Quotulatiousness

August 4, 2016

QotD: The invention of liberty

Filed under: Liberty, Quotations — Tags: — Nicholas @ 01:00

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman’s club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave.

H.L. Mencken, “Why Liberty?”, Chicago Tribune, 1927-01-30.

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