If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
You cannot have Liberty in this World without what you call Moral Virtue, and you cannot have Moral Virtue without the Slavery of that half of the Human Race who hate what you call Moral Virtue.
Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.
Virtue supposes liberty, as the carrying of a burden supposes active force. Under coercion there is no virtue, and without virtue there is no religion. Make a slave of me, and I shall be no better for it. Even the sovereign has no right to use coercion to lead men to religion, which by its nature supposes choice and liberty. My thought is no more subject to authority than is sickness or health.
Truth is mysterious, elusive, always to be conquered. Liberty is dangerous, as hard to live with as it is elating.[La vérité est mystérieuse, fuyante, toujours à conquérir. La liberté est dangereuse, dure à vivre autant qu’exaltante.]
Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power.
It was like a new world opened to me, the world of science, which I was at last permitted to know in all liberty.
God grant that not only the Love of Liberty but a thorough Knowledge of the Rights of Man may pervade all the Nations of the Earth so that a Philosopher may set his Foot any where on its Surface and say, this is my Country.
