Protection of Liberties Quotes

It must never be forgotten ... that the liberties of the people are not so safe under the gracious manner of government as by the limitation of power.

The body-politic is formed by a voluntary association of individuals: It is a social compact, by which the whole people covenants with each citizen, and each citizen with the whole people, that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common good. It is the duty of the people, therefore, in framing a Constitution of Government, to provide for an equitable mode of making laws, as well as for an impartial interpretation, and a faithful execution of them; that every man may, at all times, find his security in them.

Do the people of this land…desire to preserve those [liberties] protected by the First Amendment… If so, let them withstand all beginnings of encroachment. For the saddest epitaph which can be carved in memory of a vanquished liberty is that it was lost because its possessors failed to stretch for a saving hand while yet there was time.

Security and liberty are not mutually exclusive. We can have both

There is a Holiness about the Constitution; and we would ... wither every hand extended to treat it rudely. The peace and prosperity of this Republic, the world's last best hope, must not be haphazarded, much less destroyed, that certain men may rule

If the provisions of the Constitution be not upheld when they pinch as well as when they comfort, they may as well be abandoned

If you're patriotic, stand up for the Bill of Rights because once they strip your rights from you, you will pay hell to get them back. You will and we're in the process of it right now.

We would be false to our trust if we allowed the time it takes to give effect to constitutional rights to be used as the very reason for taking away those rights.

The right to free discussion is ... to be guarded by the friends of mankind, with particular jealousy ... He who would rob his neighbor of it, should have a mark set upon him as the worst enemy of freedom.

The liberties of none are safe unless the liberties of all are protected.

So far as this has gone, I am satisfied to see a spirit prevailing that promises to send the system out free from those vexations and abuses that might be warranted by the terms of the Constitution. It must never be forgotten, however, that the liberties of the people are not so safe under the gracious manner of government, as by the limitation of power.

This is the first aspiration of countries: we are the landlords in our countries so that they remain free, and we can live in security.

However insignificant the minority, and however trifling the proposed trespass against their rights, no such trespass is permissible.

I am anxious that the Justice Department should be a force for the protection of the people's liberties.

America is big enough to accommodate differences of opinion and practice on religious and social beliefs. As a nation and as a society, we must reject discrimination, forcefully and without asterisks. Most importantly, as president, I will zealously defend the Constitution of the United States and all of its amendments.

Love of liberty means the guarding of every resource that makes freedom possible-from the sanctity of our families and the wealth of our soil to the genius [of] our scientists.

All, or nearly all, the advantage there is in fixing any constitutional limits to the power of a government, is simply to give notice to the government of the point at which it will meet with resistance.

And thus the community perpetually retains a supreme power of saving themselves from the attempts and designs of anybody, even of their legislators, whenever they shall be so foolish, or so wicked, as to lay and carry on designs against the liberties and properties of the subject.

Liberty comes only after security.

It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives.