I'll side with the founding fathers and some of the great minds of our past on the issue of liberty. They spoke of it often because they knew it was in just as much danger from within as it was from abroad.
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 law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.
Thomas Jefferson.
It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it.
George Washington
He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
Thomas Paine
Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel.
Patrick Henry
Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.
Abraham Lincoln
When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: Liberty, sir, was the primary object.
Patrick Henry
There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
John Adams
Our country may be likened to a new house. We lack many things, but we possess the most precious of all - liberty!
James Monroe
