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Liberty and politics

Any excuse will serve a tyrant.

Aesop, "The Wolf and the Lamb"

Better no rule than cruel rule.

Aesop, "The Frogs Desiring a King"

Freedom is not something that anybody can be given, freedom is something people take.

James Baldwin

The Constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself.

John Ciardi

The bill of rights is a born rebel. It reeks with sedition. In every clause it shakes its fist in the face of constitutioned authority, it is the one guarantee of human freedom to the American people.

Frank I. Cobb

You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free.

Clarence Darrow

Congress consists of one-third, more or less, scoundrels; two-thirds, more or less, idiots; and three-thirds, more or less, poltroons.

H. L. Mencken

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

Thomas Paine

I don't want to run for office; there's already too many comedians in Washington.

Will Rogers

Intellectual freedom is essential to human society. Freedom of thought is the only guarantee against an infection of people by mass myths, which, in the hands of treacherous hypocrites and demagogues, can be transformed into bloody dictatorships.

Andrei Sakharov

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

George Bernard Shaw

You have to choose (as a voter) between trusting to the natural stability of gold and the natural stability of the honesty and intelligence of the members of the Government. And, with due respect for these gentlemen, I advise you, as long as the Capitalist system lasts, to vote for gold.

George Bernard Shaw, The Intelligent Women's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism

It rankles me when somebody tries to force somebody to do something.

John Wayne

Freedom is an indivisible word. If we want to enjoy it, and fight for it, we must be prepared to extend it to everyone, whether they are rich or poor, whether they agree with us or not, no matter what their race or the color of their skin.

Wendell Wilkie

A free America, democratic in the sense that our forefathers intended it to be, means just this: individual freedom for all, rich or poor, or else this system of government we call democracy is only an expedient to enslave man to the machine and make him like it.

Frank Lloyd Wright

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