Quotes on Freedom
21. "The Only Way John Wick Will Ever Have Freedom And Peace Is In Death."
- The Elder In John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)
John Wick, Death, Freedom
“I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. This is the chief meaning of freedom.
Until we can reestablish a condition under which the earnings of the people can be kept by the people, we are bound to suffer a very severe and distinct curtailment of our liberty.”
Calvin Coolidge, Society, Government, Goals, Freedom
“Slavery is so vile and miserable an estate of man, and so directly opposite to the generous temper and courage of our nation; that 'tis hardly to be conceived, that an englishman, much less a gentleman, should plead for't.. And truly, I should have taken Sr. Rt: Filmer's "Patriarcha" as any other treatise, which would perswade all men, that they are slaves, and ought to be so, for such another exercise of wit, as was his who writ the encomium (praise) of Nero, rather than for a serious discourse meant in earnest, had not the gravity of the title and epistle, the picture in the front of the book, and the applause that followed it, required me to believe, that the author and publisher were both in earnest. I therefore took it into my hands with all the expectation and read it through with all the attention due to a treaties, that made such a noise at its coming abroad and cannot but confess my self mightily surprised, that in a book which was to provide chains for all mankind, I should find nothing but a rope of sand, useful perhaps to such, whose skill and business it is to raise a dust, and would blind the people, the better to mislead them, but in truth is not of any force to draw those into bondage, who have their eyes open, and so much sense about them as to consider, that chains are but an ill wearing, how much care soever hath been taken to file and polish them.”
― John Locke, Second Treatise of Government
John Locke, Freedom, Society
“...The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom: for in all the states of created beings capable of laws, where there is no law, there is no freedom: for liberty is, to be free from restraint and violence from others; which cannot be, where there is no law: but freedom is not, as we are told, a liberty for every man to do what he lists: (for who could be free, when every other man's humour might domineer over him?) but a liberty to dispose, and order as he lists, his person, actions, possessions, and his whole property, within the allowance of those laws under which he is, and therein not to be subject to the arbitrary will of another, but freely follow his own.”
John Locke, Government, Freedom
“Men being, as has been said, 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.”
― John Locke, Second Treatise of Government
John Locke, Government, Freedom
“Wherever, therefore, any number of men so unite into one society, as to quit everyone his executive power of the law of nature, and to resign it to the public, there, and there only, is a political or civil society. [....] Hence it is evident that absolute monarchy, which by some men [e.g., Hobbes] is counted the only government in the world, is indeed inconsistent with civil society, and so can be no form of civil government at all.”
― John Locke, Second Treatise of Government
John Locke, Government, Society
“I love music. It’s freedom, a way to deal with pent-up frustration.”
Ice Cube, Music, Freedom
“Music is where I have the most creative freedom, but I love producing. To me, that’s kind of where all the action is. You get a chance to have your hands in every aspect of a film. From picking a director, sometimes picking a writer, to the actors, the wardrobe, set design, editing, music, and marketing.”
Ice Cube, Music, Freedom
“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
Virginia Woolf, Freedom
“The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
Virginia Woolf, Sex, Freedom
“How can a bird that is born for joy
Sit in a cage and sing?”
William Blake, Happiness, Freedom
“I'm a free bitch baby.”
Lady Gaga, Freedom
“You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way."
― Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Richard Bach, Freedom
“You're always free to change your mind and choose a different future, or a different past.”
Richard Bach, Freedom
“Listen,' he said. 'It's important. We are all free to do whatever we want to do.”
― Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Richard Bach, Freedom
“He was not bone and feather but a perfect idea of freedom and flight, limited by nothing at all.”
― Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Richard Bach, Freedom
“Your whole body, from wingtip to wingtip," Jonathan would say, other times, "is nothing more than your thought itself, in a form you can see. Break the chains of your thought, and you break the chains of your body, too.”
― Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Richard Bach, Freedom
“In order to live free and happily, you must sacrifice boredom. It is not always an easy choice.”
Richard Bach, Freedom, Happiness
“The unfettered soul of free man offers a spiritual defense unconquered and unconquerable.”
Harry Truman, Freedom
“Without a strong educational system democracy is crippled. Knowledge is not only key to power. It is the citadel of human freedom.”
