby
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“We are not humans on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human
journey.”
Stephen Covey
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“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised
as impossible situations.”
Charles Swindoll
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“Conditioning will save them from the great anxiety and terrible agony they endure at present in making a free decision for themselves.” Dostoevsky – The Brothers Karamazov
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“…the greater part of the population is not very intelligent, dreads
responsibility, and desires nothing better than to be told what to do. Provided the rulers
do not interfere with its material comforts and its cherished beliefs, it is perfectly
happy to let itself be ruled.”
Aldous Huxley – Proper Studies.
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“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these
are life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments
are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
That wherever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of
the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government…”
Jefferson – Declaration of Independence (1776)
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“By heeding the artist, man can arouse himself from his present waking sleep
and anticipate the inevitable changes which destiny brings and so pass consciously,
confidently and relatively unscathed into the future.”
D.J. Richards (Literary critic) – 1962.
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"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy always followed by dictatorship." -- Alexander Fraser Tyler, "The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic"
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