James Bovard Quotes

Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.

See, it's no in between: you're either free or you're a slave.

Government and culture are two diametrically opposed forces - the one blinds and oppresses, the other uplifts and unites.

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.

I am very sad for men and women trapped in any relationship where there is cruelty, dominance, inequity. I long for the liberation of all people.

The use of force to liberate people is very different from the use of force to suppress or control them, or even to defeat them.

Connivance is the relaxation of slavery, not the definition of liberty.

Oppression costs the oppressor too much if the oppressed stand up and protest.

... a step in the direction of tyranny.

Inasmuch as great wealth is an instrument which is uniformly used to extort from others their property, it ought to be taken away from its possessor, on the same principle that a sword or a pistol may be wrested from a robber, who shall undertake to accomplish the same effect in a different manner.

Unmanacle the slave… unsceptre the despot… erect an altar on the Inquisition’s grace, to raise a people to the altitude of freedom.

The path of freedom is blocked much more by those who wish to obey than by those who wish to command.

There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men.

To be governed is to be watched over, inspected, spied on, directed, legislated at, regulated, docketed, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, assessed, weighed, censored, ordered about, by men who have neither the right, nor the knowledge, nor the virtue. ...

Religion is a tool to stamp out oppression, repression, and tyranny. It's to save the oppressed. That's what religion is for.

Fear is a dangerous thing. Once it is sanctioned by the state there is no telling where it might lead. It is always a short path to walk from being suspicious of our fellow citizens to taking actions to restrict their liberty.

He wants to enslave you.' 'I shudder at the thought of being free.

When we have but the will to do it, that very moment will Justice be done: that very instant the tyrants of the Earth shall bite the dust.

Islam has always been a force that dispels tyrants and tyranny, opression and exploitaion. Islam has always been a force that militates for justice.

It is just as difficult and dangerous to try to free a people that wants to remain servile as it is to enslave a people that wants to remain free.

If you put a chain around the neck of a slave, the other end fastens itself around your own.

God wants to set the oppressed free from being oppressed and the oppressors free from oppressing.

Slavery is slavery. The chain of gold is quite as bad as the chain of iron. Is there a way out?

Only oppression should fear the full exercise of freedom.

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.