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Freedom quotes

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

“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

“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

“Freedom without civility, freedom without the ability to live in peace, was not true freedom at all.” 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”

“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

“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

“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

“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 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

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

“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

“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 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

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

“With freedom, flowers, books, and the moon, who could not be perfectly happy?” Oscar Wilde, “De Profundis” - 1905

“To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.” Ayn Rand, “The Fountainhead” - 1943

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

“So every bondman in his own hand bears the power to cancel his captivity.” William Shakespeare, “Julius Caesar” - 1623

“As you from crimes would pardon'd be, let your indulgence set me free.” William Shakespeare, “The Tempest” - 1623

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

“There is a devilish mercy in the judge, if you'll implore it, that will free your life, but fetter you till death.” William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure” - 1623

“Her philosophy is carpe diem for herself and laissez faire for others.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, “This Side of Paradise” - 1920

“They said they would rather be outlaws a year in Sherwood Forest than President of the United States forever.” Mark Twain, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” - 1876

“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

Related topics

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

Related authors

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

Related sources

State of the Union Address (8)
Inaugural Address (8)
Long Walk to Freedom (7)
Capitalism and Freedom (7)
The Fountainhead (4)
Democracy in America (4)
Anarchism and Other Essays (4)
1984 (3)
The Subjection of Women (3)
The Social Contract (3)
Measure for Measure (2)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (2)
Civil Disobedience (2)
Letter from a Birmingham Jail (2)
Politics (2)
The Sorrows of Young Werther (2)
The World as Will and Representation (2)
The Trial (2)
Notes on the State of Virginia (2)
Fight Club (2)