Harry Truman, Intelligence/Wisdom, Society, Power, Freedom
“The more knowledge you have, the more you’re free to rely on your instincts.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Intelligence/Wisdom, Freedom
“I cannot guarantee to endure at all times the confinements of even an attractive cage.”
Amelia Earhart, Freedom
“I, for one, hope for the day when women will know no restrictions because of sex but will be individuals free to live their lives as men are free—irrespective of the continent or country where they happen to live.”
Amelia Earhart, Sex, Freedom
“Now and then women should do for themselves what men have already done—occasionally what men have not done—thereby establishing themselves as persons, and perhaps encouraging other women toward greater independence of thought and action.”
Amelia Earhart, Goals, Sex, Freedom
“Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.”
― Stephen King, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
Stephen King, Freedom
“...the evil system of colonialism and imperialism arose and throve with the enslavement of Negroes and the trade in Negroes, and it will surely come to its end with the complete emancipation of the Black people.”
Mao Zedong, Freedom
“The struggle of the Black people in the United States for emancipation is a component part of the general struggle of al the people of the world against U.S. imperialism, a component part of the contemporary world revolution. I call on the workers, peasants, and revolutionary intellectuals of all countries and all who are willing to fight against U.S. imperialism to take action and extend strong support to the struggle of the Black people in the United States! People of the whole world, unite still more closely and launch a sustained and vigorous offensive against our common enemy, U.S. imperialism, and its accomplices! It can be said with certainty that the complete collapse of colonialism, imperialism, and all systems of exploitation, and the complete emancipation of all the oppressed peoples and nations of the world are not far off.”
Mao Zedong, Society, Freedom
“I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves.”
Che Guevara, Freedom
“A good sign as to whether there’s free speech is: Is someone you don’t like allowed to say something you don’t like? If that is the case, then we have free speech. And it’s damn annoying when someone you don’t like says something you don’t like. [But] that is a sign of a healthy, functioning, free speech situation.”
Elon Musk, Freedom
“I can understand wanting to have millions of dollars, there’s a certain freedom, meaningful freedom, that comes with that. But once you get much beyond that, I have to tell you, it’s the same hamburger.”
Most people want to be wealthy without knowing how wealthy they want to be. In fact, most people dream of someday becoming the wealthiest person in the world. But "real wealth" means having enough resources and not just money to do the things you want and to acquire all the things you desire. By this definition of "real wealth", many people would get by with very little money.
Bill Gates, Wealth, Freedom
“Because I believe that deep down in woman's nature lies slumbering the spirit of revolt.
Because I believe that woman is enslaved by the world machine, by sex conventions, by motherhood and its present necessary child-rearing, by wage-slavery, by middle-class morality, by customs, laws and superstitions.
Because I believe that woman's freedom depends upon awakening that spirit of revolt within her against these things which enslave her.
Because I believe that these things which enslave woman must be fought openly, fearlessly, consciously.”
Margaret Sanger, Sex, Freedom
“No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother.”
Margaret Sanger, Sex, Freedom
“No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother.”
Margaret Sanger, Sex, Freedom
“No woman can call herself free who does not control her own body.”
Margaret Sanger, Sex, Freedom
“No man will ever be whole and dignified and free except in the knowledge that the men around him are whole and dignified and free, and that the world itself is free of contempt and misuse.”
Wendell Berry, Society, Freedom
“The freedom of affluence opposes and contradicts the freedom of community life.”
Wendell Berry, Society, Freedom
“Every time we liberate a woman, we liberate a man.”
Margaret Mead, Sex, Freedom
“Although discipline demands control and asceticism, it actually results in freedom. When you have the discipline to get up early, you are rewarded with more free time.”
― Jocko Willink, Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win
Jocko Willink, Freedom
“But, in fact, discipline is the pathway to freedom.”
― Jocko Willink, Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win
Jocko Willink, Freedom
“Our freedom to operate and maneuver had increased substantially through disciplined procedures. Discipline equals freedom.”
― Jocko Willink, Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win
Jocko Willink, Freedom
“Discipline equals freedom.”
