Abraham Lincoln Quotes

No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent.

The important matter is freedom. When the people choose what they want, it is good for them and for us.

I believe in the America people's ability to govern themselves. If government would just get out of the way and allow them to lead their lives as they choose, they will succeed.

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.

Protestantism became identified with the republican presumption in liberty as an end in itself. This presumption was then reinforced by an unassailable belief in the common sense of the individual.

Our city shall have no more kings!

If you give people an opportunity for self government and freedom, most people will reach for freedom

I think democracy is a universal idea and I think letting people rule themselves happens to be something that serves America and America’s interests.

In democracies the people seem to act as they please.

The people, have chosen to be governed under such and such principles. They have not chosen to be governed or proposed to submit upon any other.

If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people.

Ultimately, I'm about liberty and I think you have to defend it.

Our country's founders cherished liberty, not democracy.

What if democracy does not serve liberty? This question is seldom asked in the West, where democracy is often seen as synonymous with liberalism.

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

Just the concept of personal freedom within a democracy, for instance, is a relatively young idea - only about 300 years old in this country.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

The whole American experiment has been predicated on giving individuals as much control over their own lives as possible.

Isn't allowing people a choice what America is all about?

Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government.

The submission of free people to the executive authority of government, is no more than a compliance with laws which they themselves have enacted.

Nobody expects democracy to be efficient--individual freedom was the primary purpose of our founders - but it should function at least a little

[There is no] right of Congress ... to force a good thing upon a people who are unwilling to receive it. The great principle is the right of every community to judge and decide for itself whether a thing is right or wrong, whether it would be good or evil to adopt it.... Whenever you put a limitation upon the right of any people to decide what laws they want, you have destroyed the fundamental principle of self-government.

The principle of "the consent of the governed" is distinctly American and should be our world-wide slogan.

Our founding fathers created a system of government of men, not of angels.