Motivational Quotes

Freedom

My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.

- Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.

Best Quotes about Freedom

We hear about constitutional rights, free speech and the free press. Every time I hear those words I say to myself, That man is a Red, that man is a Communist. You never heard a real American talk in that manner.

Hague, Frank

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Adams, John

The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions.

Stevenson, Adlai E.

The East knew and to the present day knows only that One is Free; the Greek and the Roman world, that some are free; the German World knows that All are free. The first political form therefore which we observe in History, is Despotism, the second Democracy and Aristocracy, the third, Monarchy.

Hegel, Georg

Any honest examination of the national life proves how far we are from the standard of human freedom with which we began. The recovery of this standard demands of everyone who loves this country a hard look at himself, for the greatest achievements must begin somewhere, and they always begin with the person. If we are not capable of this examination, we may yet become one of the most distinguished and monumental failures in the history of nations.

Baldwin, James

How does the Meadow flower its bloom unfold? Because the lovely little flower is free down to its root, and in that freedom bold.

Wordsworth, William

They want to be free and they do not know how to be just.

Sieyes, Abbe

Democracy arose from men's thinking that if they are equal in any respect, they are equal absolutely.

Aristotle

The only conception of freedom I can have is that of the prisoner or the individual in the midst of the State. The only one I know is freedom of thought and action.

Camus, Albert

10.

Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you.

Sartre, Jean-Paul

11.

If people have to choose between freedom and sandwiches, they will take sandwiches.

Orr, Lord Boyd

12.

It is our belief that if people are set free to express themselves to the fullest, their accomplishments will be far beyond their dreams, and they will not only contribute to the growth of the company, but will also be more useful citizens and contribute to the society at large.

Blount, Wilton M.

13.

So far as a person thinks; they are free.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

14.

When ever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither is safe.

Burke, Edmund

15.

Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.

Adams, John

16.

Whatever the price, identify it now. What will you have to go through to get where you want to be? There is a price you can pay to be free of the situation once and for all. It may be a fantastic price or a tiny one -- but there is a price.

Browne, Harry

17.

The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave. His fetters fall... freedom and slavery are mental states.

Gandhi, Mahatma

18.

We have confused the free with the free and easy.

Stevenson, Adlai E.

19.

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.

Johnson, Samuel

20.

We must be willing to pay a price for freedom.

Mencken, H. L.

21.

Self-reliance is the only road to true freedom, and being one's own person is its ultimate reward.

Patricia Sampson

22.

Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself.

Rushdie, Salman

23.

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy -- but that could change.

Quayle, Dan

24.

We must determine whether we really want freedom -- whether we are willing to dare the perils of... rebirth... For we never take a step forward without surrendering something that we may have held dear, without dying to that which has been.

Hanson, Virginia

25.

If you think you're free, there's no escape possible.

Dass, Ram

26.

You can only be free if I am free.

Darrow, Clarence

27.

He is free... who knows how to keep in his own hands the power to decide.

Madriaga, Salvador De

28.

Freedom Know this, that every man is free To choose his life and what he'll be. For this eternal truth is given, God will force no man to heaven. He'll call, persuade, direct aright, Bless with wisdom, love, and light; In nameless ways be good and kind, But never force the human mind.

Clegg, William C.

29.

He who dares not (reason), is a slave.

Drummond, William

30.

In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

31.

The sovereignty of one's self over one's self is called Liberty.

Pike, Albert

32.

The clash of ideas is the sound of freedom.

Johnson, Lady Bird

33.

Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.

Mandela, Nelson

34.

Freedom is the emancipation from the arbitrary rule of other men.

Adler, Mortimer J.

35.

People who exercise their embryonic freedom day after day, little by little, expand that freedom. People who do not will find that it withers until they are literally being lived. They are acting out scripts written by parents, associates and society.

Covey, Stephen R.

36.

We are living in the excesses of freedom. Just take a look at 42nd Street an Broadway.

Durant, William J.

37.

To be what no one ever was, to be what everyone has been: Freedom is the mean of those extremes that fence all effort in.

Doren, Mark Van

38.

We are free to yield to truth.

Horace

39.

Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it.

Malcolm X

40.

It is not good to be too free. It is not good to have everything one wants.

Pascal, Blaise

41.

As for freedom, it will soon cease to exist in any shape or form. Living will depend upon absolute obedience to a strict set of arrangements, which it will no longer be possible to transgress. The air traveler is not free. In the future, life's passengers will be even less so: they will travel through their lives fastened to their (corporate) seats.

Baudrillard, Jean

42.

How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.

Kierkegaard, S°ren

43.

How is freedom measured, in individuals as in nations? By the resistance which has to be overcome, by the effort it costs to stay aloft. One would have to seek the highest type of free man where the greatest resistance is constantly being overcome: five steps from tyranny, near the threshold of the danger of servitude.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

44.

Freedom is the only law which genius knows.

Lowell, James Russell

45.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

Thomas Jefferson

46.

Who then is free? The one who wisely is lord of themselves, who neither poverty, death or captivity terrify, who is strong to resist his appetites and shun honors, and is complete in themselves smooth and round like a globe.

Horace

47.

Yet, Freedom! yet thy banner, torn, but flying, streams like the thunderstorm against the wind.

Byron, Lord

48.

It is quite possible for someone to choose incorrectly or to judge badly; but freedom must allow such mistakes.

Sang Kyu Shin

49.

Liberty is a different kind of pain from prison.

Eliot, T. S.

50.

The only way we'll get freedom for ourselves is to identify ourselves with every oppressed people in the world. We are blood brothers to the people of Brazil, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba -- yes Cuba too.

Malcolm X