"The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatable things, called by the same name — liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatable names — liberty and tyranny."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
As quoted in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 7, p. 301–2 (1953)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/United_States
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
United States
802 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by United States →
Related Quotes
"Sixty years ago, at dawn on June 25, the Korean War broke out when Communist North Korea invaded the Republic of Kore…"
"It is a truism that America has become a more diverse country. It is also a beautiful thing to watch. Visitors from o…"
"Protect every citizen, including the millions of people of foreign birth who will flock to our shores to become citiz…"
"U.S. President Barack Obama has nominated Korean-American Jim Yong Kim, the president of Dartmouth College, as the ne…"
"That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from al…"
"The law of nations knows of no distinction of color, and if an enemy of the United States should enslave and sell any…"
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and d…"
"The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted."
"I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in…"
"I believe in specific ideas and I believe that those ideas have consequences. I believe in the individual, in less go…"