Educational CyberPlayGround ®

July 4th and Quotes about Freedom

SECURITY

CRISIS CURRICULUM AND RESOURCES

CURRICULUM CHARITY EXPERTS EMERGENCY NUMBERS MILITARY NEWS POLITICIANS

Candle for September 11 2001

July 4th 2002 U.S. Independence Day

FREEDOM QUOTES

The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.
--Chinese Proverb

A good argument diluted to avoid criticism is not nearly as good as the
undiluted argument, because we best arrive at truth through a process of
honest and vigorous debate. Arguments should not sneak around in disguise,
as if dissent were somehow sinister....For it is bravery that is required
to secure freedom.
--Clarence Thomas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Source: Lecture, 13
February 2001

A sure sign of a genius is that all of the dunces are in a confederacy
against him.
--Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) American architect, designer, writer, and
educator.

Freedom of the press is perhaps the freedom that has suffered the most
from the gradual degradation of the idea of liberty.
--Albert Camus (1913-1960). Source: Resistance, Rebellion and Death, 1961

Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no
such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech.
--Cato (John Trenchard (1662-1723) & Thomas Gordon (169?-1750)).

Liberty of speech invites and provokes liberty to be used again, and so
bringeth much to a man's knowledge.
--Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) Philosopher, British Lord Chancellor.
Source: The Advancement of Learning, 1605

Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is
a duty.
--Anne Louise Germaine de Stael (1766-1817) French author

We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth...For my part, I am
willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst; and to provide for it.
--Patrick Henry (1736-1799) US Founding Father. Source: "The War
Inevitable" speech to the Virginia Convention, March 23, 1775

A sure sign of a genius is that all of the dunces are in a confederacy
against him.
--Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) American architect, designer, writer, and
educator.

Freedom of the press is perhaps the freedom that has suffered the most
from the gradual degradation of the idea of liberty.
--Albert Camus (1913-1960). Source: Resistance, Rebellion and Death, 1961

Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no
such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech.
--Cato (John Trenchard (1662-1723) & Thomas Gordon (169?-1750)).

Liberty of speech invites and provokes liberty to be used again, and so
bringeth much to a man's knowledge.
--Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) Philosopher, British Lord Chancellor.
Source: The Advancement of Learning, 1605

Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is
a duty.
--Anne Louise Germaine de Stael (1766-1817) French author

We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth...For my part, I am
willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst; and to provide for it.
--Patrick Henry (1736-1799) US Founding Father. Source: "The War
Inevitable" speech to the Virginia Convention, March 23, 1775

Most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the
international money lenders. The accounts of the Federal Reserve System
have never been audited. It operates outside of the control of Congress
and manipulates the credit of the United States.
-- Barry Goldwater (1909-1998) US Senator (R-Arizona)

The wages of the average American worker, after inflation and taxes, have
decreased 17% since 1973, the only Western industrial nation to so suffer.
--Martin Gross author Source: The Tax Racket: Government Extortion From A to Z

A true party-man hates and despises candour.
--Adam Smith (1723-1790) Scottish philosopher and economist. Source: The
Theory of Moral Sentiments par. III.I.85

In the US, voters cast ballots for individual candidates who are not bound
to any party program except rhetorically, and not always then. Some
Republicans are more liberal than some Democrats, some libertarians are
more radical than some socialists, and many local candidates run without
any party identification. No American citizen can vote intelligently
without knowledge of the ideas, political background, and commitments of
each individual candidate.
--Ben H. Bagdikian (1920- ) Armenian-born author, dean emeritus of the
University of California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism,
former editor at the Washington Post. Source: 1982

The most important poitical office is that of private citizen.
--Justice Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941) US Supreme Court Justice

The essential characteristic of socialism is the denial of individual
property rights.
--Ayn Rand (1905-1982) Author. Source: The Virtue of Selfishness, 1964

The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest,
truthful, and virtuous.
--Frederick Douglass [Frederick Baily] (1818-1895), Escaped slave,
abolitionist, author, editor of the North Star and later the New National
Era

I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon
constitutions, upon law and upon courts. These are false hopes, believe
me, these are false hopes. 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. While it lies
there it needs no constitution, no law, no courts to save it.
--Judge Learned Hand (1872-1961), Judge, U. S. Court of Appeals

Why not include a provision that everybody shall, in good weather, hunt on
his own land and catch fish in rivers that are public property and that
Congress shall never restrain any inhabitant of America from eating and
drinking, at seasonable times, or prevent his lying on his left side, in a
long winter's night, or even on his back, when he is fatigued by lying on
his right.
--Noah Webster (1758-1843) American patriot and scholar, author of the
1806 edition of the dictionary that bears his name, the first dictionary
of American English usage. Source: During the debates on whether the Bill
of Rights should be added to the Constitution. Webster opposed adoption as
unnecessary.

