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Freedom
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“Man is a free agent, not in many things but in all things, subject, of course, to the requirements of the Natural and the Moral Law. In fact, Man is so free that he can even defy and disobey his Creator. Man's freedom is however conditioned by rules of safety, morality etc., which counsel him that he may not do certain things. This is not however, a negation of Freedom.”
Peter de Noronha (1897–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The essential thing in form is to be free in whatever form is used. A free form does not assure freedom. As a form, it is just one more form. So that it comes to this, I suppose, that I believe in freedom regardless of form.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) first seen 1325 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Note on Poetry" (1937); in William Rose Benét and Norman Holmes Pearson, eds., The Oxford Anthology of American Literature, vol. 2 (New York: Oxford UP, 1938), p. 1325
“The Constitution did not give Americans freedom; they had been free long before it was written, and when it was put up for ratification they eyed it suspiciously, lest it infringe their freedom. The Federalists, the advocates of ratification, went to great pains to assure the people that under the Constitution they would be just as free as they ever were.”
Frank Chodorov (1887–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My beautiful, now 22-year-old child told me last year that they were gender nonconforming. The only thought I wake up with every day is: My child is free. My child is free to be who they are, and in that freedom comes a responsibility for us as legislators to protect that freedom.”
Pramila Jayapal (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ukraine and Australia are separated by half the Earth. Our languages, accents, histories and cultures are different, but we share an affinity for democracy, for freedom, freedom of speech, expression and a free press. For the right to live free of coercion, intimidation and the brute fist of force. And a belief in our shared human dignity.”
Scott Morrison (born 1968) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ministerial Statement: His Excellency Mr. Volodymyr Zelenskyy (31 March 2022)
“Whoever will be free must make himself free. Freedom is no fairy gift to fall into a man's lap. What is freedom? To have the will to be responsible for one's self.”
Max Stirner (attributed) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attributed in Forbes Vol 38 Iss. 2 (1936) p. 18, and in Lifetime Speaker's Encyclopedia (1962) by Jacob Morton Braude, p. 275
“No, liberty is not made for us: we are too ignorant, too vain, too presumptuous, too cowardly, too vile, too corrupt, too attached to rest and to pleasure, too much slaves to fortune to ever know the true price of liberty. We boast of being free! To show how much we have become slaves, it is enough just to cast a glance on the capital and examine the morals of its inhabitants.”
Jean-Paul Marat (1743–1793) first seen 1791 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: L'Ami du peuple, no.559 (1791-08-27)
“Free laborers have not a thousandth part of the rights and liberties of negro slaves. Indeed, they have not a single right or a single liberty, unless it be the right or liberty to die.”
George Fitzhugh (1806–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Go into your places of worship, believe, affirm, pray. What I demand is liberty, an equal liberty for you and for me, for my philosophy and for your religious beliefs. We are not the foes of religion; we want to see it set on a firm basis, free and inviolable.”
Léon Gambetta (1838–1882) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Albertville (1872), quoted in Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), p. 162
“Freedom has nothing to do with lack of training; it can only be the product of training. You're not free to move unless you've learned to walk, and not free to play the piano unless you practise. Nobody is capable of free speech unless he knows how to use the language, and such knowledge is not a gift: it has to be learned and worked at.”
Northrop Frye (1912–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The tyranny of necessity grants its slaves three kinds of freedom: opinion free from intellect, entertainment free from art, and orgies free from love.”
Karl Kraus (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(...) Desiring a state of freedom from desire will not set you free. Nothing can set you free, because you are free. See yourself with desireless clarity, that is all.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The church and civilization are antipodal; one means authority, the other freedom; one means conservatism, the other progress; one means the rights of God as interpreted by the priesthood, the other the rights of humanity as interpreted by humanity. Civilization advances by free thought, free speech, free men.”
Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826–1898) said by 1898 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 540 as quoted in K. M. Talreja, Holy Vedas and Holy Bible: A Comparative Study, New Delhi: Rashtriya Chetana Sangathan, 2000
“We, as the Kurdish Freedom Movement, … reject classical models like federalism, con-federalism, self-government, and autonomy. Our goal is the formation of a new Kurdish society, the formation of a free person, a person with free will and free thought. … The point is to renew society from the bottom up.”
Salih Muslim (1951–2026) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview by KurdWatch, 20 October 2011 – quoted by Michael Gunter, Out of Nowhere: The Kurds of Syria in Peace and War, London: C. Hurst & Co., 2014, p. 109.
