Gary Ackerman Quotes

The most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power.

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.

We cannot afford to walk down that dangerous path of government overstepping its boundaries into the most personal parts of our lives.

I can honestly say that my abortion was one of the least difficult decisions of my life. I'm not being flippant when I say it took me longer to decide what worktops to have in the kitchen than whether I was prepared to spend the rest of my life being responsible for a further human being.

I had a lot of friends in high school who said, 'Louie, I don't care what the government does as long as they leave me alone.' Well, guess what, when you don't care what the government does, it does not leave you alone.

I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this. I would be very glad to tell you my life if you want to hear of it.

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.

Really, life is complicated enough without having a bunch of Senators deciding what we should do in the privacy of our own homes.

It's no secret that the Democrats and liberal media would love to take away our guns and mandate every aspect of our lives, but I refuse to let them get away with that.

The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation.

We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.

Is there anything in the existing condition that makes the duty of Congress to put the liberty of all the people of the United States in jeopardy?... Are we going to take up the question of what a man shall eat and what a man shall drink, and put him under severe penalties if he is eating or drinking something different from what the chemists of the Agricultural Department think desirable?

How far are we to go in pursuit of greater security at the cost of essential liberties?

We do not want to place more power in the hands of government to investigate and regulate the lives, the conduct and the freedom of America's workers.

This is the first time that the Federal Government has told a free people what kind of government they must have. If they can do that, they can tell you what time to go to bed, what time to get up, and whether to have pork and beans for lunch.

Most decisions involving the way that Americans live their lives are not made in the courts.

I stand for all those who feel that the government no longer understands the individual and no longer respects individual rights.

I hate big government; I hate being told what to do on a personal basis.

I'm a big believer in freedom and people's rights to express themselves and not have government interfere in that type of thing.

Big government makes small citizens.

I say the phone records of law abiding citizens are none of their damn business!

Government is the enemy of conservatism and freedom.

Government prohibitions do always more mischief than had been calculated; and it is not without much hesitation that a statesman should hazard to regulate the concerns of individuals, as if he could do it better than themselves.

In liberal societies we don't typically require citizens to rearrange their activities, their lives, the way they go about their business, to make it easy for the police to do their work.

Once I got to an age where I was old enough to make my own decisions, I quit everything and did what I actually wanted to do, which was start a band.