Liberty

Kimberley A. Strassel, Wall Street Journal editorialist:

"The lynx scandal" underscores everything that’s wrong with Fish & Wildlife and the Forest Service. It shows how the agencies succumbed to a Clinton-era culture that puts ideology ahead of science. It demonstrates the undue influence environmental groups hold over the departments. It also shows how vaguely written laws like the Endangered Species Act can be used to further political agendas, even in the complete absence of hard science."

"Currently the road most Americans seem to want to take is the road to government control in the belief than government can give them more security without diminishing their liberty. Of course, that is not true. If Americans turn to government to secure their freedom at the expense of the constitution they will lose it. The Constitution and the first ten amendments -- the Bill of Rights -- make it plain that the Founding Fathers had no faith that government could be trusted to guard the rights of individuals. It is well to remember that under the Constitution government does not give us our rights; they are our birthright. It is government's job to protect those rights. Unfortunately government too often moves instead to limit them."

Alexander Hamilton, first United States Secretary of the Treasury:

[In the event of war, Americans would] "resort for repose and security to institutions which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe they, at length, become willing to run the risk of being less free."

Bill Gates, Founder and Chairman of Microsoft Corporation:

"When we face a choice between adding features and resolving security issues, we need to choose security."

Judge John Goger, Georgia Supreme Court:

"However well-intentioned this legislation [banning video poker machines] may be, it must be doomed. The law criminalizes a game when it is being played and operated as a game. This is the sort of lawmaking [that] poses a real threat to liberty. . . . Exposing innocent conduct to criminal prosecution because of the difficulty and expense associated with defining the illegal conduct is a dangerous precedent for crime and punishment. If approved on this occasion, the state might one day choose to employ this method of lawmaking again, and the next time the conduct might be something not quite as unpopular as gambling."

Michael Gersick, Lobbyist for the California Hearths and Home Association on the City Council of Berkley, CA banning log burning fireplaces:

"Fireplaces have been a symbol of the family since we lived in caves. I’m not ready to let someone else decide which of my domestic pleasures can be taken away from me without proof of harm."

Tony Snow:

"Risk is the inevitable product of liberty — and it's responsible not only for great tragedy, but also great triumph."

Pat Buchanan:

"The notion of a world government to defend our rights would have sent the founding fathers running for their muskets."

U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R — Texas):

"Because the American people champion liberty, more people in the world live free today than at any time in history. Yet, there is more to be done and it is America who will lead the way."

Charlton Heston:

"We are all Americans. And as Americans, we have a duty to protect the freedoms that make our union the example and the envy of the world."

Senator Orrin Hatch (R — Utah):

"There’s no question that this country is not going to tolerate an abuse of constitutional principles."

United States Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson in his dissent on the 1949 Terminiello case:

"If the Court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact."

Senator Tom Daschle (D — South Dakota):

"I think the issue of civil liberties is very, very important to every member of our caucus. We’re trying to find the right balance, of course, between protecting civil liberties and ensuring that law enforcement has the tools it needs to do its job."

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Pearl Harbor Day:

"When I think back to all those around their radios, as my family was that day in our living room, I am reminded that they were not only brave, but smart. In addition to physical courage, they had moral courage — the kind of courage needed to acknowledge reality, to learn from the tragedies of the past, to assess the future, and then to make all those sacrifices of time, money and self that are needed to live free."

Adlai Stevenson:

"When an American says that he loves his country, he means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect."

David Blunkett, British Home Secretary:

"We can live in a world with airy-fairy civil liberties and believe the best in everybody — and they will destroy us."

United States Solicitor General Ted Olson:

"What can possibly be wrong with the aspiration that moved the founders of this country to believe that people are entitled to self-determination, the right to choose their system of government, the right to freedom within an orderly and secure society, and the maximum liberty to pursue happiness and fulfillment?"

Thomas Jefferson:

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Edmund Burke:

"The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience."

Thomas Payne:

"When the government fears the people, it is liberty. When the people fear the government, it is tyranny."

Samuel Adams:

"Liberty will not long survive the total extinction of morals."

Former President of the United States Ronald Reagan:

"We commit our resources and risk the lives of those in our armed forces...to prevent humankind from drowning in a sea of tyranny."

Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, 1960:

"I cannot agree with those who think of the Bill of Rights as an 18th century straitjacket, unsuited for this age. The evils it guards against are not only old, they are with us now, they exist today. Experience all over the world has demonstrated, I fear, that the distance between stable, orderly government and one that has been taken over by force is not so great as we have assumed."

Supreme Court Justice William Brennan:

"The framers knew that liberty is a fragile thing, and so should we."

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge:

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

John Quincy Adams:

"Posterity -- you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it."

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis:

"Those who won our independence by revolution were not cowards. They did not fear political change. They did not exalt order at the cost of liberty."

Douglas MacArther:

No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.

Benjamin Franklin:

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

"Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech."

Ramsey Clark:

There is no conflict between liberty and safety. We will have both or neither.