“In action, in desire, we must submit perpetually to the tyranny of outside forces; but in thought, in aspiration, we are free, free from our fellowmen, free from the petty planet on which our bodies impotently crawl, free even, while we live, from the tyranny of death.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We live in a country where the people own the Government and not in a country where the Government owns the people. Thought is free, speech is free, religion is free, no one can say that the Press is not free. In short, we live in a liberal society, the direct product of the great advances in human dignity, stature and well-being which will ever be the glory of the nineteenth century.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: I Ask You—What Price Freedom? Answers, 24 October 1936.
“I long to be free — desperately free. Free as the stillborn are free.”
Emil Cioran (1911–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are ever free if we would only believe it, only have faith enough. You are the soul, free and eternal, ever free, ever blessed. Have faith enough and you will be free in a minute.”
Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We're free and clear, Willy. We're free, we're free, we're free...”
Arthur Miller (1915–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The First Amendment isn't about free thought and free opinion and free belief. The First Amendment is about free exercise--the carrying into practice of religious principles, and beliefs, and convictions.”
Alan Keyes (born 1950) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Alabama Republican Assemblies Luncheon (29 April 2000)
“A free man - is a man who is free internally. As all other people, externally he or she depends on society. Internally he or she is independent. A society can become liberated externally - from oppression, but it can become free only when the majority of people are free internally.”
Simon Soloveychik (1930–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let me phrase the free will theorem that Simon and I proved. ...[I]f we... have free will... then so do elementary particles have their... very small quantity of free will... to mean, our behavior is not a function of the past. ...[I]f some experimenters have free will ...then so do elementary particles... even the ones outside us...”
John Horton Conway (1937–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Christ as King means humanity free from bondage to ideologies and institutions, free from revolutionary causes as well, free from idolatry of Caesar, and, not the least of it, free from religion which tries to disguise such slavery as virtuous.”
William Stringfellow (1928–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Indian may now become a free man; free from the thralldom of the tribe; free from the domination of the reservation system; free to enter into the body of our citizens. This bill may therefore be considered as the Magna Carta of the Indians of our country.”
Alice Cunningham Fletcher (1838–1923) said by 1923 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They can only set free men free... And there is no need of that: Free men set themselves free.”
James Oppenheim (1882–1932) said by 1932 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Freedom Bell in Berlin is, like the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, a symbol which reminds us that freedom does not come about of itself. It must be struggled for and then defended anew every day of our lives.”
Angela Merkel (born 1954) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks by German Chancellor Angela Merkel before a joint session of Congress on November 04, 2009.
“When it comes to the desire for liberty and justice, there is no clash of civilizations. People everywhere are capable of freedom, and worthy of freedom.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He was of opinion that the Press should be unfettered; that its freedom should be, as indeed it was, commensurate with the freedom of the People, and the well-being of a virtuous State: on that account, he thought that even one hundred libels had better be ushered into the world, than one prosecution be instituted which might endanger the liberty of the press of this country.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1798 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (4 April 1798), quoted in The Parliamentary Register; Or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Lords and House of Commons, Vol. V (1798), p. 584
“A fox and a wolf are both canine, both belong to the dog family. Now you take your choice. You going to choose a Northern dog or a Southern dog? Because either dog you choose, I guarantee you'll still be in the dog house. This is why I say it's the ballot or the bullet. It's liberty or it's death. It's freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody.”
Malcolm X (1925–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is one expanding horror in American life. It is that our long odyssey toward liberty, democracy and freedom-for-all may be achieved in such a way that utopia remains forever closed, and we live in freedom and hell, debased of style, not individual from one another, void of courage, our fear rationalized away.”
Norman Mailer (1923–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The NARROW-MINDED BIGOTS have given to this country and to the world freedom of speech, freedom of thought and action and religious liberty.”
William Randolph Hearst (1863–1951) first seen 1929 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Communication to the American Crime Study Commission (19 May 1929)
“My kind of man is the type that enjoys togetherness, very hardworking, loving, patient and understanding. I love freedom, especially freedom of expression. My kind of man would give me that liberty to say all and of course, he would trust me.”
Fisayo Ajisola wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am glad that The Gambia has endorsed the Ecowas Court judgment. I hope this serves as a lesson for governments to allow journalists do our work without harassment and intimidation. Our rights to freedom of expression, liberty, and freedom of movement should always be respected.”
