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Freedom124 quotes
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. — Declaration of Independence · 1776Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau · 1762I am condemned to be free. — Jean-Paul Sartre · 1943The basis of a democratic state is liberty. — Aristotle · 350 BCHappiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous. — Pericles · 430 BCThe boisterous sea of liberty indeed is never without a wave. — Thomas Jefferson · 1820All 124 quotes →Nature of freedom16 quotes
The boisterous sea of liberty indeed is never without a wave. — Thomas Jefferson · 1820Freedom 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 · 1961If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. — George Orwell · 1944A free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. — Adlai Stevenson · 1952Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. — George Orwell · 1949I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else's freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken away from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity. — Nelson Mandela · 1994All 16 quotes →Political theory16 quotes
The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression, even though that cost be blood. — W.E.B. Du Bois · 1909A free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. — Adlai Stevenson · 1952Liberty consists in doing what one desires. — John Stuart Mill · 1859Whatever each man can separately do, without trespassing upon others, he has a right to do for himself; and he has a right to a fair portion of all which society, with all its combinations of skill and force, can do in his favor. — Edmund Burke · 1790Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right... and a desire to know-but besides this they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded, and envied kind of knowledge. I mean of the characters and conduct of their rulers. — John Adams · 1765History suggests only that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition. — Milton Friedman · 1962All 16 quotes →Threats to freedom10 quotes
The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. — Louis Brandeis · 1928Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom: it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. — William Pitt, Earl of Chatham · 1783Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. — Ronald Reagan · 1961The jaws of power are always opened to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible to destroy, the freedom of thinking, speaking and writing. — John Adams · 1765I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. — James Madison · 1788Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it. — Learned Hand · 1944All 10 quotes →Freedom of speech and expression8 quotes
If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. — George Orwell · 1944Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings. — Heinrich Heine · 1821We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression-everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way-everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want... Everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear... Anywhere in the world. — Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1941The jaws of power are always opened to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible to destroy, the freedom of thinking, speaking and writing. — John Adams · 1765Of that freedom one may say that it is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom. — Benjamin Cardozo · 1937Liberty's too precious a thing to be buried in books, Miss Saunders. Men should hold it up in front of them every single day of their lives and say: I'm free to think and to speak. My ancestors couldn't, I can, and my children will. Boys ought to grow up remembering that. — Jefferson Smith · 1939All 8 quotes →Liberation8 quotes
Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau · 1762Thus sayeth the Lord God of Israel: "Let my people go!" — Moses · 1956Freedom 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 · 1961Who would be free themselves must strike the blow? — Lord Byron · 1818It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything. — Tyler Durden · 1999You only have power over people as long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power-he's free again. — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn · 1968All 8 quotes →Politics7 quotes
Liberty consists in doing what one desires. — John Stuart Mill · 1859Whatever each man can separately do, without trespassing upon others, he has a right to do for himself; and he has a right to a fair portion of all which society, with all its combinations of skill and force, can do in his favor. — Edmund Burke · 1790Liberty, too, must be limited in order to be possessed. — Edmund Burke · 1777So long as the State exists, there can be no freedom. When there is freedom there will be no State. — Vladimir Lenin · 1917Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. — Lord Acton · 1877And I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts. — Ronald Reagan · 1989All 7 quotes →Democracy5 quotes
The basis of a democratic state is liberty. — Aristotle · 350 BCFor 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 · 350 BCAmong a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist. — Edmund Burke · 1777Since the turn of the century, the number of democracies in the world has grown fourfold. Human freedom is on the march, and nowhere more so than in our own hemisphere. Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit. People, worldwide, hunger for the right of self-determination, for those inalienable rights that make for human dignity and progress. — Ronald Reagan · 1985The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people. — George Washington · 1789Slavery5 quotes
In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope of earth. — Abraham Lincoln · 1862All men lose when they die and all men die. But a slave and a free man lose different things. — Spartacus · 1960Where Slavery is, there Liberty cannot be; and where Liberty is, there Slavery cannot be. — Charles Sumner · 1864This government was instituted to secure the blessings of freedom, and…slavery is an unqualified evil to the negro, to the white man, to the soil, and to the State. — Abraham Lincoln · 1858We were proclaiming ourselves political hypocrites before the world, by thus fostering Human Slavery and proclaiming ourselves, at the same time, the sole friends of Human Freedom. — Abraham Lincoln · 1854American politics4 quotes
We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression-everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way-everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want... Everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear... Anywhere in the world. — Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1941Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things. And that's what's going to happen here. — Donald Rumsfeld · 2003This government was instituted to secure the blessings of freedom, and…slavery is an unqualified evil to the negro, to the white man, to the soil, and to the State. — Abraham Lincoln · 1858We were proclaiming ourselves political hypocrites before the world, by thus fostering Human Slavery and proclaiming ourselves, at the same time, the sole friends of Human Freedom. — Abraham Lincoln · 1854Downsides of freedom4 quotes