― Jocko Willink, Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win
Jocko Willink, Freedom
“I think the person who takes a job in order to live - that is to say, for the money [not for purpose or passion]- has turned himself into a slave.”
Joseph Campbell, Work, Freedom
“We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is your only ruler, sovereign. The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind.”
Marcus Garvey, Intelligence/Wisdom, Freedom
“Liberate the minds of men and ultimately you will liberate the bodies of men.”
Marcus Garvey, Intelligence/Wisdom, Freedom
“Hail! United States of Africa-free! Country of the brave black man's liberty; State of greater nationhood thou hast won, A new life for the race is just begun.”
Marcus Garvey, Freedom
“Climb ye the heights of liberty and cease not in well doing until you have planted the banner of the Red, the Black and the Green on the hilltops of Africa.”
Marcus Garvey, Freedom, Goals
“Men, there is much to live for, and there is much to die for. The man, the race of nation that is not prepared to risk life itself for the possession of an ideal, shall lose that ideal. If you, I repeat, must be free, you yourselves must strike the blow.”
Marcus Garvey, Freedom, Goals
“Ideals of liberty , freedom and righteousness do not prosper in the 20th century excepts they coincide with oil, rubber, gold, diamond, coal, iron, sugar, coffee, and such other minerals and products desired by the privileged, capitalists and leaders who control the system of government.”Marcus Garvey, Freedom, Society
“When people are free to choose, they choose freedom.”
Margaret Thatcher, Freedom
“More than they wanted freedom, the Athenians wanted security. Yet they lost everything—security, comfort, and freedom. This was because they wanted not to give to society, but for society to give to them. The freedom they were seeking was freedom from responsibility. It is no wonder, then, that they ceased to be free. In the modern world, we should recall the Athenians' dire fate whenever we confront demands for increased state paternalism.”
Margaret Thatcher, Freedom, Society
“In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all – security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.”
Margaret Thatcher, Freedom, Society
“Freedom lies in being bold.”
Robert Frost, Freedom
“Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.”
Robert Frost, Freedom, Society
“There is no such thing as freedom of choice unless there is freedom to refuse.”
David Hume, Freedom
“It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.”
David Hume, Freedom
“Superstition is an enemy to civil liberty.”
David Hume, Belief, Freedom
“Hypothetical liberty is allowed to everyone who is not a prisoner and in chains.”
― ‘An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding’.
David Hume, Freedom
“Parents who let teens run around with unearned adult freedoms are naive and stupid.”
Dave Ramsey, Freedom, Life
“Opening your hands will set you free.”
Dave Ramsey, Freedom
“Our ultimate freedom is the right and power anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.”
Stephen Covey, Freedom, Power
“Every human has four endowments – self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom. The power to choose, to respond, to change.”
Stephen Covey, Freedom
“Timeless is the creature who is wise. And timeless is the prisoner in disguise.”
Stevie Nicks, Time, Intelligence/Wisdom, Freedom
“When government – in pursuit of good intentions – tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help special interests, the cost comes in inefficiency, lack of motivation, and loss of freedom.”
Milton Friedman, Government, Society, Freedom
“Freedom is a rare and delicate plant. Our minds tell us, and history confirms, that the great threat to freedom is the concentration of power. Government is necessary to preserve our freedom, it is an instrument through which we can exercise our freedom; yet by concentrating power in political hands, it is also a threat to freedom.”
Milton Friedman, Freedom, Power, Government
“Although I'm only fourteen, I know quite well what I want, I know who is right and who is wrong. I have my opinions, my own ideas and principles, and although it may sound pretty mad from an adolescent, I feel more of a person than a child, I feel quite independent of anyone.”
Anne Frank, Goals, Intelligence/Wisdom, Freedom
"Be not dishearten’d – Affection shall solve the problems of freedom yet; those who love each other shall become invincible."
Walt Whitman, Love, Freedom
"That’s the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, in the end, leads to liberation and dignity."
Ricky Gervais, Truth, Freedom
"Being born is like being kidnapped. And then sold into slavery."
Andy Warhol, Life, Freedom
"I like to be a free spirit. Some don't like that, but that's the way I am."
