Liberty...consists in this, that every Man, while he respects the persons of others, and allows them quietly to enjoy the produce of their industry, be certain himself likewise to enjoy the produce of his own industry; and that his person be also secure.

DE LOLME, J.L., The Constitution of England, Book II, Chapter V, 1771

[I]t is the right of canvassing without fear [of] the conduct of those who are placed at their head, which constitutes a free Nation.

The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.

[L]iberty applied to political man practically means, in the man, protection or checks against undue interference, whether this be from individuals, from masses, or from government. The highest amount of liberty comes to signify the safest guarantees of undisturbed legitimate action, and the most efficient checks against undue interference.

LIEBER, FRANCIS, On Civil Liberty and Self-Government (1853), Chapter III

We advance, then, a step farther in practically considering civil liberty, and find that it chiefly consists in guarantees (and corresponding checks) of those rights which experience has proved to be most exposed to interference, and which men hold dearest and most important.

LIEBER, FRANCIS, On Civil Liberty and Self-Government (1853), Chapter III

The trial for treason is a gauge of liberty. Tell us how they try people for treason, and we will tell you whether they are free.

LIEBER, FRANCIS, On Civil Liberty and Self-Government (1853), Chapter VIII

Liberty is to be free from restraint and violence from others.

Freedom is the right to choose: the right to create for oneself the alternatives of choice. Without the possibility of choice and the exercise of choice a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing.

Liberty is power cut into fragments.

Freedom is indivisible. As soon as one starts to restrict it, one enters upon a decline on which it is difficult to stop. If one assigns to the government the task of making truth prevail in the advertising of perfumes and tooth paste, one cannot contest it the right to look after truth in the more important matters of religion, philosophy, and social ideology.

Liberty is the right to do everything which the laws allow.

Freedom is not empowerment. Empowerment is what the Serbs have in Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered. It's not entitlement. An entitlement is what people on welfare get, and how free are they? It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights——the 'right' to education, the 'right' to health care, the 'right' to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery——hay and a barn for human cattle. There's only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.

Freedom is the right to question and change the established way of doing things. It is the continuous revolution of the marketplace. It is the understanding that allows to recognize shortcomings and seek solutions.

[Liberty is] the power which every man has over his own actions, and his right to enjoy the fruit of his labour, art, and industry, as far as by it he hurts not the society, or any members of it, by taking from any member, or by hindering him from enjoying what he himself enjoys. The fruits of a man’s honest industry are the just rewards of it, ascertained to him by natural and eternal equity, as is his title to use them in the manner which he thinks fit: And thus, with the above limitations, every man is sole lord and arbiter of his own private actions and property.

Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others.