Abraham Lincoln Quotes

While I have often said that all men out to be free, yet I would allow those colored persons to be slaves who want to be; and next to them those white persons who argue in favor of making other people slaves. I am in favor of giving an opportunity to such white men to try it on for themselves.

No man may make another free.

We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word many mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names - liberty and tyranny.

There has never been a slave who did not choose to be a slave. Their choice may be between bondage and death, but the choice is always there.

He who can be, and therefore is, another's, and he who participates in reason enough to apprehend, but not to have, is a slave by nature.

With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor ... Each of the things is, by the respective party, called by two different and incompatible names—liberty and tyranny.

The human's being right to do as he pleases without interfering with someone else's rights is a formula defining rights prior to social legislation.

Once a man has tasted freedom he will never be content to be a slave.

No man in his senses can hesitate in choosing to be free, rather than a slave.

I mean, it's real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace.

Any nation or government that deprives an individual of freedom is in that moment committing an act of moral and spiritual murder. Any individual who is not concerned about his freedom commits an act of moral and spiritual suicide.

It is a maxim that no man was ever enslaved by influence while he was fit to be free.

No man can have a right to impose an unchosen obligation , an unrewarded duty or an involuntary servitude on another man. There can be no such thing as " the right to enslave .

This is the difference between slavery and freedom. The slave must do what his superior orders him to do, but the free citizen-and this is what freedom means-is in a position to choose his own way of life.

Freedom is like birth. Till we are fully free, we are slaves.

Death is better than slavery.

I should like to be remembered as the man who raised a voice against... placing limitations on the freedom of the individual.

To become self-aware, people must be allowed to hear a plurality of opinions and then make up their own minds. They must be allowed to say, write and publish whatever they want. Freedom of expression is the most basic, but fundamental, right. Without it, human beings are reduced to automatons.

I didn't know I was a slave until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted.

Liberty means more to me than life itself.

Freedom is the emancipation from the arbitrary rule of other men.

Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.

One doesn't want one's identity coerced.

As precious as life itself is our heritage of individual freedom, for man's free agency is a God-given gift.

Personal liberty is not personal license.