Princess Diana, Goals, Freedom, Society
"The fear that we cannot grow beyond whatever distortions we may find within ourselves keeps us docile and loyal and obedient, externally defined, and leads us to accept many facets of our oppression as women."
Audre Lorde, Freedom, Sex
"Sometimes we drug ourselves with dreams of new ideas. The head will save us. The brain alone will set us free. But there are no new ideas waiting in the wings to save us as women, as human. There are only old and forgotten ones, new combinations, extrapolations and recognitions from within ourselves—along with the renewed courage to try them out."
Audre Lorde, Ideas, Freedom, Intelligence/Wisdom, Sex
"The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change."
Audre Lorde, Freedom
"The white fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The Black mother within each of us—the poet—whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free."
Audre Lorde, Freedom
"Being oppressed means the absence of choices."
bell hooks, Freedom
"The moment we choose to love, we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others."
bell hooks, Love, Freedom
"To build community requires vigilant awareness of the work we must continually do to undermine all the socialization that leads us to behave in ways that perpetuate domination."
bell hooks, Freedom
"The moment we choose to love, we begin to move against domination, against oppression."
bell hooks, Love, Freedom
"I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else's whim or to someone else's ignorance."
bell hooks, Freedom
"In that field of possibility we have the opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress."
bell hooks, Freedom
"If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him."
James Baldwin, Belief, Freedom, Love
"What does education often do? It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook."
Henry David Thoreau, Intelligence/Wisdom, Freedom
"To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity and trust."
Henry David Thoreau, Intelligence/Wisdom, Life, Freedom
"When you’ve understood this scripture, throw it away. If you can’t understand this scripture, throw it away. I insist on your freedom."
Alice in Wonderland, Freedom
"To truly love is to have the courage to walk away and let the other person who wishes to be free go no matter how much it hurts."
Taylor Swift, Courage Love, Freedom
"Turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing you..."
Taylor Swift, Love, Freedom
"If I could have convinced more slaves that they were slaves, I could have freed thousands more."
Harriet Tubman, Freedom
"If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If there's shouting after you, keep going. Don't ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going."
Harriet Tubman, Freedom
"My people are free!"
Harriet Tubman, Freedom
"I ain't got no heart to go and see the sufferings of my people played on the stage. I've heard 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' read, and I tell you Mrs. Stowe's pen hasn't begun to paint what slavery is as I have seen it at the far South. I've seen the real thing, and I don't want to see it on no stage or in no theater."
Harriet Tubman, Freedom
"My home, after all, was down in Maryland, because my father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, and friends were there. But I was free, and they should be free."
Harriet Tubman, Freedom
"There was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land."
Harriet Tubman, Freedom
"When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven."
Harriet Tubman, Freedom, Happiness
"I had reasoned this out in my mind; there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty, or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other."
Harriet Tubman, Freedom, Death
"We would rather stay in our native land, if we could be as free there as we are here."
Harriet Tubman, Freedom
"Now I’ve been free, I know what a dreadful condition slavery is. I have seen hundreds of escaped slaves, but I never saw one who was willing to go back and be a slave."
Harriet Tubman, Freedom
"I have heard their groans and sighs, and seen their tears, and I would give every drop of blood in my veins to free them."
Harriet Tubman, Freedom, Goals
"If a person would send another into bondage, he would, it appears to me, be bad enough to send him into hell if he could."
Harriet Tubman, Freedom
"Slavery is the next thing to hell."
Harriet Tubman, Freedom
"The silver trump of freedom roused in my soul eternal wakefulness."
Frederick Douglass, Freedom
"Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitude."
Frederick Douglass, Freedom, Society
"To make a contented slave, you must make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate his power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery. The man that takes his earnings, must be able to convince him that he has a perfect right to do so. It must not depend upon mere force; the slave must know no Higher Law than his master's will. The whole relationship must not only demonstrate, to his mind, its necessity, but its absolute rightfulness."
Frederick Douglass, Freedom
"The soul that is within me no man can degrade."
Frederick Douglass, Freedom
"Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever. It was heard in every sound and seen in every thing. It was very present to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm."
Frederick Douglass, Freedom
"Everybody has asked the question. . ."What shall we do with the Negro?" I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are wormeaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! I am not for tying or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by nature's plan, and if they will not stay there, let them fall. And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone!"
