LETTERS. "Tis coming to the confessional leaving nothing in reserve that falls gracefully into words. 3116 A. Bronson Alcott: Concord Days. June. Letters. A friendly letter is, by its nature, a thing without pretension. The one merit of it which compensates for every defect, is to carry the living writer into the reader's presence, such as he really is, not such as by study and art he might make himself out to be. 3117 Hamerton: Human Intercourse. Letters of A letter is a conversation between the absent and the present; its destiny is fleeting, and it should pass away like the sound of the voice. 3118 Wilhelm Von Humboldt: Letters to a Female A stray volume of real life in the daily packet of the postman. Eternal love and instant payment. 3119 Douglas Jerrold: Specimens of Jerrold's Wit. A letter may be always made out of the books of the morning or talk of the evening. 3120 Johnson: Letters to and from the late Samuel What! have I 'scaped love-letters in the holy-day time of my beauty, and am I now a subject for them? 3121 Shakespeare: The Merry Wives of Windsor. Moreover, their preciousness in absence is proved by the desire of their presence. 3122 Tupper: Proverbial Philosophy. Of Writing. The post is the grand connecting link of all transactions, of all negotiations. Those who are absent, by its means become present; it is the consolation of life. 3123 LIBELS. Voltaire: A Philosophical Dictionary. Post. Though some make light of libels, yet you may see by them how the wind sits. As, take a straw, and throw it up into the air, you shall see by that which way the wind is, which you shall not do by casting up a stone. More solid things do not show the complexion of the time so well as ballads and libels. 3124 John Selden: Table Talk. Libels. LIBERTY see Christianity, Equality, Honor, Justice, Law, Peace, Religion, Slavery, Society, Truth, Union, The, Virtue. The tree of liberty only grows when watered by the blood of tyrants. 3125 Barère Bertrand: Speech in the Convention The tidal wave of God's providence is carrying liberty throughout the globe. 3126 Henry Ward Beecher: Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit. In those few places where men enjoy what they call liberty, it is continually in a tottering situation, and makes greater and greater strides to that gulf of despotism which at last swallows up every species of government. 3127 Burke: A Vindication of Natural Society, 1756. 3128 My rigor relents: I pardon something to the spirit of liberty. 3129 Burke: Speech, March 22, 1775. On Conciliation with America. What is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils, for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint. 3130 Burke: Reflections on the Revolution in France. Liberty is one of the choicest gifts that heaven hath bestowed upon man, and exceeds in value all the treasures which the earth contains within its bosom, or the sea covers. Liberty, as well as honor, man ought to preserve at the hazard of his life, for without it life is insupportable. 3131 Cervantes: Don Quixote. Pt. ii. Ch. 58. (Jarvis, Translator.) With these men for our advisers and leaders, with the gods assisting us, with ourselves using all vigilance and taking great precautions for the future, and with the Roman people acting with unanimity, we shall indeed be free in a short time, and the recollection of our present slavery will make liberty sweeter. 3132 Cicero: Orations. The Third Philippic. Sec. 14. (Yonge, Translator.) Liberty in itself is but the power of doing what we please; a power which, for all human beings, has its natural limits. We may easily, indeed, have too much or too little of it; we can only have it in degree, but without some degree of it we cannot exist. 3133 Arthur Hugh Clough: Prose Remains. Considerations on Some Recent Social Theories. Honor, justice, and humanity call upon us to hold and to transmit to our posterity that liberty which we received from our ancestors. It is not our duty to leave wealth to our children, but it is our duty to leave liberty to them. John Dickinson: Political Writings. 3134 Emerson: Miscellanies. The Emancipation Proclamation. Liberty is never cheap. It is made difficult, because freedom is the accomplishment and perfectness of man. 3136 Emerson: Miscellanies. The Fugitive Slave Law. Man's liberty ends, and it ought to end, when that liberty becomes the curse of his neighbors. 3137 Farrar: Sermons and Addresses Delivered in The sun of liberty is set; you must light up the candle of industry and economy. 3138 Benjamin Franklin: In Correspondence. They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. 3139 Benjamin Franklin: Historical Review of Liberty is no negation. It is a substantive, tangible reality. 