Francis Lieber Quotes

All the political rights and liberties which people enjoy today, they do not owe to the good will of their governments, but to their own strength

But America was founded on the principle that every person has God-given rights. That power belongs to the people. That government exists to protect our rights and serve our interests. That we shouldn't be trapped in the circumstances of our birth. That we should be free to go as far as our talents and work can take us.

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.

I have great confidence in the universal value and in basic human rights and I have great confidence that referenda will eventually take root and become part of our daily lives in Taiwan.

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change.

The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.

I am all in favour of democracy in Iraq.

Democracy matters because it reflects an idea of equality and an idea of liberty. It reflects an idea of dignity, the dignity of the individual, the idea that each individual should have an equal vote, an equal say, in the formation of their government.

The people want to go back to the time when democracy was in full bloom.

Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is the highest political end.

The American war is over; but this far from being the case with the American revolution. On the contrary, nothing but the first act of the drama is closed. It remains yet to establish and perfect our new forms of government, and to prepare the principles, morals, and manners of our citizens for these forms of government after they are established and brought to perfection.

To wish to stop democracy [in America] would be to struggle against God himself

Nationalism has nothing to do with the rule of law, justice, or opportunity.

Some of us gave a little blood for the right to participate in the democratic process.

There are broad freedoms in Israel. In fact, Israel's Declaration of Independence grants all Israel's inhabitants equality of social and political rights irrespective of religion, race or gender.

[The American flag] ... means the rising up of a valiant young people against an old tyranny, to establish the most momentous doctrine that the world has ever known, or has since known—the right of men to their own selves and to their liberties.

The test of democracy is freedom of criticism.

We are a people on a quest. We go and look for the kind of nation we want. The quest is the enduring American experiment. The meaning is in the seeking.

Republics are not in and of themselves better than other forms of government except in so far as they carry with them and guarantee to the citizen that liberty of thought and action for which they were established.

The advance of freedom is more than an interest we pursue. It is a calling we follow. Our country was created in the name of freedom. And if the self-evident truths of our founding are true for us, they are true for all.

There is nothing left for Mankind but a Republic.

All men are democrats when they are happy.

Democracy is a value in itself. It doesn't have to be defended [justified] any more than freedom has to be defended.

The glorious spectacle of eighteen millions of people, struggling to burst their chains and be free.