I am condemned to be free. — Jean-Paul Sartre · 1943I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it. — Thomas Jefferson · 1791A man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes. — T.H. Huxley · 1876Man, being condemned to be free carries the weight of the whole world on his shoulders; he is responsible for the world and himself as a way of being. — Jean-Paul Sartre · 1943Equality4 quotes
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. — Declaration of Independence · 1776When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963For 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 · 350 BCThis is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it. — Abraham Lincoln · 1859Government3 quotes
So long as the State exists, there can be no freedom. When there is freedom there will be no State. — Vladimir Lenin · 1917This government was instituted to secure the blessings of freedom, and…slavery is an unqualified evil to the negro, to the white man, to the soil, and to the State. — Abraham Lincoln · 1858And I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts. — Ronald Reagan · 1989Individual freedom3 quotes
Liberty consists in doing what one desires. — John Stuart Mill · 1859The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people. — John Stuart Mill · 1859Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign. — John Stuart Mill · 1859Nothing to lose3 quotes
It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything. — Tyler Durden · 1999Freedom is just another word for nothin' left to lose. — Janis Joplin · 1971You only have power over people as long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power-he's free again. — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn · 1968Spread of freedom and democracy3 quotes
Our greatest strength is the power of our ideas, which are still new in many lands. Across the world we see them embraced, and we rejoice. Our hopes, our hearts, our hands are with those on every continent who are building democracy and freedom. Their cause is America's cause. — Bill Clinton · 1993We go forward with complete confidence in the eventual triumph of freedom...because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul. — George W. Bush · 2005Since the turn of the century, the number of democracies in the world has grown fourfold. Human freedom is on the march, and nowhere more so than in our own hemisphere. Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit. People, worldwide, hunger for the right of self-determination, for those inalienable rights that make for human dignity and progress. — Ronald Reagan · 1985Decisions and choices2 quotes
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms-to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. — Viktor Frankl · 1946Those who have ever valued liberty for its own sake believed that to be free to choose, and not to be chosen for, is an inalienable ingredient in what makes human beings human. — Isaiah Berlin · 1969Defending freedom2 quotes
I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue! — Barry Goldwater · 1964In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. — John F. Kennedy · 1961Desperation2 quotes
Freedom is just another word for nothin' left to lose. — Janis Joplin · 1971You only have power over people as long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power-he's free again. — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn · 1968Freedom of thought2 quotes
There is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind. — Virginia Woolf · 1929Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties. — John Milton · 1644Happiness2 quotes
Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous. — Pericles · 430 BCThe choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness, and that, for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better. — George Orwell · 1949Human nature2 quotes
The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness, and that, for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better. — George Orwell · 1949If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil. — Baruch Spinoza · 1677Human rights2 quotes
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. — Declaration of Independence · 1776Whatever each man can separately do, without trespassing upon others, he has a right to do for himself; and he has a right to a fair portion of all which society, with all its combinations of skill and force, can do in his favor. — Edmund Burke · 1790Interconnectedness of all people2 quotes
I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else's freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken away from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity. — Nelson Mandela · 1994You will never be free until we are free. — Desmond Tutu · 1999Morality2 quotes
Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist. — Edmund Burke · 1777Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith. — Alexis de Tocqueville · 1835Nature of man2 quotes
No man who knows aught, can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free. — John Milton · 1649I am as free as nature first made man,
Ere the base laws of servitude began,
When wild in woods the noble savage ran. — John Dryden · 1670Oppression2 quotes
The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression, even though that cost be blood. — W.E.B. Du Bois · 1909You only have power over people as long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power-he's free again. — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn · 1968Purpose of government2 quotes
This government was instituted to secure the blessings of freedom, and…slavery is an unqualified evil to the negro, to the white man, to the soil, and to the State. — Abraham Lincoln · 1858Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the State was to make men free to develop their faculties; and that in its government the deliberative forces should prevail over the arbitrary. They valued liberty both as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty. — Louis Brandeis · 1927The human condition2 quotes
Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau · 1762Providence has not created mankind entirely independent or entirely free. It is true that around every man a fatal circle is traced, beyond which he cannot pass; but within the wide verge of that circle he is powerful and free. — Alexis de Tocqueville · 1840Truth2 quotes
The truth which makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear. — Herbert Agar · 1942Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. — Jesus · 90