3140 Garfield: The Works of James Abram Garfield. Speech, House of Representatives, Jan. 13, 1865. The Constitutional Amendment Abolishing Slavery. Give me hardship, pain, toil, but with them give me liberty and I shall not complain; but sooner, a thousand times, than I should wear the garment of a slave, let me be stiff in the shroud of a freeman. 3141 Henry Giles: Lectures and Essays. The Worth of Liberty. Liberty, and liberty alone, gives me all for which existence is greatly valuable; mind, speech, education, law, security, social station, and social claims; kindred, home, country. 3142 Henry Giles: Lectures and Essays. The Worth of Liberty. Liberty is worth whatever country is worth. It is by liberty that a man has a country; it is by liberty he has rights. 3143 Henry Giles: Lectures and Essays. The Worth of Liberty. Liberty is worth whatever the best civilization is worth. Henry Giles: Lectures and Essays. The Worth 3144 of Liberty. The highest liberty is in harmony with the highest laws. 3145 Henry Giles: Lectures and Essays. The Worth of Liberty. Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! 3146 Patrick Henry: Speech, March, 1775. In the The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time. Liberty in the lowest rank of every nation is little more than the choice of working or starving; and this choice is, I suppose, equally allowed in every country. 3148 Johnson: Works. VI. 151. (Oxford edition, 1825.) Liberty is not idleness; it is free use of time; it is to choose our labor and our relaxation; in one word, to be free is not to do nothing, but to be the sole arbiter of what we do, and what we leave undone. In this sense, how great a good is liberty! 3149 La Bruyère: Characters. Of Judgments. (Rowe, Translator.) Unless that liberty which is of such a kind as arms can neither procure nor take away, which alone is the fruit of piety, of justice, of temperance, and unadulterated virtue, shall have taken deep root in your minds and hearts, there will not long be wanting one who will snatch from you by treachery what you have acquired by arms. 3150 Milton: The Second Defence of the People of In moderate governments there is an indemnity for the weight of the taxes, which is liberty. In despotic countries there is an equivalent for liberty, which is the lightness of the taxes. 3151 Montesquieu: Spirit of Laws. Bk. xiii. Ch. 12. (Nugent, Translator.) Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit; and if a citizen could do what they forbid, he would be no longer possessed of liberty, because all his fellow-citizens would have the same power. 3152 Bk. xi. Ch. 3. Montesquieu: Spirit of Laws. Political liberty is to be found only in moderate govern ments. 31:3 Montesquieu: Spirit of Laws. Bk. xi. Ch. 4. (Nugent, Translator.) Whether in chains or in laurels, LIBERTY knows nothing but victories. 3154 Wendell Phillips: Orations, Speeches, Lectures, and Letters. Lecture, Brooklyn, N. Y., Nov. 1, 1859. Harper's Ferry. Speech, April 12, 1852. Sims Anniversary. Blandishments will not fascinate us, nor will threats of a "halter" intimidate; for, under God, we are determined that, wheresoever, whensoever, or howsoever we shall be called to make our exit, we will die free men. 3155 Josiah Quincy: Observations on the Boston O Liberty! Liberty! how many crimes are committed in thy name! (1793.) 3156 Madame Roland: Macaulay's Mirabeau. (Edinburgh Review, July, 1832.) Whether we can win liberty, fate must determine; but that we will be worthy of it, we must ourselves determine; and the sorrowfulest fate of all that we can suffer, is to have it without deserving it. 3157 Ruskin: The Queen of the Air. Pt. iii. Sec. 150. Civil liberty requires for its support religious liberty, and cannot prosper without it. Religious liberty is not an empty sound, but an orderly exercise of religious duties and enjoyment of all its privileges. 3158 Philip Schaff: Church and State in the United States. II. The American System Compared with Other Systems. Sec. 5. Liberty, both civil and This is a fundamental article of the American creed, without distinction of sect or party. religious, is an American instinct. the mother's milk; all immigrants accept it as a happy boon, especially those who flee from oppression and persecution abroad. Even those who reject the modern theory of liberty enjoy the practice, and would defend it in their own interest against any attempt to overthrow it. 3159 Philip Schaff: Church and State in the United States. I. The American Theory of the Relation of Church and State. True liberty is a positive force, regulated by law; false liberty is a negative force, a release from restraint. True liberty is the moral power of self-government; the liberty of infidels and anarchists is carnal licentiousness. 3160 Philip Schaff: Church and State in the United States. II. The American System Compared with Other Systems. Sec. 5. |
