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Liberty: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty Is worth a whole eternity in bondage.— ADDISON — Cato. Act II. Sc. 1.
But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.— BURKE — Reflections on the Revolution in
My vigour relents. I pardon something to the spirit of liberty.— BURKE — Speech on the Conciliation of America. Vol. II. P. 118.
The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.— BURKE — Speech at a County Meeting at
Bucks. 1784. Liberty's in every blow! Let us do or die.— BURNS — Bruce to His Men at
Bannockburn. Yes, while I stood and gazed, my temples bare, And shot my being through earth, sea, and air, Possessing all things with intensest love, O Liberty! my spirit felt thee there.— COLERIDGE — France. An Ode. V.
Then liberty, like day, Breaks on the soul, and by a flash from Heaven Fires all the faculties with glorious joy.— COWPER — The Task. Bk. V. L. 882.
'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume; And we are weeds without it.— COWPER — The Task. Bk. V. L. 446.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.— JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN — Speech.
Dublin. 1808. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance.— JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN — Speech.
July 10, 1790. The love of liberty with life is given, And life itself the inferior gift of Heaven. S.— DRYDEN — Palamon and Arcite. Bk. II. L. 291.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.— BENJ. FRANKLIN — Motto to Historical
Review of Pennsylvania. Where liberty dwells, there is my country. น.— BENJ. FRANKLIN
Give me liberty, or give me death.— PATRICK HENRY — Speech. March, 1775.
The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.— THOMAS JEFFERSON — Summary View
of the Rights of British America. License they mean when they cry, Liberty! For who loves that, must first be wise and good.— MILTON — On the Detraction which
followed upon my Writing Certain Treatises. Oh! if there be, on this earthly sphere, A boon, an offering Heaven holds dear, 'Tis the last libation Liberty draws From the heart that bleeds and breaks in her cause!— MOORE — Lalla Rookh. Paradise and the Peri. St. 11.
Give me again my hollow tree A crust of bread, and liberty!— POPE — Imitations of Horace. Bk. II. Satire VI. L. 220.
O liberty! liberty! how many crimes are committed in thy name!— MADAME ROLAND — Macaulay.
Mirabeau. I must have liberty Withal, as large a charter as the wind, To blow on whom I please.— Shakespeare — As You Like It. Act II. Sc. 7. L. 47.
So every bondman in his own hand bears The power to cancel his captivity. Julius Cæsar. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 101. Why, headstrong liberty is lash'd with woe; There's nothing, situate under heaven's eye But hath his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky.— Shakespeare — Comedy of Errors. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 15.
Deep in the frozen regions of the north, A goddess violated brought thee forth, Immortal Liberty!— SMOLLETT — Ode to Independence. L. 5.
Behold! in Liberty's unclouded blaze We lift our heads, a race of other days.— CHARLES SPRAGUE — Centennial Ode. St. 22.
God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.— DANIEL WEBSTER — Speech. June 3,
1834. Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint.— DANIEL WEBSTER — Speech at the
Charleston Bar Dinner. May 10, 1847. On the light of Liberty you saw arise the light of Peace, like "another morn, Risen on mid-noon; " and the sky on which you closed your eye was cloudless.— DANIEL WEBSTER — Speeches. The
Bunker Hill Monument. 1825.
L'arbre de la liberté ne croit qu'arrosé par le sang des tyrans. The tree of liberty grows only when watered by the blood of tyrants.— BARÉRE — Speech in the Convention
Nationale. 1792. Le Césarisme, c'est la démocratie sans la liberté. Cæsarism is democracy without liberty.— TAXILE DELORD — L'Histoire du
Second Empire. Rendre l'homme infâme, et le laisser libre, est une absurdité qui peuple nos forêts d'assassins. To brand man with infamy, and let him free, is an absurdity that peoples our forests with assassins. C.