Motivational Quotes

Freedom

When we were told that by freedom we understood free enterprise, we did very little to dispel this monstrous falsehood. Wealth and economic well-being, we have asserted, are the fruits of freedom, while we should have been the first to know that this kind of happiness has been an unmixed blessing only in this country, and it is a minor blessing compared with the truly political freedoms, such as freedom of speech and thought, of assembly and association, even under the best conditions.

- Arendt, Hannah

Best Quotes about Freedom

If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.

Washington, George

Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently.

Luxemburg, Rosa

A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him.

Pound, Ezra

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.

Lord Acton

Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature, and is determined in its actions by itself alone.

Spinoza, Baruch (Benedict de)

Free will is not the liberty to do whatever one likes, but the power of doing whatever one sees ought to be done, even in the very face of otherwise overwhelming impulse. There lies freedom, indeed.

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

Sieyes, Abbe

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

Patricia Sampson

Liberty, then, about which so many volumes have been written is, when accurately defined, only the power of acting.

Voltaire

10.

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

11.

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

12.

Freedom is hunting, feeding, danger; that, that is freedom --that it is which makes the veins to swell, the breast to heave and glowaye,that is freedom, --that is pleasure --life!

Lovell, Marie

13.

You can only be free if I am free.

Darrow, Clarence

14.

Freedom is poetry, taking liberties with words, breaking the rules of normal speech, violating common sense. Freedom is violence.

Brown, Norman O.

15.

The true character of liberty is independence, maintained by force.

Voltaire

16.

No one who lives in error is free.

Euripides

17.

Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.

Reagan, Ronald

18.

Freedom is the by-product of economic surplus.

Bevan, Aneurin

19.

We hold in our hands, the most precious gift of all: Freedom. The freedom to express our art. Our love. The freedom to be who we want to be. We are not going to give that freedom away and no one shall take it from us!

Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider

20.

Marks on paper are free -- free speech -- press -- pictures all go together I suppose.

O'Keeffe, Georgia

21.

He who is conceived in a cage, yearns for the cage.

Yevtushenko, Yevgeny

22.

It is my right to be uncommon. For I do not choose to be a common man, If I can, I seek opportunity. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the government look after me. I choose to take the calculated risk, to dream, to build, to fail or succeed. I choose not to barter incentive for a dole, I prefer the challenges of life to a guaranteed existence, the thrill of fulfillment to the state calm of Utopia. I will not trade my freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout.

23.

There are always risks in freedom. The only risk in bondage is breaking free.

Bellin, Gita

24.

Perfect freedom is as necessary to the health and vigor of commerce as it is to the health and vigor of citizenship.

Henry, Patrick

25.

No one is truly free, they are a slave to wealth, fortune, the law, or other people restraining them from acting according to their will.

Euripides

26.

I gave my life for freedom --this I know: For those who bade me fight had told me so.

Ewer, W. N.

27.

The very aim and end of our institutions is just this: that we may thing what we like and say what we think.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell

28.

We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way. The third is freedom from want. The fourth is freedom from fear.

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

29.

We must be willing to pay a price for freedom.

Mencken, H. L.

30.

The secret of freedom, courage.

Thucydides

31.

Mankind has a free will; but it is free to milk cows and to build houses, nothing more.

Luther, Martin

32.

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

33.

The English think they are free. They are free only during the election of members of parliament.

Rousseau, Jean Jacques

34.

He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.

Augustine, St.

35.

Freedom is just chaos with better lighting.

Foster, Alan Dean

36.

When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more.

Adams, John

37.

True obedience is true freedom.

Beecher, Henry Ward

38.

A people which is able to say everything becomes able to do everything.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

39.

When we let freedom 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 that old Negro spiritual, Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

King Jr. Martin Luther

40.

Freedom and love go together. Love is not a reaction. If I love you because you love me, that is mere trade, a thing to be bought in the market; it is not love. To love is not to ask anything in return, not even to feel that you are giving something- and it is only such love that can know freedom.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu

41.

Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power.

Adams, John

42.

Governing sense, mind and intellect, intent on liberation, free from desire, fear and anger, the sage is forever free.

Bhagavad Gita

43.

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

Orr, Lord Boyd

44.

Women, like men, ought to have their youth so glutted with freedom they hate the very idea of freedom.

Sackville-West, Vita

45.

Freedom suppressed and again regained bites with keener fangs than freedom never endangered.

Cicero, Marcus T.

46.

The higher one climbs on the spiritual ladder, the more they will grant others their own freedom, and give less interference to another's state of consciousness.

Twitchell, Paul

47.

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

Rushdie, Salman

48.

The free man is he who does not fear to go to the end of his thought.

Blum, Leon

49.

At no time is freedom of speech more precious than when a man hits his thumb with a hammer.

Lumsden, Marshall

50.

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