People have a right to the Truth as they have a right to life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness.
--Frank Norris (1870-1902). Source: The Responsibilities of the Novelist,
1903

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what
they do not want to hear.
--George Orwell [Eric Arthur Blair] (1903-1950) British author. Source:
Animal Farm, 1945

The rising power of the United States in world affairs...requires, not a
more compliant press, but a relentless barrage of facts and
criticism...Our job in this age, as I see it, is not to serve as
cheerleaders for our side...but to help the largest possible number of
people to see the realities.
--James Reston (1909-1995) Scottish-born ("Scotty") New York Times
journalist, editor, bureau chief, two Pulitzer Prizes, Presidential Medal
of Freedom

If all mankind minus one were of one opinion and only one person were of
the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that
person that he, if he had the power, would be in silencing mankind....If
the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging
error for truth; if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit,
the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its
collision with error.
--John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist. Source:
On Liberty, 1859

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible
voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.
--Aristophanes (450-385 BC) Greek comedy writer. Source: Knights, 424 B.C.

A bureaucrat is the most despicable of men, though he is needed as
vultures are needed, but one hardly admires vultures whom bureaucrats so
strangely resemble. I have yet to meet a bureaucrat who was not petty,
dull, almost witless, crafty or stupid, an oppressor or a thief, a holder
of little authority in which he delights, as a boy delights in possessing
a vicious dog. Who can trust such creatures?
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.) Roman Statesman, Philosopher and
Orator

Crime does not pay...as well as politics.
--Alfred E. Newman. Source: MAD Magazine

Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.
--Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) Humorist

To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never
get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life
around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its
lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple.
To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and
understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget.
--Arundhati Roy

Most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the
international money lenders. The accounts of the Federal Reserve System
have never been audited. It operates outside of the control of Congress
and manipulates the credit of the United States.
-- Barry Goldwater (1909-1998) US Senator (R-Arizona)

The wages of the average American worker, after inflation and taxes, have
decreased 17% since 1973, the only Western industrial nation to so suffer.
--Martin Gross author Source: The Tax Racket: Government Extortion From A to Z

A true party-man hates and despises candour.
--Adam Smith (1723-1790) Scottish philosopher and economist. Source: The
Theory of Moral Sentiments par. III.I.85

In the US, voters cast ballots for individual candidates who are not bound
to any party program except rhetorically, and not always then. Some
Republicans are more liberal than some Democrats, some libertarians are
more radical than some socialists, and many local candidates run without
any party identification. No American citizen can vote intelligently
without knowledge of the ideas, political background, and commitments of
each individual candidate.
--Ben H. Bagdikian (1920- ) Armenian-born author, dean emeritus of the
University of California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism,
former editor at the Washington Post. Source: 1982

The most important poitical office is that of private citizen.
--Justice Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941) US Supreme Court Justice

The essential characteristic of socialism is the denial of individual
property rights.
--Ayn Rand (1905-1982) Author. Source: The Virtue of Selfishness, 1964

The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest,
truthful, and virtuous.
--Frederick Douglass [Frederick Baily] (1818-1895), Escaped slave,
abolitionist, author, editor of the North Star and later the New National
Era

I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon
constitutions, upon law and upon courts. These are false hopes, believe
me, these are false hopes. 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. While it lies
there it needs no constitution, no law, no courts to save it.
--Judge Learned Hand (1872-1961), Judge, U. S. Court of Appeals

Why not include a provision that everybody shall, in good weather, hunt on
his own land and catch fish in rivers that are public property and that
Congress shall never restrain any inhabitant of America from eating and
drinking, at seasonable times, or prevent his lying on his left side, in a
long winter's night, or even on his back, when he is fatigued by lying on
his right.
--Noah Webster (1758-1843) American patriot and scholar, author of the
1806 edition of the dictionary that bears his name, the first dictionary
of American English usage. Source: During the debates on whether the Bill
of Rights should be added to the Constitution. Webster opposed adoption as
unnecessary.

People have a right to the Truth as they have a right to life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness.
--Frank Norris (1870-1902). Source: The Responsibilities of the Novelist,
1903

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what
they do not want to hear.
--George Orwell [Eric Arthur Blair] (1903-1950) British author. Source:
Animal Farm, 1945

The rising power of the United States in world affairs...requires, not a
more compliant press, but a relentless barrage of facts and
criticism...Our job in this age, as I see it, is not to serve as
cheerleaders for our side...but to help the largest possible number of
people to see the realities.
--James Reston (1909-1995) Scottish-born ("Scotty") New York Times
journalist, editor, bureau chief, two Pulitzer Prizes, Presidential Medal
of Freedom

If all mankind minus one were of one opinion and only one person were of
the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that
person that he, if he had the power, would be in silencing mankind....If
the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging
error for truth; if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit,
the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its
collision with error.
--John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist. Source:
On Liberty, 1859

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible
voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.
--Aristophanes (450-385 BC) Greek comedy writer. Source: Knights, 424 B.C.

A bureaucrat is the most despicable of men, though he is needed as
vultures are needed, but one hardly admires vultures whom bureaucrats so
strangely resemble. I have yet to meet a bureaucrat who was not petty,
dull, almost witless, crafty or stupid, an oppressor or a thief, a holder
of little authority in which he delights, as a boy delights in possessing
a vicious dog. Who can trust such creatures?
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.) Roman Statesman, Philosopher and
Orator

Crime does not pay...as well as politics.
--Alfred E. Newman. Source: MAD Magazine

Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.
--Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) Humorist

To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never
get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life
around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its
lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple.
To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and
understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget.
--Arundhati Roy