|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
"Actually, what is the political struggle that we witness?
It is the instinctive struggle of all people toward liberty.
And what is this liberty,
whose very name makes the heart beat faster and shakes the world?
Is it not the union of all liberties
— liberty of conscience, of education, of association, of the press,
of travel, of labor, of trade?
In short, is not liberty the freedom of every person
to make full use of his faculties,
so long as he does not harm other persons while doing so?
Is not liberty the destruction of all despotism
— including, of course, legal despotism?
Finally, is not liberty the restricting of the law
only to its rational sphere of organizing the right of the individual
to lawful self-defense;
of punishing injustice?"
Frederic Bastiat
And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have
removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people
that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be
violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I
reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever.
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 18, 1781
|
|
|
|
