Freedom - Quotes

A hungry man is not a free man. - Adlai Stevenson

A man must keep a little back shop where he can be himself without reserve. In solitude alone can he know true freedom. - Michel Montaigne

Above all, we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. - Ronald Reagan

All men are born free: just not for long. - John le Carre

Any existence deprived of freedom is a kind of death. - Gen Michel Aoun

Freedom and constraint are two aspects of the same necessity. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Freedom as a blessing today might, under new conditions, become a danger and a curse tomorrow. Crimes endanger the general welfare of a community. Freedom for criminals would be a menace to community interests. The community therefore forbids crime, adopts a criminal code listing a great variety of acts which are considered prejudicial to community well-being, and prescribes penalties for lawbreakers. Individuals and social groups who violate the criminal law are restrained or coerced. The nature of crime depends upon local custom or accepted practice. In this very considerable area, by common consent, freedom is officially abrogated, and restraint and coercions are relied upon to protect the community. - Scott Nearing

Freedom means not being dominated by anger, greed, ignorance and other destructive emotions. - Buddhist Quote

Freedom is born of self-discipline. No individual, no nation, can achieve or maintain liberty without self-control. The undisciplined man is a slave to his own weaknesses. - Alan Valentine

Freedom is the emancipation from the arbitrary rule of other men. - Mortimer Jerome Adler

Freedom is the recognition of necessity. - Friedrich Engels

Freedom, after all, is simply being able to live with the consequences of your decisions. - James X. Mullen

I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. - Robert Heinlein

I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

If we wish to free ourselves from enslavement, we must choose freedom and the responsibility this entails. - Leo Buscaglia

Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labour in freedom. - Albert Einstein

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. - Nelson Mandela

For you who no longer possess it, freedom is everything, for us who do, it is merely an illusion. - Emil Cioran

Freedom can be a frightening thing when you are not used to it. - Zana Muhsen

Freedom is an inside job. - Sam keen

Freedom is actually a bigger game than power. Power is about what you can control. Freedom is about what you can unleash. - Harriet Rubin

Freedom is an elusive concept. Some men hold themselves prisoner even when they have the power to do as they please and go where they choose, while others are free in their hearts, even as shackles restrain them. - Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

Freedom is greatest when the boundaries are clearly defined. - Chuck Coonradt

Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be. - James Baldwin

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. - Mahatma Gandhi

Freedom is the crux of self-respect. It is difficult to feel good about ourselves when we are unnaturally dependent on someone or something. - David J. Lieberman

Freedom is the illusion of an imprisoned mind. - Leonid S. Sukhorukov

Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves. - Friedrich Nietzsche

Freedom of speech means freedom for those who you despise, and freedom to express the most despicable views. It also means that the government cannot pick and choose which expressions to authorize and which to prevent. - Alan Dershowitz

Freedom would be meaningless without security in the home and in the streets. - Nelson Mandela

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. - Robert A. Heinlein

I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations. - James Madison

I was enclosed in the four walls of my new freedom. - Thomas Merton

If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all. - Noam Chomsky

It is like living among snow-capped peaks with clouds wrapped around them and the sun and moon starkly shining over them... Aloneness becomes their companion, their spiritual consort, part of their being. Wherever they go they are alone, whatever they do they are alone. Whether they relate socially with friends or meditate alone ... aloneness is there all the time. That aloneness is freedom, fundamental freedom. - Chogyam Trungpa

It is only after slavery and prison that the sweetest appreciation of freedom can come. - Malcolm X

It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else that prevents men from living freely and nobly. - Unknown

It is the mind of man alone that is the cause of his bondage or freedom. - Chanakya

It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything. - Chuck Palahniuk

I've read and heard a lot of unbelievable stuff about those times when people lived in freedom – that is, in disorganized wildness. - Yevgeny Zamyatin

Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth. - George Washington

Man is born free and is everywhere in chains. - Peter Carey

Man is free at the moment he wishes to be. - Voltaire

Man is free, but not if he doesn't believe it. - Giovanni Giacomo Casanova de Seingalt

Man is not fully free unless he is master of himself. - Epictetus

Many politicians are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim. - Thomas Macaulay

May we think of freedom, not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right. - Peter Marshall

Most men, after a little freedom, have preferred authority with the consoling assurances and the economy of effort it brings. - Walter Lippmann

Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility. - Sigmund Freud

No man is free who cannot command himself. - Pythagoras

No man on earth is truly free, all are slaves of money or necessity. Public opinion or fear of prosecution forces each one, against his conscience, to conform. - Euripides

No one is truly free, they are a slave to wealth, fortune, the law, or other people restraining them from acting according to their will. - Euripides

