Quotes about Self-governance
It is a maxim that no man was ever enslaved by influence while he was fit to be free.
- Samuel Johnson
Man is not fully free unless he is master of himself.
- Epictetus
Democracy is based on the conviction that man has the moral and intellectual capacity, as well as the inalienable right, to govern himself with reason and justice.
- Harry S. Truman
The highest manifestation of life consists in this: that a being governs its own actions. A thing which is always subject to the direction of another is somewhat of a dead thing.
- St. Thomas Aquinas
You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.
- James Madison
It is far better for a man to go wrong in freedom than to go right in chains.
- Thomas Henry Huxley
A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement.
- Thomas Jefferson
To regard anyone except yourself as responsible for your judgment is to be a slave, not a free man. It
- Mortimer Adler
Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.
- Thomas Jefferson
Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business.
- Calvin Coolidge
You can't put democracy and freedom back into a box.
- George W. Bush
The ultimate good in a liberal state is liberty.
- Michael Ignatieff