"The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression"

This quote by W. E. B. Du Bois speaks to the significance of freedom and the consequences of rejecting it. He is suggesting that the expense of liberty, or the cost of freedom, is less than the rate of repression, or the cost of denying freedom. Simply put, it is more useful to society to allow people to be totally free than to deny them their rights. This quote talks to the concept that flexibility is an essential human right and that denying it can have severe consequences. It likewise indicates that liberty is a valuable commodity which it is worth fighting for. Du Bois is suggesting that the cost of liberty deserves the rate, and that it is better to pay the cost of freedom than to pay the rate of repression. Eventually, this quote is a reminder that liberty is an essential human right which it is worth defending.