Once a man has tasted freedom, he will never be content to be a slave. - Walt Disney

One of the greatest mental freedoms is truly not caring what anyone else thinks of you. - Unknown

Our submission to general principles is necessary because we cannot be guided in our practical action by full knowledge and evaluation of the consequences. So long as men are not omniscient, the only way in which freedom can be given to the individual is by such general rules to delimit the sphere in which the decision is his. There can be no freedom if the government is not limited to particular kinds of action but can use its powers in any ways which serve particular ends. - Friedrich Hayek

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. - Soren Kierkegaard

Perfect freedom is reserved for the man who lives by his own work and in that work, does what he wants to do. - Robin G. Collingwood

Real freedom lies in wildness, not in civilization. - Charles Lindbergh

The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do. - Eric Hoffer

The freedom now desired by many is not freedom to do and dare but freedom from care and worry. - James Truslow Adams

The fact, in short, is that freedom, to be meaningful in an organized society must consist of an amalgam of hierarchy of freedoms and restraints. - Samuel Hendel

The freedom we are looking for is the freedom to be ourselves, to express ourselves. - Don Miguel Ruiz

The greatest enemy of individual freedom is the individual himself. - Saul David Alinsky

The human animal needs a freedom seldom mentioned: freedom from intrusion. He needs a little privacy quite as much as he wants understanding or vitamins or exercise or praise. - Unknown

The last of human freedoms - the ability to choose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances. - Sigmund Freud

The moment we desire to be something, we are no longer free. - Zen Proverb

The moment you say that any idea system is sacred, whether it’s a religious belief system or a secular ideology, the moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible. - Salman Rushdie

The more freedom you give people to do good, the more freedom they have to do bad as well. - Tad Williams

The mos free person in the world is the one who has nothing to hide. - Unknown

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. - John Stuart Mill

The only man who is really free is the one who can turn down an invitation to dinner without giving an excuse. - Jules Renard

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion. - Albert Camus

The outward freedom that we shall attain will only be in exact proportion to the inward freedom to which we may have grown at a given moment. And if this is a correct view of freedom, our chief energy must be concentrated on achieving reform from within. - Mahatma Gandhi

The price of freedom of religion, or of speech, or of the press, is that we must put up with a good deal of rubbish. - Robert Jackson

The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant. - Maximilien Robespierre

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. - H. L. Mencken

The unity of all who dwell in freedom is their only sure defence. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

The war for freedom will never really be won because the price of freedom is constant vigilance over ourselves and over our Government. - Eleanor Roosevelt

The way to final freedom is within thyself. - Unknown

The whole world yearns after freedom, yet each creature is in love with his chains. - Sri Aurobindo

There are two freedoms - the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where he is free to do what he ought. - Charles Kingsley

There is a huge amount of freedom that comes to you when you take nothing personally. - Don Miguel Ruiz

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires. - Nelson Mandela

There is no greater freedom than letting go. - April Grisham

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. - Abraham Lincoln

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. - Thomas Paine

To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. - Nelson Mandela

To be true to one’s own freedom is, in essence, to honour and respect the freedom of all others. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

To free your world, free your mind. - Bryon Katie

To know how to free oneself is nothing; the arduous thing is to know what to do with one's freedom. - Andre Gide

To really be free, you need to be free in the mind. - Alexander Loutsis

Total freedom is never what one imagines and, in fact, hardly exists. It comes as a shock in life to learn that we usually only exchange one set of restrictions for another. The second set, however, is self-chosen, and therefore easier to accept. - Anne Lindbergh

True freedom is always spiritual. It has something to do with your innermost being, which cannot be chained, handcuffed, or put into a jail. - Osho

True freedom surfaces when you reach a stage when it no longer matters to you whether you are free or not. - Unknown

True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Unless your freedom turns into a creative realization, you will feel sad. Because you will see that you are free – your chains are broken, and you are no longer in prison; you are standing under the starry night, completely free. But where do you go? - Osho

We are free, truly free, when we don’t need to rent our arms to anybody in order to be able to lift a piece of bread to our mouths. - Ricardo Flores Magon

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. - Eric Hoffer

When you come to a point where you have no need to impress anybody, your freedom shall begin! - Unknown

Whoever will be free must make himself free. Freedom is no fairy gift to fall into a man's lap. - Max Stirner

Witness and stand back from Nature, that is the first step to the soul's freedom. - Sri Aurobindo

You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way. - Richard Bach

You will never be free until you free yourself from the prison of your own false thoughts. - Philip Arnold

You’ll never understand true freedom until you experience the freedom of being completely true to yourself. - Unknown