Free Republic

The well-used quote: "The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops," may be found in a variety of forms. Perhaps the most colorful version of it is: "The road to Hell is paved with the bones of priests and monks, and the skulls of bishops are the lamp posts that light the path." This saying has been attributed to one of several Fathers of the ancient Church and to Protestant revolutionaries from more recent times. Most often, it is claimed to be taken from the writings of St. Athanasius or St. John Chrysostom. After a thorough search,...

“Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of the citizens to keep and bear arms. [...] the right of the citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government and one more safeguard against a tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible.” – Rep. Hubert H. Humphrey “The possession of arms by the people is the ultimate warrant that government governs only with the consent of the governed.” – Jeffrey R. Snyder, "A Nation of Cowards"...

Respected for their discipline, honor and ability to face the most intense situations in the name of liberty, the U.S. military knows a thing or two about surviving combat. These are some of our favorite quotes from our armed forces. “Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.” – General James Mattis “If I always appear prepared, it is because before entering an undertaking, I have meditated long and have foreseen what might occur. It is not genius where reveals to me suddenly and secretly what I should do in circumstances unexpected by others; it is thought and preparation.” –...

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky quoted William Shakespeare and Winston Churchill in an emotional address to both houses of the United Kingdom Parliament which ultimately appealed to British “greatness” to make sure “Ukrainian skies are safe” and to categorise Russia as a “terrorist state”. The Houses of Commons and Lords received an extraordinary address by the Ukrainian President on Tuesday afternoon, a short speech that expressed the Ukrainian experience of the renewed Russian invasion day-by-day for the past fortnight, and which also appealed to the United Kingdom to take further action.

"Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." "Our cause is the cause of all mankind…we are fighting for their liberty in defending our own." "From a persuasion that equal liberty was originally the portion, it is still the birthright of all men." "Sell not...liberty to purchase power." "Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." "Every man…is, of common right, and by the laws of God, a freeman, and entitled to the free enjoyment of liberty." "A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats." "Make yourself...

"One and God make a majority." "Without a struggle, there can be no progress." "The soul that is within me no man can degrade." "Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitude." "Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work." "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." "The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion." "At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed." "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." "A gentleman will not insult me, and no...

"Capitalism will continue to eliminate mass poverty in more and more places and to an increasingly marked extent if it is merely permitted to do so." – Henry Hazlitt "The superior freedom of the capitalist system, its superior justice, and its superior productivity are not three superiorities, but one. The justice follows from the freedom and the productivity follows from the freedom and the justice." – Henry Hazlitt "Since the State necessarily lives by the compulsory confiscation of private capital, and since its expansion necessarily involves ever-greater incursions on private individuals and private enterprise, we must assert that the state...

"Each of us has a natural right, from God, to defend his person, his liberty, and his property." "The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." "Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state lives at the expense of everyone." "Slavery, protection, and monopoly find defenders, not only in those who profit by them, but in those who suffer by them." "There are two principles between which there can be no compromise – liberty and coercion." "The most urgent necessity is, not that...

"Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." "He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression." "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it." "Whatever is my right as a man is also the right of another; and it becomes my duty to guarantee as well as to possess." "I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different...

Here are a vital words on freedom and liberty, especially with cancel-culture in full swing, a preponderance of Leftist ‘fact checkers,’ social media gatekeepers, biased search engines, and Joe Biden’s puppet masters controlling the White House: Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them. ~Frederick Douglass A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both. ~Milton Friedman If we don't believe in freedom of expression for...

“‘I’d rather be myself,’ he said. ‘Myself and nasty. Not somebody else, however jolly.’” – Aldous Huxley, Brave New World “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance “Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can offer with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation, but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance “Even despotism does not produce...

“It was a pleasure to burn.” “There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.” “The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are.” “Remember, the firemen are rarely necessary. The public itself stopped reading of its own accord.” “Oh God, the terrible tyranny of the majority. We all have our harps to play. And it's up to you to know with which ear you'll listen.” “Nobody listens any more. I can’t talk to the walls because...

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” “No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.” “Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.” “Whenever the state of the Treasury can permit, I believe in a reduction of taxes. But I am not advocating tax reduction merely for the...

“Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter.” – Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged “A man’s ego is the fountainhead of human progress.” – Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead “The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone.” – Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism “To love is to value. Only a rationally selfish man, a man of self esteem, is capable of love – because he is the only man capable of holding firm, consistent, uncompromising, unbetrayed...

White House reporters are ​seething over a policy that requires them to submit quotes from interviews with Biden administration officials to the communications team for approval, editing or veto, according to a report on Tuesday. ​ The White House is demanding that reporters who conduct interviews with administration officials do so under conditions known as “background with ​quote approval,” Politico reported. ​

This year is marked by gloomy and unknowable prospects. Here are some thoughts on the virtue of confidence that will strengthen the soul. “Have confidence, I have overcome the world.” Our Lord Jesus Christ “And I say to you, Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you.” Our Lord Jesus Christ “Confidence is a hope fortified by solid conviction.” Saint Thomas Aquinas “Advance very simply with the Cross of Our Lord, and have peace with yourself. You will pass through every storm safely, as long as your trust...

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Ronald Reagan dreamt of a nation focused on freedom and achieving its “destiny to be as a shining city on a hill for all mankind to see.” Known as The Great Communicator during his presidency, he never felt it was the words he used that made a difference: it was the content. He has admitted that he wasn't a great communicator, but that he “communicated great things [that] came from the heart of a great nation.” These are some of our favorite words of wisdom from one of our favorite American leaders. “The most terrifying words in the English language...

“The future of human liberty…means the future of civilization.” “Only if the modern state can be held within a strictly limited agenda…can it be prevented from regimenting, conquering, and ultimately devouring the society which gave it birth.” “A man who is good from docility, and not from stern self-control, has no character.” “Contrary to age-old prejudices, the wealth of the rich is not the cause of the poverty of the poor, but helps to alleviate that poverty.” “Inflation itself is a form of taxation. It is perhaps the worst possible form, which usually bears hardest on those least able to...