The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have only the law of nature for his rule. The liberty of man, in society, is to be under no other legislative power, but that established, by consent, in the commonwealth; nor under the dominion of any will, or restraint of the law, but what that legislative shall enact, according to the trust put in it. - John Locke

The only freedom which deserves the name is that of persuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. - J.S Mill

The fairest rules are those to which everyone would agree if they did not know how much power they would have.

Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar system for all. - John Rawls, A theory of justice

Whoever makes something having bought or contracted for all other held resources used in the progress...is entitled to it. The situation is not one of something's getting made, and there being an open question of who is to get it. Things come into the world already attatched to people having entitlements over them. - Robert Nozick

The government has no right to meddle in the care of men's souls. - Locke

Where there is no law there is no freedom. - Locke

All that makes existence valuable to any one depends on the enforcement of restraints upon the actions of other people. Some rules of conduct, therefore, must be imposed, by law in the first place, and by opinion on many things which are not fit subjects for the operation of law. - Mill

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. - Lord Acton