Thomas P. Gill Quotes

It gives me pleasure to find that public liberty is effectually secured in each and all the policies of the United States, though somewhat differently modeled.

A government capable of controlling the whole, and bringing its force to a point, is one of the prerequisites for national liberty. We combine in society, with an expectation to have our persons and properties defended against unreasonable exactions either at home or abroad.

Free societies are societies in which the right of dissent is protected.

As to the media, they are protected by the First Amendment, as they should be.

Liberty does not exist where rights are on one side and power on the other. To be liberty, rights must be armed with vital powers. A people cannot be free who do not participate in the control of the government which operates upon them.

National security is the first duty of government but we are also committed to reversing the substantial erosion of civil liberties.

First of all, the world criticizes American foreign policy because Americans criticize American foreign policy. We shouldn't be surprised about that. Criticizing government is a God-given right - at least in democracies.

I ask the rights to pursue happiness by having a voice in that government to which I am accountable.

Freedom depends upon something. The rule of law.

There exists in modem America the necessity for protecting all of us from arbitrary action by governments more powerful and more pervasive than any in our ancestors’ time.

Do we leave our rights to the hopeful wisdom of the courts or to the elusive whim of the masses?

People have rights and government must be kept from trampling on them.

It is ingrained into our national life that the rule of law makes us free.

Show me that age and country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their rulers being good men without a consequent loss of liberty! I say that the loss of that dearest privilege has ever followed, with absolute certainty, every such mad attempt. Shall Liberty or Empire be Sought?

The process of our democracy must not be imperiled by the denial of essential powers of free government.

We have ceased to be a nation under law but instead a homeland where the withered Bill of Rights, like a dead trumpet vine, clings to our pseudo-Roman columns

When the government acts to preserve and defend certain rights, it may take actions that some people see as just the opposite – as the violation of their rights.

War and democracy have never been happy bedfellows…. War has always threatened democracy.

We completely uphold the right of freedom of assembly. But there is always that important balance between security and freedom of expression in countries undergoing circumstances like ours.

I am a mortal enemy to arbitrary government and unlimited power. I am naturally very jealous for the rights and liberties of my country; and the least appearance of an encroachment on those invaluable privileges is apt to make my blood boil exceedingly.

Speech is an essential mechanism of democracy, for it is the means to hold officials accountable to the people. [...] The right of citizens to inquire, to hear, to speak, and to use information to reach consensus is a precondition to enlightened self-government and a necessary means to protect it. [...] By taking the right to speak from some and giving it to others, the Government deprives the disadvantaged person or class of the right to use speech to strive to establish worth, standing, and respect for the speaker’s voice. The Government may not by these means deprive the public of the right and privilege to determine for itself what speech and speakers are worthy of consideration. The First Amendment protects speech and speaker, and the ideas that flow from each.

Our democracy will survive the hostility of Vladimir Putin. What it may not survive is distrust of our system of justice.

Being a patriot doesn't mean prioritizing service to government above all else. Being a patriot means knowing when to protect your country, knowing when to protect your Constitution, knowing when to protect your countrymen, from the violations of and encroachments of adversaries. And those adversaries don't have to be foreign countries.

So long as we govern our nation by the letter and spirit of the Bill of Rights, we can be sure that our nation will grow in strength and wisdom and freedom.

The government's only functions are to protect the rights of the individual; therefore, you need a police force and an army.