Clarence Darrow Quotes

Whoever will be free must make himself free. Freedom is no fairy gift to fall into a man's lap. What is freedom? To have the will to be responsible for one's self.

What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.

If there is such a thing as freedom, then there is no fate.

The individual is greater than the state.

our society -- unlike most in the world -- presupposes that freedom and liberty are in a frame of reference that makes the individual, not government, the keeper of his tastes, beliefs, and ideas.

I am for . . . each individual doing just as he chooses in all matters which concern nobody else.

I must settle for freedom in this modern time

Freedom is control in your own life.

I think it is important to remind people of the extent of our free will.

As precious as life itself is our heritage of individual freedom, for man's free agency is a God-given gift.

The whole American experiment has been predicated on giving individuals as much control over their own lives as possible.

Freedom is not something that anybody can be given; freedom is something people take and people are as free as they want to be.

As nature has uncovered from under this hard shell the seed for which she most tenderly cares - the propensity and vocation to free thinking—this gradually works back upon the character of the people, who thereby gradually become capable of managing freedom; finally, it affects the principles of government, which finds it to its advantage to treat men, who are now more than machines, in accordance with their dignity.

The isolation of every human soul and the necessity of self-dependence must give each individual the right, to choose his own surroundings.

Why shouldn't I do what I want to do... I'm an American citizen.

Libertarianism is a way of measuring how the government and other kinds of systems respect the individual. At the core of libertarianism is the idea that the individual is sacrosanct and that anything that's done contrary to the well-being of the individual needs some pretty serious justification.

We shouldn't be fearful of freedom, we shouldn't be fearful of individual liberty.

Everybody has their own free choice to do what they want.

We are not our own any more than what we possess is our own. We did not make ourselves, we cannot be supreme over ourselves. We are not our own masters.

Everyone has the right to make his own decisions, but none has the right to force his decision on others.

The only conception of freedom I can have is that of the prisoner or the individual in the midst of the State. The only one I know is freedom of thought and action.

Individual liberty is individual power.

You belong neither to God nor the state nor me. You belong to yourself and no one else.

I believe in the America people's ability to govern themselves. If government would just get out of the way and allow them to lead their lives as they choose, they will succeed.

I am very comfortable with the idea that we can override biology with free will.