The greater the share the people have in government, the less liberty, civil or religious, does a nation enjoy.

Is the government getting too repressive? You could spend the rest of your life fighting it, but your actions won't change the fate of the nation. However, you can make sure the repression doesn't get in your way.

Whenever a government feels the need of promising peace and prosperity to its citizens by means of a proclamation, it is time to be on guard and expect the opposite.

Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty.

For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'.

If we feel less threatened today, if we feel as though we live in a non-violent society, it is only because we have ceded so much power over our daily lives to the state. Some call this reason, but we might just as well call it laziness. A dangerous laziness, it would seem, given how little most people say they trust politicians.

A freedom in retreat somewhere would make freedom less secure everywhere.

When the citizenry lose trust and believe that their government has their interest at heart, anarchy is unleashed and we mark the beginning of a sorry end.

The danger of disturbing the public tranquillity by interesting too strongly the public passions, is a still more serious objection against a frequent reference of constitutional questions to the decision of the whole society.

Awareness that the Government may be watching chills associational and expressive freedoms. And the Government’s unrestrained power to assemble data that reveal private aspects of identity is susceptible to abuse.

A part of these answers would make the population feel unsafe.

I fear you do not fully comprehend the danger of abridging the liberties of the people. Nothing but the very sternest necessity can ever justify it. A government had better go to the very extreme of toleration, than to do aught that could be construed into an interference with, or to jeopardize in any degree, the common rights of its citizens.

When people fear surveillance, whether it exists or not, they grow afraid to speak their minds and hearts freely to their government or to anyone else.

Liberty of the people is not my liberty!