The quote database

The ancient republics absorbed the individual in the state--prescribed his religion and controlled his activity.

Economic independence is a relative condition at best.

When I see the spirit of liberty in action, I see a strong principle at work; and this, for a while, is all I can possibly know of it.

Peace or harmony between the sexes and individuals does not necessarily depend on a superficial equalization of human beings; nor does it call for the elimination of individual traits and peculiarities.

Genius is free to announce its inventions and discoveries, and the hand is free to accomplish whatever the head conceives not incompatible with the rights of a fellow-being.

it is nevertheless often true that one man's vulgarity is another's lyric

To refuse a hearing to an opinion, because they are sure that it is false, is to assume that their certainty is the same thing as absolute certainty.

All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.

The fundamental principle of scientific pedagogy must be, indeed, the liberty of the pupil;--such liberty as shall permit a development of individual, spontaneous manifestations of the child's nature.

Nations, like individuals in a state of nature, are equal and independent, possessing certain rights and owing certain duties to each other, arising from their necessary and unavoidable relations; which rights and duties there is no common human authority to protect and enforce.

the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market

What right have I to be free, that another man cannot prove himself to possess by nature?