Rand Paul Quotes

We can't have democracy if we're having to protect you and our users from the government over stuff we've never had a conversation about. We need to know what the parameters are, what kind of surveillance the government is going to do, and how and why.

Privacy is tremendously important. I believe the American people, and all people, should be skeptical of government power, should ask hard questions: What is the authority? What is the oversight? That's the way it ought to be.

Without the ability to talk about government power, there's no way for citizens to make sure this power isn't being misused.

In all questions between a government and an individual the presumption in every Englishman's mind is that the government is in the wrong.

Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people

It's my father's legacy. My father's view was that the public is the employer of these government employees and has the right to know what they're up to.

Criticism of government finds sanctuary in several portions of the 1st Amendment. It is part of the right of free speech. It embraces freedom of the press.

As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending.

Power always has to be kept in check; power exercised in secret, especially under the cloak of national security, is doubly dangerous.

All Americans value the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press, and I believe this is essential for our continued way of life. But with this freedom comes responsibility. That responsibility has been abdicated here by some in the media and some in the government.

The Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to bare the secrets of government and inform the people.

We must have government, but we must watch them like a hawk.

You’ve got to have safeguards [on law enforcement authorities] if we’re going to continue to have the freedom we’ve had for the past 200 years.

Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent.

The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should therefore be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country should hardly be propagated. If the doctrine be admitted, rulers have only to declare war and they are screened at once from scrutiny.

It appears to the American people that the government is intent on prying into every nook and cranny of people’s private lives, while at the same time doing all that it can to block access to government information that would inform the American people what is being done in their name.

The essence of government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse

A decent and manly examination of the acts of Government should be not only tolerated but encouraged.

When people fear surveillance, whether it exists or not, they grow afraid to speak their minds and hearts freely to their government or to anyone else.

A free press stands as one of the great interpreters between the government and the people. To allow it to be fettered is to fetter ourselves.

What seems fair enough against a squalid huckster of bad liquor may take on a different face, if used by a government determined to suppress political opposition under the guise of sedition

… no court was going to penalize a newspaper criminally for showing how the government had lied, particularly when the government’s own papers proved it.

It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error.

Historically our government—the FBI for example—has not always earned that trust.

As the list of abuses by federal agencies grows, Americans are rapidly losing trust in government.