Jim Rongstad's Homepage.
It's All About Freedom!
Quotes on Freedom (T thru Z)
Listed below are quotes regarding various aspects of freedom, excluding education. The quotes are in alphabetical order by person/organization. This page contains quotes for persons/organizations T thru Z. Click on the links below for other sections of quotes:
A thru F G thru M N thru S Go to my page of Education Quotes.
Eventually (don't hold your breath!) I also intend to put these quotes into categories, such as liberty in general, gun control, freedom of the press, etc.
You can always reach this site by using the URL: www.rongstad.com
T - Z
"The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates."
-- Tacitus
"When important issues affecting the life of an individual are decided by somebody else, it makes no difference to the individual whether that somebody else is a king, a dictator or society at large."
-- James Taggart (1992)
"People who relieve others of their money with guns are called
robbers. It does not alter the immorality of the act when the income
transfer is carried out by government."
-- Cal Thomas, nationally syndicated columnist.
Henry David Thoreau: Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), American writer, naturalist and philosopher. Most famous for his book Walden about his time living on Walden Pond, separate from society while living a simple lifestyle. His views on civil disobedience were influential on Mahatma Gandhi and the American civil rights movement.
"I heartily accept the motto, 'That government is best which governs least'; and I should like to see it acted upon more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe--'That government is best which governs not at all'; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. "
-- Henry David Thoreau - On The Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849)
"I think we should be men first, and subjects afterwards. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right."
-- Henry David Thoreau - On The Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849)
"There will never be a free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly."
-- Henry David Thoreau - On The Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849)
"Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually,and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government."
-- Henry David Thoreau - On The Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849)
"The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way."
-- Henry David Thoreau - On The Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849)
"If ever the free institutions of America are destroyed, that event may be attributed to the unlimited authority of the majority, which may at some future time urge the minorities to desperation, and oblige them to have recourse to physical force. Anarchy will then result, but it will have been brought about by despotism."
-- Alexis de Tocqueville - "Democracy in America" (1835)
The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave."
-- Alexis de Tocqueville - "The Old Regime and the French Revolution" (1856)
"The right of self-defense is the first law of nature; in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest possible limits. ... and [when] the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction."
-- St. George Tucker, Judge of the Virginia Supreme Court 1803
"The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin."
-- Mark Twain
"No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session."
-- Mark Twain (1866)
"Now what I contend is that my body is my own, at least I have always so regarded it. If I do harm through my experimenting with it, it is I who suffers, not the state."
-- Mark Twain
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury."
-- Alexander Tytler
"Four out of five politicians surveyed prefer unarmed, ignorant peasants."
-- Unknown
"Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself.... She is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate."
-- Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty
Voltaire: Francois Marie Arouet (1694-1778), French writer and philosopher who assumed the name "Voltaire". He was one of the leading figures of the Age of Enlightenment and was known for his philosophical writings and biting satire. He was greatly influenced by the philosophy of John Locke.
"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."
-- Voltaire
"In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other."
-- Voltaire (1764)
"Government cannot make man richer, but it can make him poorer."
-- Ludwig von Mises
"Progress is precisely that which the rules and regulations did not foresee. "
-- Ludwig von Mises
"Marx and Engels openly declared that the progressive income tax and the death tax are 'economically untenable' and that they advocated them only because 'they necessitate further inroads' upon the capitalist system and are 'unavoidable' as a means of bringing about socialism."
-- Ludwig von Mises, 1958
"Whoever prefers life to death, happiness to suffering, well-being to misery must defend without compromise private ownership in the means of production."
-- Ludwig von Mises (1920)
"The worst evils which mankind has ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments. The state can be and has often been in the course of history the main source of mischief and disaster."
-- Ludwig von Mises
"Economic history is a long record of government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for the laws of economics. "
-- Ludwig von Mises
C. F. W. Walther:
Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther(1811-1887) For forty-six years Walther was the pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis. He also taught at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, from 1850 until his death. He served as the president of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) from its founding in 1847 to 1850. In 1864 he was again elected president and served until 1878.
Photo of C. F. W. Walther is used with the permission of the Concordia Historical Institute
"... In the past, many have maintained and some still do, that freedom of religion is harmful. They say that religious liberty is nothing but license for unbelief. It is true that in America one may deny and ridicule the most sacred teachings of our Christian faith. But those who would oppose religious liberty on these grounds do not stop to consider what a government is. Just as the church should not be a state, so the state should not be a church. The state is not a religious establishment or church through which its members hope to come to eternal life. The state is rather an institution ordained by God for this life, to protect each person's property, administer justice and ensure that each person can live here with his family in peace.
The church, on the other hand, struggles not against armies, but against unbelief and sin: it seeks not to conquer lands, but hearts. Therefore, how can the state help the church with its prisons of stone and weapons of steel? Christianity holds sway only in the hearts and consciences of people. Its weapon is the Word of God, and its power is faith. It needs neither the support nor help of the government.
What therefore, is the greatest boon that the state can grant religion? Not privilege, but freedom: not laws which command adherence to its teachings, but freedom to proclaim these teachings to all the world; not the extension of its message by worldly power, but freedom to spread this message with the sword of the conquering Word; not dominion in the state, but freedom to dwell therein as a refuge and a haven."
--Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther-This quote is taken from an address given by Walther July 4, 1853.
"If even one new drug of the stature of penicillin or digitalis has been unjustifiably banished to a company's back shelf because of exceedingly stringent regulatory requirements, that event will have harmed more people than all the toxicity that has occurred in the history of modern drug development."
--William Wardell
"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 - "Equitable Commerce" (1855)
"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire,it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
-- Attributed to George Washington
"A free people ought...to be armed..."
-- George Washington, 1790
"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."
-- Senator Daniel Webster (1782-1852)
"God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it."
-- Daniel Webster (1834)
"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any body of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States."
--Noah Webster
"Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others."
-- William Allen White
"The higher entry standards imposed by licensing laws reduce the supply of professional services....The poor are the net losers, because the availability of low-cost service has been reduced. In essence, the poor subsidize the information research costs of the rich."
--S. David Young
"The United States is a nation of laws, badly written and randomly enforced."
-- Frank Zappa
"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."
-- Mao Zedong (1938)
Click on the links below for other sections of quotes:
A thru F G thru M N thru S Go to my page of Education Quotes.
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Page Updated: December 27, 2006
© Copyright 1999 -2007 by Jim Rongstad.