Frederick Douglass, Freedom
"You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man."
Frederick Douglass, Freedom
"I had as well be killed running as die standing."
Frederick Douglass, Freedom
"I have sometimes thought that the mere hearing of those songs would do more to impress some minds with the horrible character of slavery, than the reading of whole volumes of philosophy on the subject could do.
I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle; so that I neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear. They told a tale of woe which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sadness. I have frequently found myself in tears while hearing them. The mere recurrence to those songs, even now, afflicts me; and while I am writing these lines, an expression of feeling has already found its way down my cheek. To those songs I trace my first glimmering conception of the dehumanizing character of slavery. I can never get rid of that conception. Those songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds. If any one wishes to be impressed with the soul-killing effects of slavery, let him go to Colonel Lloyd's plantation, and, on allowance-day, place himself in the deep pine woods, and there let him, in silence, analyze the sounds that shall pass through the chambers of his soul, - and if he is not thus impressed, it will only be because "there is no flesh in his obdurate heart."
I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness. It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake. Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. At least, such is my experience. I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness. Crying for joy, and singing for joy, were alike uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery. The singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion."
Frederick Douglass, Freedom, Justice, Happiness, Music, Belief
"No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck."
Frederick Douglass, Freedom
"The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery. I loathed them as being the meanest as well as the most wicked of men. As I read and contemplated the subject, behold! that very discontentment which Master Hugh had predicted would follow my learning to read had already come, to torment and sting my soul to unutterable anguish. As I writhed under it, I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. it opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out. in moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished myself a beast. I preferred the condition of the meanest reptile to my own. Any thing, no matter what, to get rid of thinking! It was this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me. There was no getting rid of it. It was pressed upon me by every object within sight or hearing, animate or inanimate. The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness. Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever. It was heard in every sound and seen in every thing. It was ever present to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm."
Frederick Douglass, Freedom, Happiness, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears."
Frederick Douglass, Freedom, Happiness
"Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters."
"This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. In the light of these ideas, Negroes will be hunted at the North, and held and flogged at the South so long as they submit to those devilish outrages, and make no resistance, either moral or physical. Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must certainly pay for all they get. If we ever get free from the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and if needs be, by our lives and the lives of others."
Frederick Douglass, Freedom, Power, Society
"Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work."
Frederick Douglass, Freedom, Work
"I have observed this in my experience of slavery,--that whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it only increased my desire to be free, and set me to thinking of plans to gain my freedom. I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceased to be a man."
Frederick Douglass, Freedom
"What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?
I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages."
Frederick Douglass, Freedom, Justice, Society
"In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her bright blue sky — her grand old woods — her fertile fields — her beautiful rivers — her mighty lakes, and star-crowned mountains. But my rapture is soon checked, my joy is soon turned to mourning. When I remember that all is cursed with the infernal actions of slaveholding, robbery and wrong, — when I remember that with the waters of her noblest rivers, the tears of my brethren are borne to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten, and that her most fertile fields drink daily of the warm blood of my outraged sisters, I am filled with unutterable loathing."
Frederick Douglass, Freedom
"To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker."
Frederick Douglass, Freedom
"I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs."
Frederick Douglass, Belief, Freedom
"Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave."
Frederick Douglass, Intelligence/Wisdom, Freedom
"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
Frederick Douglass, Freedom, Power
"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free."
Frederick Douglass, Intelligence/Wisdom, Freedom
"The principle of self-government cannot be violated with impunity. The individual's right to it is sacred - regardless of class, caste, race, color, sex or any other accident or incident of birth."
Susan B Anthony, Freedom
"It is downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government: the ballot."
Susan B Anthony, Justice, Freedom
"Trust me that as I ignore all law to help the slave, so will I ignore it all to protect an enslaved woman."
Susan B Anthony, Freedom
"Suffrage is the pivotal right."
Susan B Anthony, Freedom
"I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel."
Susan B Anthony, Freedom
"There is not a woman born who desires to eat the bread of dependence."
Susan B Anthony, Freedom
"To think, I have had more than 60 years of hard struggle for a little liberty, and then to die without it seems so cruel."
