Freedom

Englishmen never will be slaves: they are free to do whatever the Government and public opinion allow them to do.

It means everything—it means freedom.

Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.

Freedom, in any case, is only possible by constantly struggling for it. A citizenry that is politically indifferent will always end up enslaved no matter what form its constitution and legal institutions take.

The only justifiable purpose of political institutions is to assure the unhindered development of the individual… That is why I consider myself to be particularly fortunate to be an American.

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.

I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.

Fanatics fear liberty more than they fear persecution.

Old age has a great sense of calm and freedom. When the passions have relaxed their hold and have escaped, not from one master, but from many.

We are in bondage to the law in order that we may be free.

He does not seem to me to be a free man who does not sometimes do nothing.

Freedom lies in being bold.

But I need solitude--which is to say, recovery, return to myself, the breath of a free, light, playful air.

The individual is not accountable to society for his actions, insofar as these concern the interests of no person but himself.

Outside of this cell we may have our oppressors, yes, but not inside. Here no one oppresses the other. The only thing that seems to disturb me . . . because I’m exhausted, or conditioned, or perverted . . . is that someone wants to be nice to me, without asking anything back for it.

The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.

Freedom of thought is the only guarantee of the feasibility of a scientific democratic approach to politics, economy, and culture.

Sixth, after the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny, they hope to see established a peace which will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that all the men in all the lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want.

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, 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.

The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you.

I . . . probably take the extremest view in favor of free speech, (in which, in the abstract, I have no very enthusiastic belief, though I hope I would die for it).

 

Art lives from constraints and dies from freedom.

It is a worthy thing to fight for one's freedom; it is another sight finer to fight for another man's.

Life is short, break the rules.