#liberty

Society can and does execute its own mandates: and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ↗

— John Stuart Mill

#philosophy #society #tyranny #life

In our time, the symbol of state intrusion into the private life is the mandatory urine test. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#drugs #liberty #privacy #urinalysis #war-on-drugs

The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people. ↗

— James Madison

#liberalism #liberty #tyranny #roman

Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom. ↗

— John Adams

#education

My education was the liberty I had to read indiscriminately and all the time, with my eyes hanging out. ↗

— Dylan Thomas

#eyes #had #hanging #i #indiscriminately

Humanity has won its battle. Liberty now has a country. ↗

— Marquis de Lafayette

#country #humanity #liberty #now #won

We shall never achieve harmony with land, any more than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations, the important thing is not to achieve but to strive. ↗

— Aldo Leopold

#achieve #any #aspirations #harmony #higher

Under the rule of a repressive whole, liberty can be made into a powerful instrument of domination. ↗

— Herbert Marcuse

#instrument #into #liberty #made #powerful

It is our happiness to live under the government of a PRINCE who is satisfied with ruling according to law; as every other good prince will - We enjoy under his administration all the liberty that is proper and expedient for us. ↗

— Jonathan Mayhew

#administration #enjoy #every #expedient #good

There is no liberty, if the power of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive powers. ↗

— Henry Middleton

#judging #legislative #liberty #power #powers