Best Civil Liberties Quotes

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.

The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.

Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent.

I am … a realist. The magnitude of what one terms license or civil liberties or personal freedom has got to be adjusted to the circumstances.

At the foundation of our civil liberties lies the principle that denies to government officials an exceptional position before the law and which subjects them to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen.

Even though some in our government may claim that civil liberties must be compromised in order to protect the public, we must be wary of what we are giving up in the name of fighting terrorism.

It is impossible to grasp the meaning of the idea of sound money if one does not realize that it was devised as an instrument for the protection of civil liberties against despotic inroads on the part of governments.

We will not be led like sheep to the slaughter.

We will not let terrorists change our way of life; we will not live in fear; and we will not undermine the civil liberties that characterize our Democracy.

In the defense of civil liberties there can be no exceptions, or there will soon be many.

The Cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one, or even one hundred defeats.

I like Mitt Romney as a person. I think he’s a dignified person. But I have no common ground on economics. He doesn’t worry about the Federal Reserve. He doesn’t worry about foreign policy. He doesn’t talk about civil liberties, so I would have a hard time to expect him to ever invite me to campaign with him.

Demanding domestic security in times of war invites carelessness in preserving civil liberties and the right of privacy. Frequently the people are only too anxious for their freedoms to be sacrificed on the altar of authoritarianism thought to be necessary to remain safe and secure.

Civil liberties, good. Lawyers, bad.

Now that Bin Laden dead, can we get our civil liberties back?
That George Bush stole with the Patriot Act?

Liberals say they are for civil liberties and personal freedom, but they continue to advocate government regulation of business, redistribution of wealth, and various forms of social engineering to manipulate human relationships and attitudes.

We must educate ourselves and others about our precious civil liberties to ensure that we never accept demands that we give up our Constitution so that the government can pretend to protect us.

I believe that successfully addressing our national security needs while protecting our basic freedoms and civil liberties requires continual Congressional oversight, and I will continue to work to assert the role of this body in carrying out this grave responsibility.

I believe in a relatively equal society, supported by institutions that limit extremes of wealth and poverty. I believe in democracy, civil liberties, and the rule of law. That makes me a liberal, and I’m proud of it.

I have very real concerns about the civil liberties implications of ultimately requiring every resident to submit themselves for compulsory fingerprinting or some other biometric test.

An invaluable little book…. What Makes a Terrorist uses standard tools of economics and statistical analysis to get at the truth about terrorism…. Krueger finds one familiar fact in all his numbers. Countries with fewer civil liberties tend to produce more terrorists.

Obama behaves like a centrist who leans tentatively left on certain social programs but boldly right on military force and civil liberties.

Superstition is an enemy to civil liberty.

Since 9/11, the Bush administration has used that tragic event as a justification to rip up our constitution and our civil liberties. And I honestly believe that one or two 9/11s, and martial law will be declared in our country and we’re inching towards a police state.

If the true spark of religious and civil liberty be kindled, it will burn.

Presidents who restrict civil liberties, even in wartime, are usually judged harshly for it.

Those who would give up their civil liberties for security deserve neither.

I’m just not sure I trust the federal government not to trample on civil liberties.

Terrorism is escalating to the point that Americans soon may have to choose between civil liberties and more intrusive means of protection.

The law, which restrains a man from doing mischief to his fellow citizens, though it diminishes the natural, increases the civil liberty of mankind.

A people who extend civil liberties only to preferred groups start down the path either to dictatorship of the right or the left.

After each perceived security crisis ended, the United States has remorsefully realized that the abrogation of civil liberties was unnecessary.

When you’re in this type of conflict, when you’re at war, civil liberties are treated differently.

But 18 years after the passage of the Civil Liberties Act, there still remains unfinished work to completely rectify and close this regrettable chapter in our Nations history.