rights

It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in cases involving not very nice people.

To be truly free it takes more determination courage introspection and restraint than to be in shackles.

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.

The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest no domination. We seek no indemnities for ourselves no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely give. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and freedom of nations can make them.

None can love freedom heartily but good men - the rest love not freedom but licence.

Equality is the result of human organization. We are not born equal.

Liberty is the right to do what the law permits.

Let every nation know whether it wishes us well or ill that we shall pay any price bear any burden meet any hardship support any friend oppose any foe in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

One should never put on one's best trousers to go out to battle for freedom and truth.

I am not so much concerned with the right of everyone to say anything he pleases as I am about our need as self-governing people to hear everything relevant.

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis shrink from the service of their country but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny like hell is not easily conquered yet we have this consolation with us that the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph.

Liberty is always dangerous - but it is the safest thing we have.

People hardly ever make use of the freedom they have for example freedom of thought instead they demand freedom of speech as a compensation.

Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having.

So free we seem so fettered fast we are!

The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited he must not make himself a nuisance to other people.

Let the word go forth from this time and place to friend and foe alike that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans - born in this century tempered by war disciplined by a hard and bitter peace proud of our ancient heritage - and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. Let every nation know whether it wishes us well or ill that we shall pay any price bear any burden meet any hardship support any friend oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1 000 days nor in the life of this administration nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin. Now the trumpet summons us again - not as a call to bear arms though arms we need - not as a call to battle though embattled we are - but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle year in and year out "rejoicing in hope patient in tribulation"- a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny poverty disease and war itself. And so my fellow Americans ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country . My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

If liberty has any meaning it means freedom to improve.