Freedom and Liberty, are they one and the same? Are they juxtaposed? Or do they exist as solitary ideals independent of one another? My old Webster’s Collegiate, circa 1949 is not only direct, but without the bias that is so prevalent in today’s publications. The quotes that follow are from a book titled “Useful Quotations’ circa 1933.
Note: Truth has no expiration date as the quotes herein attest.
As these foundational ideas are under horrendous and continual attack, I think it prudent we examine them individually, then collectively. Let us begin with Freedom.
It defines Freedom as: the state of being free and as a privilege or franchise.
Freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of habeas corpus, these are principals that have guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. Thomas Jefferson
To have freedom is only to have that which is absolutely necessary to enable us to be what we ought to be, and to posses what we ought to possess. Ibn Rahel, Egyptian chronicler
There is no legitimacy on earth but in a government which is the choice of the nation. Joseph Bonaparte
Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free. Montesquieu
The greatest glory of a free-born people is to transmit that freedom to their children. William Havard
Many politicians lay it down as a self-evident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. Thomas Macaulay
Indignation boils my blood at the thought of the heritage we are throwing away; at the thought that, with few exceptions, the fight for freedom is left to the poor, forlorn and defenseless, and to the few radicals and revolutionaries who would make use of liberty to destroy, rather than to maintain, American institutions… Arthur Garfield Hays
As we return to this old Webster’s, it defines Liberty as: exemption from slavery, bondage, imprisonment or control of another and the sum of the rights and immunities of citizens in a civil society.
Give me the liberty to know, to think, to believe, and to utter freely, according to conscience, above all other liberties. John Milton
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights; and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Thomas Jefferson
The liberty of a people consists in being governed by laws which they have made themselves, under whatsoever form it be of government; the liberty of a private man, in being master of his own time and actions, as far as may consist with the laws of God and his country. Abraham Cowley
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? –Forbid it, Almighty God! — I know not what course others may take. But, as for me, give me liberty or give me death. Patrick Henry
Liberty is the right to do what the laws allow; and if a citizen could do what they forbid, it would be no longer liberty, because others would have the same powers. Montesquieu
Liberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society. Lord Bolingbroke
In the same proportion that ignorance and vice prevail in a republic, will the government partake of despotism. William Sprague
A nation may lose its liberties in a day, and not miss them for a century. Montesquieu
True liberty consists in the privilege of enjoying our own rights, not in the destruction of the rights of others. George Pinckard
May 21, 1944 Federal Judge Learned Hand gave a short address on the meaning of liberty. He said that liberty did not mean the “freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty, and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few.”
Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society – the farmers, mechanics, and laborers – who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their Government… If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, (government) would be an unqualified blessing. Andrew Jackson
When government is the arbiter of all things, liberty will be no more, Jackson’s comments on distinctions in society are quite pertinent to today; and when the government is complicit in the destruction of freedom the people have not only the right but the obligation as citizens to challenge and protest actions by that government. Civil disobedience is NOT treason, but that does not mean that you will not be labeled as subversive or some such fertilizer.
Returning to Webster’s Collegiate notes that “Freedom, a very general term may imply at one extreme total absence of restraint and at the other, an unawareness of being hampered in any way; liberty often differs from freedom in implying a power to say, do etc., what one wishes, as distinguished from being uninhibited in doing, thinking etc., or a release from restraint or compulsion.”
The intertwining and overlaps have blurred the lines of definition, but the standards that the words, “Freedom and Liberty” imply are part and parcel of our Republic; the bottom line, one cannot exist without the other.
Walt Mow 2020
Check out another author’s original work on Independence here: Independence Day – an original poem by Dork Anubis