Martin Firrell Quotes

We all want security …. But we don’t need to simplify the debate to such an extent that we simply say we have to give up our liberties.

Freedom is when one hears the bell at seven o'clock in the morning and knows it is the milkman and not the Gestapo.

There is no inverse relationship between freedom and security. Less of one does not lead to more of the other. People with no rights are not safe from terrorist attack.

To be safe at the expense of the liberty of other people is a difficult equation.

In the area of national security, I urge the swift passage of an anti-terrorism law that will protect rather than subvert, enhance rather than weaken, the rights and liberties that terrorism precisely threatens with extinction.

I don't want to live in a nanny state where people are telling me where I can go and what I can do.

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

Liberty is the most jealous and exacting mistress that can beguile the brain and soul of man.

The issue of wiretapping raises the issue of the balance between human liberty and the requirements of national security. I would say that the weight should be on the side of human liberty and that if human liberty is ever to be infringed, the demonstration on the national security side must be overwhelming.

All persons have the right to privacy and to intimacy.

It may be that by watching everywhere we go, by watching everything we do, by analyzing every word we say, by waiting and passing judgment over every association we make and every person we love, that we could uncover a terrorist plot, or we could discover more criminals. But is that the kind of society we want to live in?

We do need to think about how we have security - everyone has a right to that - but we also need to think about how we maintain civil rights and personal freedom.

I don't like being watched, and I don't like being told what to do, so acting is a very poor professional choice.

I have a personal belief that you never have to give up liberty for security. You can still provide security without sacrificing our Bill of Rights.

Liberty is security. Freedom is security.

There is no such thing as a little freedom. Either you are all free, or you are not free.

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.

For me, it's better to live without looking over your shoulder, worrying about who is controlling your phone, maybe poisoning your food.

Freedom is the right to live as we wish.

I couldn't go anywhere unless there was a security guard with me. That spoiled my life. It was like being in captivity. Those days are gone, and I don't ever want to see that happen to me again. Now I can wander around the streets of Los Angeles on my own. I like it that way.

The desire for security must be balanced with our regard for liberty.

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

Insecurity threatens liberty.

Freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that society, and made by the legislative power vested in it; a liberty to follow my own will in all things, when the rule prescribes not, and not to be subject to the inconstant, unknown, arbitrary will of another man.

Liberty is the greatest blessing that men enjoy, and slavery is the heaviest curse that human nature is capable of …. those who are governed at the will of another, and whose property may be taken from them...without their consent...are in the miserable condition of slaves.