60 Liberty Quotes on What Our Freedom Truly Entails

If you’re looking for some words that will remind you of your freedom, read this list of liberty quotes to awaken your inner warrior!

Of all the things we fight over in politics, liberty is the most important. It’s something that helps make our lives worth living. Without our freedom, we would simply exist through robotic actions and interactions with others.

Liberty allows us to explore our passions and grow as individuals. Through it, we gain the ability to make choices in our lives, free from shackles and chains.

If our independence is taken away from us, it will result in a series of complicated and chaotic events.

You might not have thought much about this issue.

But, as you read this collection, you will realize how precious our liberty is. You might even feel inspired to take your own stand in defense of freedom!

Continue reading below.

And don’t forget to check out these freedom quotes.

Best Liberty Quotes

1. “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” – George Orwell

2. “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin

3. “Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” – George Bernard Shaw

4. “Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.” – George Washington

5. “I value liberty above all else. Without liberty, no other value can be realized.” – Graeme Rodaughan

6. “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” – Thomas Jefferson

7. “Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from its subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance.” – Woodrow Wilson

8. “Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right to do what we ought.” – John Dalberg-Acton

9. “True liberty consists exactly in self-determination in the direction of holiness. Man is never more free than when he moves consciously in the direction of God.” – Louis Berkhof

10. “The liberty enjoyed by the people of these states of worshiping Almighty God agreeably to their consciences is not only among the choicest of their blessings but also of their rights.” – George Washington

Famous Quotes About Liberty

11. “Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive.” – Theodore Roosevelt

12. “Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.” – Kahlil Gibran

13. “Liberty is the only thing you can’t have unless you give it to others.” – William Allen White

14. “People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take.” – Emma Goldman

15. “Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” – Benjamin Franklin

16. “When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.” – Thomas Jefferson

17. “Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.” – John Adams

18. “Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.” – James Madison

19. “Liberty means the ability not to violate the law of God. License means personal insistence on doing what I like.” – Oswald Chambers

Also read: Famous Quotes, Patriotic Quotes

Short Liberty Quotes That’ll Impact Your Worldview

20. “Who speaks of liberty while the human mind is in chains?” – Francis Wright

21. “Where liberty is, there is my country.” – Benjamin Franklin

22. “Liberty for wolves is death to the lambs.” – Isaiah Berlin 

23. “Liberty: one of imagination’s most precious possessions.” – Ambrose Bierce 

24. “Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.” – John Adams

25. “Liberty loses out by default because good people are not vigilant.” – Desmond Tutu

26. “The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time.” – Thomas Jefferson

27. “Give me liberty or give me death.” – Patrick Henry

28. “Humanity has won its battle. Liberty now has a country.” – Marquis de Lafayette

29. “Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have.” – Harry Emerson Fosdick

30. “Liberty does not exist in the absence of morality.” – Edmund Burke

31. “Sovereignty of myself over myself is called liberty.” – Victor Hugo

Also read: Short Quotes, America Quotes

Meaningful Liberty Quotes for People Who Cherish Freedom

32. “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it.” – Learned Hand

33. “God grants liberty only to those who love it and are always ready to guard and defend it.” – Daniel Webster

34. “What light is to the eyes—what air is to the lungs—what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.” – Robert G. Ingersoll

35. “Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.” – John Milton

36. “The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.” – William Hazlitt

37. “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.” – Thomas Jefferson

38. “Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.” – Charles Caleb Colton

39. “Liberty cannot exist without individual responsibility. Failure to exercise individual responsibility forfeits your right to self-governance and delivers it to the government which, through force, will set the parameters of your life.” – Brian Wilson

Liberty Quotes to Secure Our Society

40. “Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children were brought up easy; let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves.” – D. H. Lawrence

41. “What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.” – Thomas Jefferson

42. “To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms.” – Richard Henry Lee

43. “The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending against all hazards, and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.” – Samuel Adams

44. “The battle for freedom and liberty really never is over, and there are really low points in it, but I’m not giving up, and I’m not gonna engage in phony pep talks, either.” – Rush Limbaugh

45. “Civil liberty is only natural liberty, modified and secured by the sanctions of civil society.” – Alexander Hamilton

Liberty Quotes That Will Remind You to Live Life Freely

46. “Liberty is the right of every man, to be honest, to think, and to speak without hypocrisy.” – José Martí

47. “The liberties and freedoms which we hold dear and we recognize and cherish and respect guide the way we gather information in the United States.” – John Ashcroft

48. “Liberty and freedom were the primary reasons that people wanted to come here. They wanted to escape bondage, slavery, tyranny, poverty, whatever where they lived. It was America that promised a much better life.” – Rush Limbaugh

49. “I believe in liberty for all men: the space to stretch their arms and their souls, the right to breathe and the right to vote, the freedom to choose their friends, enjoy the sunshine, and ride on the railroads, uncursed by color; thinking, dreaming, working as they will in a kingdom of beauty and love.” – W. E. B. Du Bois 

