Classics of Liberalism
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The European Convention on Human Rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Introduction to The Shame of the Cities Lincoln Steffens, (1904)
Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
THE CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON by Immanuel Kant
The Right to Ignore the State by Herbert Spencer
On Liberty, John Stuart Mill 1860
On Democracy in America, Alexis de Toqueville 1835, 1840
The Social Contract Jean Jacques Rousseau1762
US Constitution 1787
Common Sense by Thomas Paine 1776
Rights of Man by Thomas Paine
A Letter Concerning Toleration by John Locke (1689)
Constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy circa 1450-1500
The Magna Carta granted (under great duress) by King John at Runnymede on June 15, 1215
The Athenian Constitution by Aristotle 350 BCE
When Hitler came for the Jews... I was not a Jew, therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then, Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church -- and there was nobody left to be concerned.
-- Pastor Martin Niemoller, Congressional Record, October 14, 1968, vol. 114, p. 31636. "Cessante ratione legis, cessat ipsa lex," which loosely translated means "a law lacking rationality, ceases to be law." I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. What I can do, I should do. And what I should do, by the grace of God, I will do.
-- Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909)
Liberalism
and the Left: Rethinking the Relationship; Common Origins, Different Paths
by Eric Foner