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Freedom quotes

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“Only free men can negotiate.” Nelson Mandela, “Long Walk to Freedom” - 1995

“Freedom without civility, freedom without the ability to live in peace, was not true freedom at all.” Nelson Mandela, “Long Walk to Freedom” - 1995

“Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “The Social Contract” - 1762

“Liberty may be gained, but can never be recovered.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “The Social Contract” - 1762

“A conditioned mind is never a free mind.” Bruce Lee, “Tao of Jeet Kune Do” - 1975

“Power and machinery, money and goods, are useful only as they set us free to live.” Henry Ford, “My Life and Work” - 1922

“For the unity of freedom has never relied on uniformity of opinion.” John F. Kennedy, “State of the Union Address” - 14 January 1963

“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, “Long Walk to Freedom” - 1995

“with freedom come responsibilities” Nelson Mandela, “Long Walk to Freedom” - 1995

“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves” Abraham Lincoln, “Letter to Henry L. Pierce and others” - April 6, 1859

“Every subject's duty is the King's; but every subject's soul is his own.” William Shakespeare, “Henry V” - 1600

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.” George Orwell, “1984” - 1949

“To die hating them, that was freedom.” George Orwell, “1984” - 1949

“If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man.” Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience” - 1849

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” - 16 April 1963

“This would be a hazardous life, and I would be apart from my family, but when a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.” Nelson Mandela, “Long Walk to Freedom” - 1995

“Freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all of my people were the chains on me.” Nelson Mandela, “Long Walk to Freedom” - 1995

“But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.” Aldous Huxley, “Brave New World” - 1932

“I take the only desire one can really permit oneself. Freedom, Alvah, freedom.” Ayn Rand, “The Fountainhead” - 1943

“Happiness is self-contained and self-sufficient. Happy men have no time and no use for you. Happy men are free men.” Ayn Rand, “The Fountainhead” - 1943

“The excess of liberty, whether in States or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery.” Plato, “The Republic”

“Democracy, for example, arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.” Aristotle, “Politics”

“He wants to show me that his love for me is not to interfere with his freedom.” Leo Tolstoy, “Anna Karenina” - 1877

“Weary of liberty, he suffered himself to be saddled and bridled, and was ridden to death for his pains.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “The Sorrows of Young Werther” - 1774

“It is a strange desire, to seek power and to lose liberty: or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self.” Francis Bacon, “The Essays of Francis Bacon” - 1597

“There are but few important events in the affairs of men brought about by their own choice.” Ulysses S. Grant, “Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant” - 1885

“After the primary necessities of food and raiment, freedom is the first and strongest want of human nature.” John Stuart Mill, “The Subjection of Women” - 1869

“The love of power and the love of liberty are in eternal antagonism.” John Stuart Mill, “The Subjection of Women” - 1869

“A mother, who is really a mother, is never free.” Honoré de Balzac, “Letters of Two Brides” - 1841

“You know, there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“Even that has its reason; it is often better to be in chains than to be free.” Franz Kafka, “The Trial” - 1925

“Above all, the free man is superior to the man who has to serve another.” Franz Kafka, “The Trial” - 1925

“VOTE, n. The instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.” Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil's Dictionary” - 1911

“Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.” Ronald Reagan, “State of the Union Address” - 25 January 1984

“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia” - 1785

“The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.” Thomas Jefferson, “A Summary View of the Rights of British America” - 1774

“Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people.” Charlie Chaplin, “My Autobiography” - 1964

“They fancied themselves free, and no one will ever be free so long as there are pestilences.” Albert Camus, “The Plague” - 1947

“This was freedom. Losing all hope was freedom.” Chuck Palahniuk, “Fight Club” - 1996

“I answer that, Man has free-will: otherwise counsels, exhortations, commands, prohibitions, rewards, and punishments would be in vain.” Thomas Aquinas, “Summa Theologica” - 1274

“If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.” John F. Kennedy, “Inaugural Address” - 20 January 1961

“What did I owe the rest of the world? Nothing.” Bob Dylan, “Chronicles, Volume One” - 2004

“My fellow citizens of the world... ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the Freedom of Man.” John F. Kennedy, “Inaugural Address” - 20 January 1961

“If anything, I wanted to understand things and then be free of them.” Bob Dylan, “Chronicles, Volume One” - 2004

“The Switzers are completely armed and quite free.” Niccolò Machiavelli, “The Prince” - 1532

“History suggests only that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition.” Milton Friedman, “Capitalism and Freedom” - 1962

“The preservation of freedom is the protective reason for limiting and decentralizing governmental power.” Milton Friedman, “Capitalism and Freedom” - 1962

“If there are men in this country big enough to own the government of the United States, they are going to own it; what we have to determine now is whether we are big enough, whether we are men enough, whether we are free enough, to take...” Woodrow Wilson, “The New Freedom” - 1913

“If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.” Baruch Spinoza, “Ethics” - 1677

“Now, woman is confronted with the necessity of emancipating herself from emancipation, if she really desires to be free.” Emma Goldman, “Anarchism and Other Essays” - 1910

Related topics

slavery power independence action equality peace democracy choice government liberty love death life God happiness belief will state oppression responsibility

Related authors

Milton Friedman (10)
Nelson Mandela (7)
Ayn Rand (6)
William Shakespeare (5)
John F. Kennedy (5)
Mark Twain (4)
George Orwell (4)
Alexis de Tocqueville (4)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (4)
Barack Obama (4)
Ronald Reagan (4)
Chuck Palahniuk (4)
Emma Goldman (4)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (3)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (3)
John Stuart Mill (3)
Thomas Jefferson (3)
John Steinbeck (3)
Woodrow Wilson (3)
Charlotte Brontë (2)

Related sources

Capitalism and Freedom (10)
State of the Union Address (8)
Inaugural Address (8)
Long Walk to Freedom (7)
The Fountainhead (4)
Democracy in America (4)
The Social Contract (4)
Anarchism and Other Essays (4)
1984 (3)
The Sorrows of Young Werther (3)
The Subjection of Women (3)
Measure for Measure (2)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (2)
Jane Eyre (2)
Civil Disobedience (2)
Letter from a Birmingham Jail (2)
Politics (2)
Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (2)
The World as Will and Representation (2)
The Trial (2)