50. “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” – John F. Kennedy

Insightful Liberty Quotes to Reinforce Your Beliefs

51. “There is no true liberty except the liberty of the happy who cleave to the eternal law.” – Saint Augustine

52. “The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.” – Patrick Henry

53. “Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.” – John Dalberg-Acton

54. “The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people.” – John Stuart Mill

Liberty Quotes to Gain Wisdom and Knowledge on Independence

55. “It is true that liberty is precious; so precious that it must be carefully rationed.” – Vladimir Ilʹich Lenin

56. “We all declare for liberty, but in using the same word, we do not all mean the same thing.” – Abraham Lincoln

57. “The problem with this world is that there isn’t enough liberty and freedom.” – Rush Limbaugh

58. “Absolute liberty is the absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is responsible to himself.” – Henry Adams

59. “A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both and deserve neither.” – Thomas Jefferson

60. “It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives.” – Dorothy Thompson

61. “Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.” – Henry David Thoreau

62. “It is easy to take liberty for granted when you have never had it taken from you.” – Dick Cheney 

63. “To be safe at the expense of the liberty of other people is a difficult equation.” – Madeleine Albright

Deep Liberty Quotes to Think About

64. “For though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.” – Thomas Paine

65. “When liberty comes with hands dabbled in the blood, it is hard to shake hands with her.” – Oscar Wilde

66. “The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance.” – Wendell Phillips

67. “The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.” – Louis Brandeis

68. “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom—go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!” – Samuel Adams

Poetic Liberty Quotes That Will Move You

69. “He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy against oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.” – Thomas Paine

70. “Liberty without learning is always in peril, and learning without liberty is always in vain.” – John F. Kennedy

71. “Enslave the liberty of, but one human being and the liberties of the world are put in peril.” – William Lloyd Garrison

Liberty Quotes That Will Help You Fight Back Against Tyranny

72. “Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel the invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers.” – Louis Brandeis

73. “Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add within the limits of the law because the law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.” – Thomas Jefferson

74. “The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule.” – Samuel Adams

Liberty Quotes That Everyone Must Read

75. “The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.” – Edmund Burke

76. “It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.” – James Madison

77. “Liberty, which means resisting all forms of cultural authoritarianism, be it from the right-wing church, Black ideologues, Black nationalists, or mainstream White media. We have to accent liberty and freedom of expression and thought in all their forms.” – Cornel West

More Liberty Quotes to Know More About One’s Religious Rights

78. “The notion of religious liberty is that you cannot be forced to participate in a religious ceremony that’s not of your choosing simply because you’re outvoted.” – Ira Glasser

79. “Religious liberty is the salt and light that has made us the great nation we are in a whole number of ways.” – Eric Metaxas

80. “I think we recognize as Americans there are certain things that are just primary to the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy here, and religious freedom is one of the most important things we as Americans cherish.” – Ann Romney

How Far Are You Willing to Go to Defend Your Liberty?

Many people believe that liberty is a right and a basic human necessity. Though the concept of liberty has evolved and changed throughout time, its essence remains integral to our society.

Throughout history, people have been fighting for liberty. It’s been a long journey, but the good thing is that there are now laws that protect human rights. However, there is still plenty of work to be done to achieve true freedom across the globe; the fight is not over yet!

One way to protect our liberty is to be informed and involved in our country. This includes voting and being aware of what is going on with current events.

Another way is to learn how to protect, secure, and be grateful for the freedom we have now. We must ensure that the next generations can enjoy the same rights we have today, and the only way to do that is to uphold and honor our current independence. In other words, we need to make sure that the rights that allow us to live freely are maintained for future generations.

By protecting our liberty, we protect ourselves from the many threats in the world. To this end, we hope this list of liberty quotes was able to make you recognize the importance of freedom. Remember to exercise your rights with grace and respect in all situations!

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Karen Danao

Hi, I’m Karen, a content curator and writer for Quote Ambition; I’m also a marketing and advertising professional. Beyond the keyboard and the screen, I’m someone who’s out to enjoy every bit that life has to offer!

Poetry, philosophy, history, and movies are all topics I love writing about! However, my true passion is in traveling, photography, and finding common ground to which everyone from different cultures can relate.

With the many places I’ve been to, I found that love, inspiration, and happiness are some things that bring people together. No matter how different we are on the outside, I’m a true believer that our emotions don’t lie; if you dig deep into our psyche, we’re all the same inside.

This belief was further amplified when I joined Quote Ambition. Through the quotes I’ve read, collected, organized, and written about, I found that humans are resilient, creative, and compassionate.

We take from each others’ hearts and courage, and it’s through our individual experiences that we learn how to rise above our challenges and pain. In so many ways, Quote Ambition is a platform that allows people from all over the world to gain the inspiration they need anytime, anywhere!

You can find me on MuckRack and LinkedIn.