“It is not unfrequent to hear men declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it but their own liberty, — to oppress without control or the restraint of laws all who are poorer or weaker than themselves.”

— Samuel Adams

Essay published in The Advertiser (1748) http://thingsabove.freerovin.com/samadams.htm and later reprinted in The Life and Public Service of Samuel Adams, Volume 1 (1865), by William Vincent Wells 
Context: Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man. We must not conclude merely upon a man's haranguing upon liberty, and using the charming sound, that he is fit to be trusted with the liberties of his country. It is not unfrequent to hear men declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it but their own liberty, — to oppress without control or the restraint of laws all who are poorer or weaker than themselves. It is not, I say, unfrequent to see such instances, though at the same time I esteem it a justice due to my country to say that it is not without shining examples of the contrary kind; — examples of men of a distinguished attachment to this same liberty I have been describing; whom no hopes could draw, no terrors could drive, from steadily pursuing, in their sphere, the true interests of their country; whose fidelity has been tried in the nicest and tenderest manner, and has been ever firm and unshaken.
The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy this gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people.

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Samuel Adams 57

American statesman, Massachusetts governor, and political p… 1722–1803

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“...what the freedom is that I love, and that to which I think all men intitled. It is not solitary, unconnected, individual, selfish Liberty. As if every Man was to regulate the whole of his Conduct by his own will. The Liberty I mean is social freedom. It is that state of things in which Liberty is secured by the equality of Restraint; A Constitution of things in which the liberty of no one Man, and no body of Men and no Number of men, can find Means to trespass on the liberty of any Person, or any description of Persons in the Society. This kind of liberty is indeed but another name for Justice, as ascertained by wise Laws, and secured by well-constructed institutions.”

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

“Liberty in the most literal sense is the negation of law for law is restraint, and the absence of restraint is anarchy. On the other hand, anarchy by destroying restraint would leave liberty the exclusive possession of the strong or the unscrupulous.”

Benjamin N. Cardozo (1870–1938) United States federal judge

p, 125
Other writings, The Paradoxes of Legal Science (1928)

“Hayek’s essential political philosophy was that liberty is the supremacy of law. To some, this may appear a paradoxical conception of liberty, for liberty is too often considered to be the absence of law. This, however, was the exact opposite of Hayek’s view. He thought that liberty is not possible without law. Right law is liberty.”

Alan O. Ebenstein (1959) American political scientist, educator and author

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“The colonists are by the law of nature free-born, as indeed all men are, white or black…It is a clear truth, that those who every day barter away other men's liberty will soon care little for their own.”

James Otis Jr. (1725–1783) Lawyer in colonial Massachusetts

Argument Against the Writs of Assistance (1761)
Context: … [Slave] trade … is the most shocking violation of the law of nature, has a direct tendency to diminish … liberty, and makes every dealer in it a tyrant, from the director of an African company to the petty chapman [peddler]…. The colonists are by the law of nature free-born, as indeed all men are, white or black... It is a clear truth, that those who every day barter away other men's liberty will soon care little for their own.

“But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

“Civil liberty is the status of the man who is guaranteed by law and civil institutions the exclusive employment of all his own powers for his own welfare.”

William Graham Sumner (1840–1910) American academic

The Forgotten Man and Other Essays (corrected edition), “The Forgotten Man” 1883 http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/sumner-the-forgotten-man-and-other-essays-corrected-edition?q=Civil+liberty+is+the+status#Sumner_1225_701.

“God has conferred upon men liberty of their own will, in order that by purity and sinlessness of life they may become like unto God.”

Pope Sixtus I (42) pope

As quoted in On Nature and Grace, Ch. 77, by Augustine of Hippo, as translated by Peter Holmes, Robert Ernest Wallis and Benjamin B Warfield in A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Vol. 5 (1887), edited by Philip Schaf, p. 148
The quote above is actually from a Pythagorean philosopher. Pelagius attributed the quote to Pope Sixtus, and Augustine followed his lead until he discovered the error. Augustine himself corrects the source of the quote in the "Retractations" section of his book.

“The Judge is intrusted with the liberties of the people, and his saying is the Law.”

Sir Thomas Twisden, 1st Baronet (1602–1683) English politician

King v. Wagstaffe (1665), Sir Thomas Ray. Rep. 138.

“What a curious phenomenon it is, that you can get men to die for the liberty of the world, who will not make the little sacrifice that is needed to free themselves from their own individual bondage.”

Bruce Fairchild Barton (1886–1967) American author, politician and advertising executive

"The Fine, Rare Habit of Learning to Do Without", Every Week magazine, as quoted in http://adventistdigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/adl:352018/datastream/PDF/view The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol 95, No 31, 1 August 1918, pp. 18-19

“It is much to be wished that slavery may be abolished. The honour of the States, as well as justice and humanity, in my opinion, loudly call upon them to emancipate these unhappy people. To contend for our own liberty, and to deny that blessing to others, involves an inconsistency not to be excused.”

John Jay (1745–1829) American politician and a founding father of the United States

1780s, Letter to R. Lushington (1786)

“It is not unfrequent to hear men declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it but their own liberty, — to oppress without control or the restraint of laws all who are poorer or weaker than themselves.”

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