An Experiment in Liberty Quotes

“Henry de Bracton’s famous 13th century dictum, “Not under man, but under God and law,” was understood by the Americans to mean that any government official, including the king, had to act on the basis of the law and could not change the structure of the government or the laws without the consent of those governed. Furthermore, there were fixed standards of law established in God’s decrees—found in the Bible—and in His created order—found in nature—that were to be obeyed by everyone, at all times.”
― George Grant, An Experiment in Liberty: America's Path to Independence

“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to sustain ourselves, according to the Ten Commandments of God.” James Madison”
― George Grant, An Experiment in Liberty: America's Path to Independence

“The great intellectual tradition that comes down to us from the past was never interrupted or lost through such trifles as the sack of Rome, the triumph of Attila, or all the barbarian invasions of the Dark Ages. It was lost after … the coming of the marvels of technology, the establishment of universal education, and all the enlightenment of the modern world. And thus was lost—or impatiently snapped—the long thin delicate thread that had descended from distant antiquity; the thread of that unusual human hobby: the habit of thinking.”
― George Grant, An Experiment in Liberty: America's Path to Independence

“Personal peace and affluence became more important to many than the ideas and ideals that made such aspirations possible in the first place. As Cotton Mather asserted, the Christian faith had brought the colonies prosperity, but “the daughter destroyed the mother—there is a danger, lest the enchantments of this world make them forget their errand into the wilderness: to build a city on a hill, an illumination for all the world.”
― George Grant, An Experiment in Liberty: America's Path to Independence

“G.K. Chesterton once quipped, “America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed.” Other nations find their identity and cohesion in ethnicity, or geography, or partisan ideology, or cultural tradition, he argued. But America was founded on certain ideas—ideas about freedom, about human dignity, and about social responsibility”
― George Grant, An Experiment in Liberty: America's Path to Independence