John Adams Quotes

Liberty, then, about which so many volumes have been written is, when accurately defined, only the power of acting.

Liberty is always freedom from the government.

Liberty has never come from Government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it.

Thus, dear friends, I have said it clearly enough, and I believe you ought to understand it and not make liberty a law.

I believe each individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruit of his labor, so far as it in no wise interferes with any other mans rightsthat each community, as a State, has a right to do exactly as it pleases with all the concerns within that State that interfere with the right of no other State, and that the general government, upon principle, has no right to interfere with anything other than that general class of things that does concern the whole.

I'm a very individualistic person. That is why I don't belong to any political party or anything. I really believe in justice and freedom.

What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.

In short, is not liberty the freedom of every person to make full use of his faculties, so long as he does not harm other persons while doing so?

If one is going to err, one should err on the side of liberty and freedom.

I'm a big advocate of freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of thought.

Liberty consists in the power of doing that which is permitted by the law.

If you are living in a free society then use the freedom. What good is freedom if you do not use it.

The right to be let alone—the most comprehensive of rights and the most valued by civilized men.

For why should my freedom be judged by another’s conscience?

My freedom is more important than your good idea.

Civil liberty is the power of a civil society or state to govern itself by its own discretion or by laws of its own making, without being subject to the impositions of any power in appointing and directing which the collective body of the people have no concern and over which they have no control

Without freedom there can be no morality.

Our liberty cannot depend on the good intention of those in power.

our society -- unlike most in the world -- presupposes that freedom and liberty are in a frame of reference that makes the individual, not government, the keeper of his tastes, beliefs, and ideas.

Liberty implies the absence of arbitrary restraint, not immunity from reasonable regulations...

You either respect people's liberties, or you don't.

I support liberty; I support true freedom.

Mankind is at its best when it is most free.

Liberty is the very last idea that seems to occur to anybody, in considering any political or social proposal. It is only necessary for anybody for any reason to allege any evidence of any evil in any human practice, for people instantly to suggest that the practice should be suppressed by the police.