Fatu Camara (born 1950) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: [FOROYAA],Government Compensates Four Gambian Journalists, retrieved on May 30, 2019
“Are the peoples of the Middle East somehow beyond the reach of liberty? Are millions of men and women and children condemned by history or culture to live in despotism? Are they alone never to know freedom, and never even to have a choice in the matter? I, for one, do not believe it. I believe every person has the ability and the right to be free.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As the liberty lads o'er the sea Bought their freedom, and cheaply, with blood, So we, boys, we Shall die fighting or live free, And down with all kings but King Ludd!”
Lord Byron (1788–1824) first seen 1816 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Song for the Luddites (1816).
“The people are as capable of achieving their industrial freedom as they were to secure their political liberty, and both are necessary to a free nation.”
Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926) said by 1926 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As free constitutions are the strongest supports of governments, social order is the best safeguard of freedom. Liberty has no enemies so pernicious as those misguided friends whose ardour in her cause leads them to outrage the moral sense of mankind, and to arm against her the interests and feelings which are her natural allies. Even the prejudices of nations should be respected.”
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859) first seen 1822 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Essay on the Life and Character of King William III' (1822), written for the Greaves Historical Prize at Cambridge, quoted in The Times Literary Supplement (1 May 1969), p. 469
“Many politicians of our time are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim. If men are to wait for liberty till they become wise and good in slavery, they may indeed have to wait forever.”
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perhaps the enemies of liberty are such only because they judge it by its loud voice. If they knew its charms, the dignity that accompanies it, how much a free man feels like a king, the perpetual inner light that is produced by decorous self-awareness and realization, perhaps there would be no greater friends of freedom than those who are its worst enemies.”
José Martí (1853–1895) said by 1895 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Next to life we express gratitude for the gift of free agency. When thou didst create man, thou placed within him part of thine omnipotence and bade him choose for himself. Liberty and conscience thus became a sacred part of human nature. Freedom not only to think, but to speak and act is a God-given privilege.”
David O. McKay (1873–1970) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Improvement Era (October 1958) pp 718-719
“I am fifty years old and I have always lived in freedom; let me end my life free; when I am dead let this be said of me: 'He belonged to no school, to no church, to no institution, to no academy, least of all to any régime except the régime of liberty.'”
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) first seen 1869 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a letter of Gustave Courbet (1869); in Letters of Gustave Courbet, 1992, University of Chicago Press, transl. Petra Ten-Doesschate Chu,
“The aim of all socialist measures, even of those which appear outwardly as coercive measures, is the development and the securing of a free personality. Their more exact examination always shows that the coercion included will raise the sum total of liberty in society, and will give more freedom over a more extended area than it takes away.”
Eduard Bernstein (1850–1932) said by 1932 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Americans have two ardent passions; the love of liberty, and love of distinction. These passions mutually stimulate and increase each other ; the enjoyment of equal rights as citizens giving every man a chance of becoming eminent, and that eminence being derived from living under a free government, the Americans are thus necessarily as ambitious of fame as they are tenacious of freedom.”
Sarah Josepha Hale (1788–1879) first seen 1829 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sketches of American Character: Captain Glover's Daughter"; Ladies' Magazine, vol. 2, no. 6 (June 1829), p. 262
“Laws do not put the least restraint Upon our freedom, but maintain ’t; Or, if it does, ’tis for our good, To give us freer latitude; For wholesome laws preserve us free, By stinting of our liberty.”
Samuel Butler (poet) (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage; Minds innocent and quiet take That for an hermitage; If I have freedom in my love, And in my soul am free, Angels alone that soar above Enjoy such liberty.”
Richard Lovelace (1618–1658) said by 1658 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Only in democratic countries is there the beginning of a suspicion that the old axioms about the press being the bulwark of liberty is something that affects the daily life of the people—that it is a living warning rather than an ancient wisecrack. A people that wants to be free must arm itself with a free press.”
George Seldes (1890–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The way I saw the educational system from an early age was that it taught you what to think, not how to think. There was no liberty, really, for free thinking. You were being trained to fit into a society where free thinking was a nuisance.”
Joni Mitchell (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is only by the abolition of the State, by the conquest of perfect liberty by the individual, by free agreement, association, and absolute free federation that we can reach Communism — the possession in common of our social inheritance, and the production in common of all riches.”
Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921) said by 1921 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Free speech is the bedrock of liberty and a free society. And yes, it includes the right to blaspheme and offend.”
Ayaan Hirsi Ali (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source