Liberty Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old liberty quotes, liberty sayings, and liberty proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have. Harry Emerson Fosdick
Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth. George Washington
Liberty doesn't work as well in practice as it does in speeches. Will Rogers
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. George Bernard Shaw
Liberty is maintained by responsible freedom. Roger W Hancock
Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain. John F. Kennedy
The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves. William Hazlitt
Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.... While it lies there, it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it. Learned Hand
I prefer liberty to chains of diamonds. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
The basis of a democratic state is liberty. Aristotle
Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is responsible to himself. Henry Adams
Life without liberty is like a body without spirit. Khalil Gibran
The tree of liberty needs to be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. Lyn Nofziger
Liberty for wolves is death to the lambs. Isaiah Berlin
But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint. Edmund Burke
There can be no liberty without the law. Cecil B. DeMille
Liberty is the only thing you can't have unless you give it to others. William Allen White
When liberty comes with hands dabbled in blood it is hard to shake hands with her. Oscar Wilde
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. George Orwell
The true character of liberty is independence, maintained by force. Voltaire
Liberty is the power that we have over ourselves. Hugo Grotius
Liberty, then, is the sovereignty of the individual, and never shall man know liberty until each and every individual is acknowledged to be the only legitimate sovereign of his or her person, time, and property, each living and acting at his own cost; and not until we live in a society where each can exercise his right of sovereignty at all times without clashing with or violating that of others. Josiah Warren
Our liberty will not be secured at the sword's point... We must secure it by making ourselves worthy of it. And when the people reaches that height, God will provide a weapon, the idols will be shattered, tyranny will crumble like a house of cards, and liberty will shine out like the first dawn. Jose Rizal
There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies. Walter Lippmann
The liberty of the individual is no gift of civilization. It was greatest before there was any civilization. Sigmund Freud
Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people. John Adams
Excess of liberty, whether it lies in state or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery. Plato
Liberty is an acknowledgement of faith in God and His works. Frederic Bastiat
Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed. Charles Caleb Colton
Liberty is like rich food and strong wine: the strong natures accustomed to them thrive and grow even stronger on them; but they deplete, inebriate and destroy the weak. Jean Jacques Rousseau