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Our Constitution exists to secure individual freedom, the essential condition of human flourishing. Liberty is not provided by government; liberty preexists government. It's our natural birthright, not a gift from the sovereign. Our founders upended things and divided power to enshrine a promise, not a process.

— Don Willett

Sentiment: NEGATIVE

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✓Similar Perspectives

There is only one kind of freedom and that's individual liberty. Our lives come from our creator and our liberty comes from our creator. It has nothing to do with government granting it.

— Ron Paul

We must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would no longer be possessed of liberty.

— Charles de Montesquieu

Liberty is the proper end and object of authority, and cannot subsist without it; and it is liberty to that which is good, just, and honest.

— John Winthrop

True liberty consists only in the power of doing what we ought to will, and in not being constrained to do what we ought not to will.

— Jonathan Edwards

Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.

— Learned Hand

A government capable of controlling the whole, and bringing its force to a point, is one of the prerequisites for national liberty. We combine in society, with an expectation to have our persons and properties defended against unreasonable exactions either at home or abroad.

— Oliver Ellsworth

✗Opposing Perspectives

Liberty, as it is conceived by current opinion, has nothing inherent about it; it is a sort of gift or trust bestowed on the individual by the state pending good behavior.

— Mary McCarthy

Liberty is ceding a certain amount of your ability to do what you want so that everybody else can live in peace and freedom and respecting the rights of other people.

— Rudy Giuliani

Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right to do what we ought.

— Lord Acton

The Constitution guarantees us our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That's all. It doesn't guarantee our rights to charity.

— Jesse Ventura