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Freedom quotes

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

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

“Only free men can negotiate.” 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

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

“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

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

“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

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

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

“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

“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

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

“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

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

“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

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

“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

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

“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

“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

“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

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

“Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull.” George Orwell, “1984” - 1949

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.” Charlotte Brontë, “Jane Eyre” - 16 October 1847

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

“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

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

“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

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

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

“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

“It's only after you've lost everything . . . that you're free to do anything.” Chuck Palahniuk, “Fight Club” - 1996

“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

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

“Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin.” John Green, “The Fault in Our Stars” - 2012

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

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

“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

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

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

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

“Huckleberry came and went, at his own free will. He slept on doorsteps in fine weather and in empty hogsheads in wet; he did not have to go to school or to church, or call any being master or obey anybody; he could go fishing or swimming when and...” Mark Twain, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” - 1876

“For if liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.” Aristotle, “Politics”

“I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air—or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be.” Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Study in Scarlet” - 1887

“I had as lief have the foppery of freedom as the morality of imprisonment.” William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure” - 1623

Related topics

slavery power independence peace action equality 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)
John F. Kennedy (6)
William Shakespeare (5)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (5)
Mark Twain (4)
George Orwell (4)
Alexis de Tocqueville (4)
Barack Obama (4)
Ronald Reagan (4)
Thomas Jefferson (4)
Chuck Palahniuk (4)
Emma Goldman (4)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (3)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (3)
John Stuart Mill (3)
John Steinbeck (3)
Woodrow Wilson (3)
Charlotte Brontë (2)

Related sources

State of the Union Address (10)
Capitalism and Freedom (10)
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)