Susan B Anthony, Freedom
"No man is good enough to govern any woman without her consent."
Susan B Anthony, Freedom
"We throw to the winds the old dogma that governments can give rights. Before governments were organized, no one denies that each individual possessed the right to protect his own life, liberty and property."
Susan B Anthony, Government, Freedom
"Independence is happiness."
Susan B Anthony, Happiness, Freedom
"Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel."
Susan B Anthony, Freedom
"Woman must have a purse of her own, and how can this be so long as the law denies to the wife all right to both the individual and the joint earnings?"
Susan B Anthony, Freedom, Wealth
"I think the girl who is able to earn her own living and pay her own way should be as happy as anybody on earth. The sense of independence and security is very sweet."
Susan B Anthony, Happiness, Freedom
"The school must permit the free, natural manifestations of the child if in the school scientific pedagogy is to be born. This is the essential reform."
Maria Montessori, Freedom, Intelligence/Wisdom
"The little fellow had been about to feel himself a conqueror, and he found himself held within two imprisoning arms, impotent. The expression of joy, anxiety, and hope, which had interested me so much faded from his face and left on it the stupid expression of the child who knows that others will act for him."
Maria Montessori, Freedom
"A teacher simply assists him at the beginning to get his bearings among so many different things and teaches him the precise use of each of them; that is to say, she introduces him to the ordered and active life of the environment. But then she leaves him free in the choice and execution of his work."
Maria Montessori, Work, Freedom
"To assist a child we must provide him with an environment which will enable him to develop freely."
Maria Montessori, Goals, Freedom
"Only through freedom and environmental experience is it practically possible for human development to occur."
Maria Montessori, Freedom
"The essence of independence is to be able to do something for one’s self."
Maria Montessori, Freedom
"Such prizes and punishments are, if I may be allowed the expression, the bench of the soul, the instrument of slavery for the spirit."
Maria Montessori, Freedom
"No social problem is as universal as the oppression of the child."
Maria Montessori, Freedom
"The masses never revolt of their own accord, and they never revolt merely because they are oppressed. Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparison, they never even become aware that they are oppressed."
George Orwell, Society, Freedom
"This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half."
George Orwell, Freedom
"To die hating them, that was freedom."
George Orwell, Freedom
"The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better."
George Orwell, Freedom, Happiness, Society
"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."
George Orwell, Truth, Freedom
"Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious."
George Orwell, Freedom
"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."
George Orwell, Freedom
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever."
George Orwell, Freedom
"When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon."
Thomas Paine, Intelligence/Wisdom, Freedom
"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."
Thomas Paine, Freedom
"Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."
Thomas Paine, Anger and Fighting, Freedom
"I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it."
Thomas Paine, Freedom
"Whatever is my right as a man is also the right of another; and it becomes my duty to guarantee as well as to possess."
Thomas Paine, Freedom
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it."
Thomas Paine, Freedom
"When it can be said by any country in the world, my poor are happy, neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them, my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars, the aged are not in want, the taxes are not oppressive, the rational world is my friend because I am the friend of happiness. When these things can be said, then may that country boast its constitution and government. Independence is my happiness, the world is my country and my religion is to do good."
Thomas Paine, Freedom, Happiness, Belief
"Although I cannot move and I have to speak through a computer, in my mind I am free."
Stephen Hawking, Freedom
"What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don't expect freedom to survive very long."
Thomas Sowell, Society, Freedom
"A society that puts equality—in the sense of equality of outcome—ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force, introduced for good purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests."
Thomas Sowell, Society, Freedom
"It takes no more research than a trip to almost any public library or college to show the incredibly lopsided coverage of slavery in the United States or in the Western Hemisphere, as compared to the meager writings on even larger number of Africans enslaved in the Islamic countries of the Middle East and North Africa, not to mention the vast numbers of Europeans also enslaved in centuries past in the Islamic world and within Europe itself. At least a million Europeans were enslaved by North African pirates alone from 1500 to 1800, and some Europeans slaves were still being sold on the auction blocks in the Egypt, years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed blacks in the United States."
Thomas Sowell, Freedom
"The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best."
