Freedom

If my body is enslaved, still my mind is free.

Of all the tyrannies on human kind The worst is that which persecutes the mind.

Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness, Some boundless contiguity of shade, Where rumor of oppression and deceit, Of unsuccessful or successful war, Might never reach me more.

In limitations he first shows himself the master, And the law can only bring us freedom.

We must be free or die, who speak the tongue That Shakespeare spake; the faith and morals hold Which Milton held.

Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhattan the son, Turbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking and breeding, No sentimentalist, no stander above men and women or apart from them, No more modest than immodest. Unscrew the locks from the doors! Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!

Golden fetters are no less galling to a self-respecting man than iron ones: the sting lies in the fetters, not in the metal.

Well, they are gone, and here must I remain,

Liberty too must be limited in order to be possessed.

He who binds to himself a joy

Fay ce que vouldras.

If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.

The end of law is, not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom.

You 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.

We think caged birds sing, when indeed they cry.

Familiarize yourself with the chains of bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you.

HERESY IS ONLY ANOTHER WORD FOR FREEDOM OF THOUGHT.

Him that I love, I wish to be free—even from me.

Every select man strives instinctively for a citadel and a privacy, where he is FREE from the crowd, the many, the majority-- where he may forget "men who are the rule," as their exception;-- exclusive only of the case in which he is pushed straight to such men by a still stronger instinct, as a discerner in the great and exceptional sense.

What do you consider the most humane? - To spare someone shame. What is the seal of liberation? - To no longer be ashamed in front of oneself.

Which is the best government? That which teaches us to govern ourselves.

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.

Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.

There shall be wings! If the accomplishment be not for me, ’tis for some other. The spirit cannot die; and man, who shall know all and shall have wings.