We honor Liberty in name and in form. We set up her statues and sound her praises. But we have not fully trusted her. And with our growth so grow her demands. She will have no half service! Liberty! It is a word to conjure with, not to vex the ear in empty boastings. For Liberty means Justice, and Justice is the natural law—the law of health and symmetry and strength, of fraternity and co-operation.
Henry George. Progress & Poverty
Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.
Thomas Paine. Common Sense
The law may make a slave, but it is beyond the power of the law to make a freeman
Patrick Edward Dove
The World.
It must be remembered, first, that the present world is almost completely “upside down,” and consequently generalisations drawn from its present condition are not very relevant. Difficulties that seem overwhelming in an “upside down” world would become easily manageable if it were only put the right way up. Everyone has noticed, for example, how easily water is kept in a bucket held properly, and how hard it is to stop the water running out when the bucket is held upside down!
Frederick McEachran. Freedom – the only end.
The days of the nations bear no trace
Of all the sunshine so far foretold;
The cannon speaks in the teacher’s place—
The age is weary with work and gold,
And high hopes wither, and memories wane;
On hearths and altars the fires are dead;
But that brave faith hath not lived in vain—
And this is all that our watcher said.
Frances Brown
I would have loved liberty at any time; In my lifetime I would have worshipped it.
Turgot
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end…liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition…
Lord Acton
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Printed & Published by D.S. Brooks for the AGG seminar Ulladulla July 2005
