Freedom

Books can not be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can abolish memory … In this war, we know, books are weapons. And it is a part of your dedication always to make them weapons for man’s freedom.

We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and

Fay ce que vouldras.

Tyranny is always better organised than freedom.

Guns aren’t lawful;

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.

Licence they mean when they cry liberty;

The world was all before them, where to choose

Liberty consists in doing what one desires.

The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people.

The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.

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.

I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for, and to see realized. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

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

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

Man being … by nature all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent.

In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free—honourable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope of earth.

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union … If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.

In free society art is not a weapon … Artists are not engineers of the soul.

We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

It’s often better to be in chains than to be free.