The makers of our Constitution sought to protect Americans. . . they conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone--the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.--Louis D. Brandeis, U.S. Supreme Court Justice

    We, the people of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
    to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women, and of nations large and small,
    to establish conditions under which justice and respect of the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and
    to promote social progress and better standards of live in larger freedom,
    and for these ends
    to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors, and
    to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and
    to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,
    have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these ends.--Preamble to United Nations Charter

Deny human rights, and however little you may wish to do so, you will find yourself abjectly kneeling at the feet of that old-world god, Force--that grimmest and ugliest of gods that men have ever erected for themselves out of the lusts of their hearts.  You will find yourself hating and dreading all other men who differ from you; you will find yourself obliged by the law of conflict into which you have plunged, to use every means in your power to crush them before they are able to crush you; you will find yourself day by day growing more unscrupulous and intolerant, more and more compelled by the fear of those opposed to you, to commit harsh and violent actions.--Auberon Herbertt, British journalist

We all know that books burn--yet we have the greater knowledge that books cannot be killed by fire.  People die, but books never die. . . No man and no force can put thought in a concentration camp forever. . . Books are weapons. . . make them weapons for man's freedom.--Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States

There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.  That is the point at which the negation of Catholicism and the negation of Liberalism meet and keep high festival, and the end learns to justify the means.--Lord Acton, English historian

The spirit of the people must frequently be roused, in order to curb the ambition of the court; and the dread of rousing the spirit must be employed to prevent that ambition.  Nothing so effectual to this purpose as the liberty of the press, by which all the learning, wit, and genius of the nation, may be employed on the side of freedom, and every one be animated to its defense.--David Hume, Scottish philosopher

We must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty.  Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit.
Disrespect for women has invariably been the surest sign of moral corruption.--Charles de Secondat, French jurist

Where the mind is without fear and the
    head is held high,
Where knowledge is free;. . .
Where tireless striving stretches the arms
    toward perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not
    lost its way
    into the dreary desert sand of dead
    habits;. . .
My father,
    let my country awake.--Rabindranath Tagore, Bengali philosopher, Nobel Prize 1913

Good laws, if they are not obeyed, do not constitute good government.--Aristotle, Greek philosopher