Starckman
"Pleasure is our first and kindred good. It is the starting-point of every choice and of every aversion, and to it we come back, inasmuch as we make feeling the rule by which to judge of every good thing. (...) By pleasure we mean the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul." (Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus)
"When you are studying any matter or considering any philosophy. Ask yourself only what are the facts and what is the truth to the facts bear out? Never let yourself be diverted either by what you would wish to believe or by what you think could have beneficent social effects if it were believed. But, look only and surely. And what are the facts?" (Bertrand Russell)
"The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing 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. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental or spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest." (John Stuart Mill, On Liberty)
"L’individualisme établit pour premier principe que les individus sont appelés à développer leurs facultés dans toute l’étendue dont elles sont susceptibles ; que ces facultés ne doivent être limitées qu’autant que le nécessite le maintien de la tranquillité, de la sûreté publique ; et que nul n’est obligé, dans ce qui concerne ses opinions, ses croyances, ses doctrines, à se soumettre à une autorité intellectuelle en dehors de lui…" (Benjamin Constant, Revue encyclopédique, 1er février 1826).
"Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power." (Bertrand Russell, Nobel Prize in Literature Discourse, 1950)
"Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell." (Karl Popper)
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." (United States Declaration of Independence, 1776)
"Art. 1er. Les hommes naissent et demeurent libres et égaux en droits. Les distinctions sociales ne peuvent être fondées que sur l'utilité commune.
Art. 2. Le but de toute association politique est la conservation des droits naturels et imprescriptibles de l'Homme. Ces droits sont la liberté, la propriété, la sûreté, et la résistance à l'oppression." (Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen, 1789)