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.

Our brand of democracy is hard. But I can promise that a year from now, when I no longer hold this office, I’ll be right there with you as a citizen – inspired by those voices of fairness and vision, of grit and good humor and kindness that have helped America travel so far.

Some books leave us free and some books make us free.

A new breeze is blowing, and a world refreshed by freedom seems reborn; for in man’s heart, if not in fact, the day of the dictator is over. The totalitarian era is passing, its old ideas blown away like leaves from an ancient, lifeless tree.

I draw from the Absurd three consequences: my revolt, my liberty, my passion.

I truly believe the things Notre Dame stands for.

Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.

For the record, our democracy is revered around the world. And free elections are the best way on Earth to choose our leaders. This is how we elected John F. Kennedy; Ronald Reagan; two George Bushes; Bill Clinton; and Barack Obama. It has worked for decades.

The wise use of your freedom to make your own decisions is crucial to your spiritual growth, now and for eternity.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

We have the oldest written constitution still in force in the world, and it starts out with three words, ‚We, the people.‘

Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.

In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.

Democracy is not static. It is a living force. Every new idea, every new invention offers opportunity for both good and evil.

If you want someone to say, ‚She’s so sweet, and she’s so cute, and, honey, point your foot,‘ that’s not my school. You can go to the YMCA and have a nobody teach your kid if that’s what you want to hear.

Men’s actions are too strong for them. Show me a man who has acted, and who has not been the victim and slave of his action.

It was very lucky for me as a writer that I studied the physical sciences rather than English. I wrote for my own amusement. There was no kindly English professor to tell me for my own good how awful my writing really was. And there was no professor with the power to order me what to read, either.

We seek peace, knowing that peace is the climate of freedom.

A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.

I’m just glad I was able to return to some of that innocence and beauty I had as a child when I started my own family, and my children brought me back some of that spirit.

Let not the 12 million Negroes be ashamed of the fact that they are the grandchildren of slaves. There is dishonor in being slave-owners.

I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

At the end of the day, the TV show is the best job in the world. I get to go anywhere I want, eat and drink whatever I want. As long as I just babble at the camera, other people will pay for it. It’s a gift.

The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow.

Facts, like people, want to be free – and when they’re free, liberty is usually around the corner.

He who is brave is free.

It is better to die than to preserve this life by incurring disgrace. The loss of life causes but a moment’s grief, but disgrace brings grief every day of one’s life.

I am afraid we must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy.

What’s real freedom? Real freedom is being able to not have my way and still be just as happy as if I did.

Most people want security in this world, not liberty.

The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.

My mother always taught us that if people don’t agree with you, the important thing is to listen to them. But if you’ve listened to them carefully and you still think that you’re right, then you must have the courage of your convictions.

People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.

To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

In South Africa, we could not have achieved our freedom and just peace without the help of people around the world, who through the use of non-violent means, such as boycotts and divestment, encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the Apartheid regime.

Rebellion is what you make of it. When you’ve been on a tour bus for two months straight, and then you get in your car and drive wherever you want, that can feel rebellious.

The walls, the bars, the guns and the guards can never encircle or hold down the idea of the people.

Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.

Just as discipline and freedom are opposing forces that must be balanced, leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities between one extreme and another.

Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity.

This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind: it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it.

A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first.

Too many Christians live their lives like slaves – to the devil – because they believe his lies more than they trust God.

The fact is, when men carry the same ideals in their hearts, nothing can isolate them – neither prison walls nor the sod of cemeteries. For a single memory, a single spirit, a single idea, a single conscience, a single dignity will sustain them all.

All that mankind has done, thought or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.

A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country.

The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

My parents were the same in the pulpit as they were at home. I think that’s where a lot of preachers‘ kids get off base sometimes. Because they don’t see the same things at both places.

I have the space and liberty to create.

Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.

On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.

I’m glad I can’t vote.

Honor means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost.

Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain.

Freedom is not enough.

After one has been in prison, it is the small things that one appreciates: being able to take a walk whenever one wants, going into a shop and buying a newspaper, speaking or choosing to remain silent. The simple act of being able to control one’s person.

I don’t believe in killing whatever the reason!

A man without a vote is man without protection.

Traditions are a common part of our lives. They can be good, and not all traditions are wrong, but sometimes they can take the joy out of life.