Errico Malatesta Quotes

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.

If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all.

There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.

Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.

Personal liberty is not personal license.

Liberty consists in doing what one desires.

The individual is greater than the state.

... the greatest right in the world is the right to be wrong.

Why shouldn't I do what I want to do... I'm an American citizen.

It is essential that the young people of this country learn to respect the right of every man and woman to seek his or her happiness with minimal interference from the government.

I don't want anybody to dictate to America how to decide our lives.

People are free to do whatever they want to do.

Liberty means that a man is recognized as free and treated as free by those who surround him.

And no practical definition of freedom would be complete without the freedom to take the consequences. Indeed, it is the freedom upon which all the others are based.

Freedom really means the freedom to make mistakes.

The most basic principle to being a free American is the notion that we as individuals are responsible for our own lives and decisions. We do not have the right to rob our neighbors to make up for our mistakes, neither does our neighbor have any right to tell us how to live, so long as we aren’t infringing on their rights. Freedom to make bad decisions is inherent in the freedom to make good ones. If we are only free to make good decisions, we are not really free.

You were born free by accident. You live free by choice. To die free is your responsibility.

A man who believes in freedom will do anything under the sun to acquire, or preserve his freedom.

I am inclined to believe that a man may be free to do anything he pleases if only he will accept responsibility for whatever he does.

To be free is better than to be unfree – always. Any politician who suggests the opposite should be treated as suspect.

The characteristic feature of a free society is that it can function in spite of the fact that its members disagree in many judgments of value. Freedom really means the freedom to make mistakes.

Liberty means responsibility. That's why most men dread it.

As human beings, we are endowed with freedom of choice, and we cannot shuffle off our responsibility upon the shoulders of God or nature. We must shoulder it ourselves. It is our responsibility.

Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have.

Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right to do what we ought.