#liberties

What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. Whenever governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins. ↗

— Elbridge Gerry

#army #attempt #bane #destroy #establishment

The Roman Catholics must know as well as we do that "Popery" when encouraged by government has always been dangerous to the liberties of the people. ↗

— Lord George Gordon

#been #catholics #dangerous #encouraged #government

I have very real concerns about the civil liberties implications of ultimately requiring every resident to submit themselves for compulsory fingerprinting or some other biometric test. ↗

— Patricia Hewitt

#civil #civil liberties #compulsory #concerns #every

Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people. ↗

— John Quincy Adams

#arbitrary #arbitrary power #bud #ever #liberties

There is no "slippery slope" toward loss of liberties, only a long staircase where each step downward must first be tolerated by the American people and their leaders. ↗

— Alan K. Simpson

#american people #downward #each #first #leaders

Men naturally resent it when women take greater liberties in dress than men are allowed. ↗

— Michael Korda

#dress #greater #liberties #men #naturally

All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it. ↗

— Alexis de Tocqueville

#democratic #destroy #know #liberties #means

One of the functions of government is to act as a safeguard not just of property but of our liberties. ↗

— William Weld

#functions #government #just #liberties #our

Do we exert our own liberties without injury to others - we exert them justly; do we exert them at the expense of others - unjustly. And, in thus doing, we step from the sure platform of liberty upon the uncertain threshold of tyranny. ↗

— Frances Wright

#exert #expense #injury #justly #liberties

Perhaps they'd been conditioned by all the quarantines and blackouts, all the invisible boundaries CSIRA erected on a moment's notice. The rules changed from one second to the next, the rug could get pulled out just because the wind blew some exotic weed outside its acceptable home range. You couldn't fight something like that, you couldn't fight the wind. All you could do was adapt. People were evolving into herd animals. Or maybe just accepting that that's what they'd always been. ↗

— Peter Watts

#humans #seligman #the-state #change