Liberty is the prevention of control by others.

Many things are better for silence than for speech: others are better for speech than for stationery.

A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom

A generous spirit prefers that his country should be poor, and weak, and of no account, but free, rather than powerful, prosperous, and enslaved.

Though oppression may give rise to violent and repeated outbreaks, like the convulsions of a man in pain, it cannot mature a settled purpose and plan of regeneration, unless a new notion of happiness is joined to the sense of present evil.

I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power...power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.