Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

Liberty comes only after security.

There are things about classic liberalism that obviously I'm drawn to and I bet all of you are as well. Those are things like liberty, freedom, the Bill of Rights. But the reason that I reject the label is that I grew up cutting my teeth against the liberals.

You may choose your mate, but you cannot deny someone else the right to choose their mate.

The absolute rights of individuals may be resolved into the right of personal security, the right of personal liberty, and the right to enjoy and acquire property

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

People should be free to enter into any type of human relationship that they want.

Freedom Party International believes that the purpose of government is to protect every individual's fundamental freedoms, not to restrict them.

Government intrusion into the choice of a life partner encroaches on the intimate personal decisions of the individual. The relevant question is not whether same-sex marriage is so rooted in our traditions that it is a fundamental right, but whether the freedom to choose one’s own life partner is so rooted in our traditions.

… it [liberty] denotes not merely freedom from bodily restraint, but also the right of the individual to engage in any of the common occupations of life, to acquire useful knowledge, to marry, establish a home, bring up children, to worship God according to the dictates of one's own conscience and generally, to enjoy those privileges long recognized in common law as essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.

I have a personal belief that you never have to give up liberty for security. You can still provide security without sacrificing our Bill of Rights.

Liberty is the very last idea that seems to occur to anybody, in considering any political or social proposal. It is only necessary for anybody for any reason to allege any evidence of any evil in any human practice, for people instantly to suggest that the practice should be suppressed by the police.

If two people want to get married, it’s their prerogative - we hope. Everybody should be able to do what they want to do and be in the pursuit of happiness.

My feeling is that whatever people elect to do, insofar as they don't deny the rights of others, every effort should be made to defend their right to do it.

Englishmen never will be slaves; they are free to do whatever the government and public opinion allow them.

We must also reject the false choice of liberty versus security. We can and must have both.

Thus, dear friends, I have said it clearly enough, and I believe you ought to understand it and not make liberty a law.

The true savage is a slave, and is always talking about what he must do; the true civilised man is a free man, and is always talking about what he may do.

It is important not to confuse freedom with mere permissiveness

Man usually thinks liberty is the power of doing what he likes to do. That is license.

Liberty must not be abused.

Never could an increase of comfort or security be a sufficient good to be bought at the price of liberty.

These are not free men in any rational and exact sense of the word.

Freedom, liberty, individual rights, that idea of dealing with other people in a matter that is not initiating force against them, is critical to me.

The solution of the social problem is in liberty.

Security without freedom means slavery.