Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Liberty can be risky but it remains the most reliable safeguard we have.
In plain terms
Freedom is dangerous yet our safest protection.
What can you take from it?
Embrace liberty despite its risks.

Where it applies

  • political debate
  • personal autonomy

Putting it to work

  • defend civil liberties
  • balance liberty with responsibility

Questions to consider

  • Why is liberty considered safe?
  • How do you balance liberty and order?

Another view

Excessive liberty can lead to chaos if unchecked.

More from Harry Emerson Fosdick

  1. 'It is by acts and not by ideas that people live. '

    Permalink to quote #16
  2. 'Life consists not simply in what heredity and environment do to us but in what we make out of what they do to us.'

    Permalink to quote #18
  3. 'I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it.'

    Permalink to quote #15

Related quotes

  1. Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.

    James A. GarfieldJames A. Garfield quote #11
  2. Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.

    Harry S. TrumanHarry S. Truman quote #19
  3. We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run down.

    Aneurin BevanAneurin Bevan quote #19