William Penn Quotes

Government itself is founded upon the great doctrine of the consent of the governed, and has its cornerstone in the memorable principle that men are endowed with inalienable rights.

The liberty of the individual is a necessary postulate of human progress.

The nation is formed through the law of nature alone. Government stems from the will of nation. The nation stands before all things and is the source of all things. Its will is always law. Above it and before it is but the law of nature alone. By virtue of its very existence, the nation is all things that it may be. The nation cannot surrender its right to a tyrant.

History does not furnish a single instance of a government once established, voluntarily yielding up its powers to secure the rights and liberties of the people.

The individual is greater than the state.

To understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man.

The state can't give you freedom, and the state can't take it away. You're born with it, like your eyes, like your ears. Freedom is something you assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free.

MEN being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent.

The proper balance between individual liberty and central authority is a very ancient problem.

There is only one kind of freedom and that's individual liberty. Our lives come from our creator and our liberty comes from our creator. It has nothing to do with government granting it.

The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule.

The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant.

I have a natural right to do whatever I want with my body... as long as it doesn't affect anybody else or any other property.

What libertarians assert is simply that differences among normal adults do not imply different fundamental rights.

Politicians love power. I love freedom. That is why I am not a politician.

The liberty of the individual is no gift of civilization. It was greatest before there was any civilization.

A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation.

What vested rights so high or so sacred as a man’s right to himself, to his wife and children, to his liberty, and to the fruits of his own industry? Did not our fathers declare that those rights were inalienable?

The end of all political associations is, the preservation of the rights of man, which rights are liberty, property, and security; that the nation is the source of all sovereignty derived from it...

For the People ... I must tell you that their Liberty and Freedom consists in having the Government of those Laws, by which their Life and their Goods may be most their own; 'tis not for having a share in Government, that is nothing pertaining to 'em. A Subject and Sovereign are clean different things.

The idea of liberty has been held up in so dazzling colours that some of us may not be willing to submit to that subordination necessary in the freest States.

Our basic rights declaring document: The Declaration of Independence.

No one has a right to obstruct another exercising his faculties innocently for the relief of sensibilities made a part of his nature.

All men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called personal liberty

A free people claim their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.