“Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.”

—  Ronald Reagan

The New Republic (16 December 1981) ; as cited in War and Conflict Quotations https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1476611483, eds. Michael & Jean Thomsett, McFarland (1997), p. 105
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 29, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty." by Ronald Reagan?
Ronald Reagan photo
Ronald Reagan 264
American politician, 40th president of the United States (i… 1911–2004

Related quotes

Woodrow Wilson photo

“Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of the government. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it.”

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American politician, 28th president of the United States (in office from 1913 to 1921)

Speech at New York Press Club (9 September 1912), in The papers of Woodrow Wilson, 25:124
1910s

Michael J. Sandel photo

“Unlike the liberty of the early republic, the modern version permits — in fact even requires — concentrated power.”

Michael J. Sandel (1953) American political philosopher

The Procedural Republic and the Unencumbered Self, 1984

John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton photo

“In every age its [liberty's] progress has been beset by its natural enemies, by ignorance and superstition, by lust of conquest and by love of ease, by the strong man's craving for power, and the poor man's craving for food.”

John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) British politician and historian

p, 125
The History of Freedom in Antiquity (1877)

Mohammad Hidayatullah photo

“Liberty of the Individual has to be Fundamental and it has been so declared by the people… To change the Fundamental part of Individual's liberty is a usurpation of constituent functions because they have been placed outside the scope of the power of the constituted Parliament.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah (1905–1992) 11th Chief Justice of India

His judgement in another case on the issue of Fundamental Rights.
Full Court Reference in Memory of The Late Justice M. Hidayatullah

Lawrence Lessig photo

“There has never been a time in history when more of our "culture" was as "owned" as it is now. And yet there has never been a time when the concentration of power to control the uses of culture has been as unquestioningly accepted as it is now.”

Lawrence Lessig book Free Culture

Free Culture (2004)

Douglas MacArthur photo

“The object and practice of liberty lies in the limitation of governmental power. Through the ages the constantly expanding grasp of government has been liberty's greatest threat.”

Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964) U.S. Army general of the army, field marshal of the Army of the Philippines

Source: Reminiscences (1964), p. 417

Theodore Roosevelt photo

“One of the chief factors in progress is the destruction of special privilege. The essence of any struggle for healthy liberty has always been, and must always be, to take from some one man or class of men the right to enjoy power, or wealth, or position, or immunity, which has not been earned by service to his or their fellows.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

1910s, The New Nationalism (1910)
Context: In every wise struggle for human betterment one of the main objects, and often the only object, has been to achieve in large measure equality of opportunity. In the struggle for this great end, nations rise from barbarism to civilization, and through it people press forward from one stage of enlightenment to the next. One of the chief factors in progress is the destruction of special privilege. The essence of any struggle for healthy liberty has always been, and must always be, to take from some one man or class of men the right to enjoy power, or wealth, or position, or immunity, which has not been earned by service to his or their fellows. That is what you fought for in the Civil War, and that is what we strive for now.

Josip Broz Tito photo

“Churchill, he is a great man. He is, of course, our enemy and has always been the enemy of Communism, but he is an enemy one must respect, an enemy one likes to have.”

Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980) Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman

Jasper Ridley, Tito: A Biography (Constable and Company Ltd., 1994), p. 323.
Other

John Allen Fraser photo

“In the long and dogged crusade that the human race has fought in favor of democracy, the ideal of liberty, of freedom, has always been the goal.”

John Allen Fraser (1931) Canadian politician

Source: The House Of Commons At Work (1993), Chapter 1, The System of Government, p. 4

“American military power has been the enemy of the White race and the tool of Jewry and international finance ever since.”

David Lane (white nationalist) (1938–2007) American white supremacist, convicted felon

Revolution by Number

Related topics