“Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. ”
John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) American politician, 6th president of the United States (in office from 1825 to 1829)
“It is seldom, that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.”
Part I, Essay 2: Of the Liberty of the Press
Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary (1741-2; 1748)
Context: It is a very comfortable reflection to the lovers of liberty, that this peculiar privilege of Britain is of a kind that cannot easily be wrested from us, but must last as long as our government remains, in any degree, free and independent. It is seldom, that liberty of any kind is lost all at once. Slavery has so frightful an aspect to men accustomed to freedom, that it must steal upon them by degrees, and must disguise itself in a thousand shapes, in order to be received. But, if the liberty of the press ever be lost, it must be lost at once. The general laws against sedition and libelling are at present as strong as they possibly can be made. Nothing can impose a farther restraint, but either the clapping an Imprimatur upon the press, or the giving to the court very large discretionary powers to punish whatever displeases them. But these concessions would be such a bare-faced violation of liberty, that they will probably be the last efforts of a despotic government. We may conclude, that the liberty of Britain is gone for ever when these attempts shall succeed.
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David Hume138
Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian 1711–1776Related quotes
John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States
Letter to Abigail Adams (17 July 1775)
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Source: Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax (1633–1695) English politician
Of Prerogative, Power and Liberty.
Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750), Political Thoughts and Reflections
“Any kind of barbarism, once established, will last.”
Alain (1868–1951) French philosopher
Men of Action
Alain On Happiness (1928)
James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)
Letter to Joseph Jones (28 November 1780) https://books.google.com/books?id=-IrnXiH2lbAC&pg=PA11&dq=%22Madison%22+%22coveting+that+liberty+for+which+we+have+paid%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAGoVChMI_ab6o9vWxwIVCmg-Ch1jIgiE#v=onepage&q=%22Madison%22%20%22coveting%20that%20liberty%20for%20which%20we%20have%20paid%22&f=false <!--https://books.google.com/books?id=zkRKqnxjbAoC&pg=PA199&dq=%22liberate+and+make+soldiers+at+once+of%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CC4Q6AEwA2oVChMIyeyr5cPRxwIVDDU-Ch2IxQjN#v=onepage&q=%22liberate%20and%20make%20soldiers%20at%20once%20of%22&f=false--> <br class="br">1780s <br class="br">Context: Would it not be as well to liberate and make soldiers at once of the blacks themselves, as to make them instruments for enlisting white soldiers? It would certainly be more consonant to the principles of liberty which ought never to be lost sight of in a contest for liberty...
Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman
Letter to Charles-Jean-François Depont (November 1789), quoted in Alfred Cobban and Robert A. Smith (eds.), The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, Volume VI: July 1789–December 1791 (1967), p. 42
1780s
Niccolo Machiavelli book Discourses on Livy
Book 1, Ch. 4 (as translated by LJ Walker and B Crick)
Discourses on Livy (1517)
Context: The demands of a free populace, too, are very seldom harmful to liberty, for they are due either to the populace being oppressed or to the suspicious that it is going to be oppressed... and, should these impressions be false, a remedy is provided in the public platform on which some man of standing can get up, appeal to the crowd, and show that it is mistaken. And though, as Tully remarks, the populace may be ignorant, it is capable of grasping the truth and readily yields when a man, worthy of confidence, lays the truth before it.
Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer
“Milton Friedman vs Free Lunch Advocate” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Qe7fLL25AQ (1980s)