Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.
—Benjamin Franklin

The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the goverment.
—Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press and that cannot be limited without being lost.
—Thomas Jefferson

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
—President Dwight D. Eisenhower, April 16, 1953

This institution will be based upon the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.
— Thomas Jefferson

Distrust and caution are the parents of security .
— Benjamin Franklin

The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either.
—Benjamin Franklin

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
— Benjamin Franklin

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 They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety.
— Benjamin Franklin 

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Is it not possible that an individual may be right and a government wrong? Are laws to be enforced simply because they were made? Or declared by any number of men to be good, if they are not good?
— Henry David Thoreau, defending the principals under which John Brown acted

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
— President Theodore Roosevelt, 1918, during WWI

They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety.
— Benjamin Franklin

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
— Voltaire

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.
— James Madison

"Fear can only prevail when victims are ignorant of the facts ".
 — Thomas Jefferson