Natural Law

The most natural privilege of man, next to the right of acting for himself, is that of combining his exertions with others, and of acting in common with them. The right of association therefore appears to me almost as inalienable in its nature as the right of personal...

Governments should not interfere with their citizens’ freedom to travel wherever they want. The internal passport systems of China and other despotic countries are a gross violation of individual rights. Likewise governments that prevent their people from leaving...

In a free country a person should be able to wake up in the morning and do as he chooses, so long as he is not injuring others. If a man wants to have twelve children, have no children, live as a hermit, throw a party, leave his lights on,...

The care therefore of every man’s soul belongs unto himself, and is to be left unto himself. But what if he neglect the care of his soul? I answer, what if he neglect the care of his health, or of his estate, which things are nearer related...

Restrictions on cross-border trade are a grave infringement of the individual’s liberty to buy from, or sell to, whoever offers him the best price. Frédéric Bastiat explained: “A man who would consider himself a bandit if, pistol in hand, he...

The property which every man has in his own labor; as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable … . To hinder him from employing this strength and dexterity in what manner he thinks proper without injury...

No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free, no one ever will. If virtuous, it need not fear the fair operation of attack and defence: nature has given to man no other means of sifting out the truth either in...

Freedom of speech is the great bulwark of liberty; they prosper and die together. And it is the terror of traitors and oppressors, and a barrier against them. It produces excellent writers and encourages men of fine genius. Tacitus tells us,...

Government being intended to protect men from the injuries of one another, and not to direct them in their own affairs, in which no one is interested but themselves; it is plain, that their thoughts and domestic concerns are exempted entirely from its...

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —The Declaration of Independence These rights, which...