Thomas Sowell, Freedom
"Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric."
Thomas Sowell, Freedom
"Freedom is not a state; it is an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society. The work of love, peace, and justice will always be necessary, until their realism and their imperative takes hold of our imagination, crowds out any dream of hatred or revenge, and fills up our existence with their power."
John Lewis, Freedom, Love, Justice, Power
"As citizens, we knew we had ceded some of our individual rights to society in order to live together as a community. But we did not believe this social contract included support for an immoral system. Since the people invested government with its authority, we understood that we had to obey the law. But when law became suppressive and tyrannical, when human law violated divine principles, we felt it was not only our right, but our duty to disobey. As Henry Thoreau strongly believed, to comply with an unjust system is to accept abuse. It is not the role of the citizen to follow the government down a path that violates his or her own conscience."
John Lewis, Society, Government, Freedom
"I believe in freedom of speech, but I also believe that we have an obligation to condemn speech that is racist, bigoted, anti-Semitic, or hateful."
John Lewis, Freedom
"Another glorious Sierra day in which one seems to be dissolved and absorbed and sent pulsing onward we know not where. Life seems neither long nor short, and we take no more heed to save time or make haste than do the trees and stars. This is true freedom, a good practical sort of immortality."
John Muir, Nature, Life, Freedom
"Everybody says they want to be free. Take the train off the tracks and it’s free-but it can’t go anywhere."
Zig Ziglar, Freedom
"Cushman, who assigned her to research McCarthy’s assault on civil liberties, “wanted me to understand two things,” Ruth recalls. “One is that we were betraying our most fundamental values, and, two, that legal skills could help make things better, could help to challenge what was going on."
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Freedom
"the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people; that public discussion is a political duty; and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government."
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Freedom, Society, Government
"A constitution, as important as it is, will mean nothing unless the people are yearning for liberty and freedom."
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Government, Freedom
"Every time you meet a situation you think at the time it is an impossibility and you go through the tortures of the damned, once you have met it and lived through it, you find that forever after you are freer than you were before."
Eleanor Roosevelt, Freedom
"Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect."
Eleanor Roosevelt, Freedom
"As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison."
Nelson Mandela, Freedom
"I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended."
Nelson Mandela, Freedom, Life
"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."
Nelson Mandela, Freedom
"When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw."
Nelson Mandela, Freedom, Life
"I have never cared very much for personal prizes. A person does not become a freedom fighter in the hope of winning awards."
Nelson Mandela, Freedom
"There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires."
Nelson Mandela, Freedom, Goals
"Freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all of my people were the chains on me."
Nelson Mandela, Freedom
"I had no epiphany, no singular revelation, no moment of truth, but a steady accumulation of a thousand slights, a thousand indignities and a thousand unremembered moments produced in me an anger, a rebelliousness, a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people. There was no particular day on which I said, Henceforth I will devote myself to the liberation of my people; instead, I simply found myself doing so, and could not do otherwise."
Nelson Mandela, Freedom
"During my lifetime I have dedicated myself 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 and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."
Nelson Mandela, Freedom
"No man is free who is not master of himself."
Epictetus, Freedom
"Only the educated are free."
Epictetus, Intelligence/Wisdom, Freedom
"Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control."
Epictetus, Freedom
"He who is brave is free."
Seneca, Courage, Freedom
"We and all others who believe in freedom as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees."
FDR- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Freedom
"I have an unshaken conviction that democracy can never be undermined if we maintain our library resources and a national intelligence capable of utilizing them."
FDR- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Freedom, Intelligence/Wisdom
"The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government."
FDR- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Freedom, Government
"Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them."
FDR- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Freedom
"In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved."
FDR- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Freedom
"War is young men dying and old men talking."
George Washington, Anger and Fighting
"True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. Freedom."
FDR- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Freedom
"The Truth is found when men (and Women) are free to pursue it."
FDR- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Truth, Freedom
"Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough."
FDR- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Kindness, Freedom, Society
"Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save victory."
FDR- Franklin D. Roosevelt, 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."
FDR- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Freedom, Intelligence/Wisdom
"Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education."
FDR- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Freedom, Intelligence/Wisdom
"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism -- ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.... Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing."