It consists not in doing what one likes to do, but in doing what one ought to do. It is the right of each individual to be master of his own time and actions consistent with fairness and justice to his fellow men and with harmony with the laws of God . . . . It is freedom of choice, a divine gift, an essential virtue in a peaceful society.18 [p. 212] In these days of uncertainty and unrest, liberty-loving people’s greatest responsibility and paramount duty is to preserve and proclaim the freedom of the individual, his relationship to Deity, and . . . the necessity of obedience to the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ—only thus will mankind find peace and happiness.19

Source: David O. McKay
General Conference, April 1950

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If we would make the world better, let us foster a keener appreciation of . . . freedom and liberty.20

Source: David O. McKay
General Conference, October 1940

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[E]very man has a property in his own person. This nobody has any right to but himself. The labour of his body and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever, then he removes out of the state that nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his labour with, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property. It being by him removed from the common state nature placed it in, it hath by this labour something annexed to it that excludes the common right of other men. For this labour being the unquestionable property of the labourer, no man but he can have a right to what that is once joined to . . . .

Source: John Locke
An Essay Concerning the True Origin, Extent, and End of Civil Government, V. pp.27-28

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It is impossible to grasp the meaning of the idea of sound money if one does not realize that it was devised as an instrument for the protection of civil liberties against despotic inroads on the part of governments. Ideologically it belongs in the same class with political constitutions and bills of right.

Source: Ludwig von Mises
The Theory of Money and Credit, p. 454 (1912).

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I should like to express gratitude in this thanksgiving season for this great country, for the Constitution of the United States that grants to each individual liberty, freedom to think and to speak and to act as you please, just so long as each gives to the other man that same privilege. I am thankful for this country, and to use the words of Benjamin Decasseres that for a hundred and fifty years this country has raised the level of wages and living to the highest point ever attained in all historic time; thankful that this country has given more persons opportunity to raise themselves under individualistic, capitalistic, free enterprise system from menial to commanding positions than any other nation in the world, past or present. Then I repeat in his words: “Grateful that this country guarantees to each and all, native and foreign, free speech, free pen, freedom of religion, and trial by jury.

Source: President David O. McKay
CN-11/27/54

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Liberty not only means that the individual has both the opportunity and the burden of choice; it also means that he must bear the consequences of his actions and will receive blame or praise for them. Liberty and responsibility are inseparable.

Source: Friedrich A. Hayek
The Constitution of Liberty

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Another not unimportant consideration is, that the powers of the general government will be, and indeed must be, principally employed upon external objects, such as war, peace, negotiations with foreign powers, and foreign commerce. In its internal operations it can touch but few objects, except to introduce regulations beneficial to the commerce, intercourse, and other relations, between the states, and to lay taxes for the common good. The powers of the states, on the other hand, extend to all objects, which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, and liberties, and property of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the state.

Source: Joseph Story
Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

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[July 4th] ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.

Source: John Adams
letter to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776

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Some believe that while freedom is a good thing, it has a precondition in good government and state institutions that bring about the core conditions of liberty. This is a view that freedom cannot care for itself and that society and civilization cannot arise on their own. Freedom needs government police, judges, legislatures, and presidents, they believe, to establish the conditions that make freedom possible in the first place.

So that we are clear, we are not speaking here of merely the belief in limited government, or what is sometimes called “minarchism.” There is a difference between believing in the need for government to preserve and protect freedom, and the view that government is the first condition of society, responsible for giving birth to freedom. In one view, some government is unavoidable; in the other view, power is the benefactor of freedom, the force to which all liberty owes its conception. There is a difference between seeing government as a necessary evil, and viewing liberty as the offspring of power.

Source: Lew Rockwell
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/regime-libs.html

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