Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,808 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Freedom
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“For all time to come, the freedom and purity of the press are the test of national virtue and independence. No writer for the press, however humble, is free from the burden of keeping his purpose high and his integrity white.”
John Boyle O'Reilly (1844–1890) said by 1890 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Roche, James Jeffrey (1891). Life of John Boyle O'Reilly, together with his complete poems and speeches edited by Mrs John Boyle O'Reilly. New York. p 195.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
Jesus (6 BC–33) said by 33 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A final argument for broad freedom of expression is its effect on the character of individuals in a society. Citizens in a free society must have courage — the courage to hear not only unwelcome political speech but novel and shocking ideas in science and the arts.”
Anthony Lewis (1927–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We enjoy a considerable net inflow of capital and I am sure that a condition of its coming, and staying, is that it is free to flow out again. It is also important for Hong Kong's status as a financial centre that there should be a maximum freedom of capital movement both in and out.”
John James Cowperthwaite (1915–2006) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: March 29, 1963, page 134.
“If man were not free, then he could not conceive of causality at all, and could not form any concept of it. Insight into lawfulness is already freedom from it.”
Otto Weininger (1880–1903) said by 1903 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The modern poet has no essential alliance with regular schemes of any sorts.He reserves the right to adapt his rhythm to his mood, to modulate his metre as he progresses. Far from seeking freedom and irresponsibility (implied by the unfortunate term free verse) he seeks a stricter discipline of exact concord of thought and feeling.”
Herbert Read (1893–1968) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Collected Essays in Literary Criticism (1938)
“In previous conditions, extreme states came under the jurisdiction of the arts... People substituted writing (fiction) for what was once spiritual life, poetry (chaotic words) for actual ecstasies. Art constitutes a minor free zone outside action, paying for its freedom by giving up the real world. A heavy price!”
Georges Bataille (1897–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The idea that men are created free and equal is both true and misleading: men are created different; they lose their social freedom and their individual autonomy in seeking to become like each other.”
David Riesman (1909–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every free man has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public; to forbid this is to destroy the freedom of the press.”
Joseph Story (1779–1845) said by 1845 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, Volume 2, sec. 1884 (4th Ed.). Source: "U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Opinion for Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten". The Foundation for Individual Rig…
“And while expecting me to be the more free I could be, he pushed me to my own corners, always asking for more. More freedom, more experiments, more noise, more trash, more, more.”
François-Eudes Chanfrault (1974–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The first condition of universal freedom, that is to say, is a measure of universal restraint. Without such restraint some men may be free but others will be unfree.”
Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse (1864–1929) said by 1929 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“True consent is free consent, and full freedom of consent implies equality on the part of both parties to bargain.”
Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse (1864–1929) said by 1929 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In academia much bogus knowledge is tolerated in the name of academic freedom – which is like allowing for the sale of contaminated food in the name of free enterprise. I submit that such tolerance is suicidal: that the serious students must be protected against the “anything goes” crowd.”
Mario Bunge (1919–2020) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Matter and Mind (2010), p. 264.
“The Internet is no longer a free realm, but neither has it fulfilled the Orwellian prophecy. It is a contested terrain, where the new, fundamental battle for freedom in the Information Age is being fought.”
Manuel Castells (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Internet is indeed a technology of freedom - but it can free the powerful to oppress the uninformed, it may lead to the exclusion of the devalued by the conquerors of value. In this general sense, society has not changed much.”
Manuel Castells (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We lay it down as a first principle—from which we can no more depart than from the consciousness of existence—that MAN IS FREE; and therefore stand ready to embrace whatever is fairly included in the definition of freedom.”
Archibald Alexander (1772–1851) said by 1851 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Outlines of Moral Science (New York: Charles Scribner, 1852), pp. 111–112.
“It is far better to be free to govern or misgovern yourself than to be governed by anybody else.” Source: “I Speak of Freedom: A Statement of African Ideology,” by Kwame Nkrumah.”
Kwame Nkrumah (1909–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That we shall succeed, I have no doubt. But years of toil and perseverance, of restraint and even privation, lie ahead. We have to free ourselves from the grip of economic imperialism, and protect our freedom. We have at the same time to work ceaselessly for the complete liberation and unity of Africa.”
Kwame Nkrumah (1909–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Guided reinvention is] striking a subtle balance between the freedom of inventing and the force of guiding, between allowing the learner to please himself and asking him to please the teacher. Moreover, the learner’s free choice is already restricted by the “re” of “reinvention”. The learner shall invent something that is new to him but well-known to the guide.”
Hans Freudenthal (1905–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 48; As cited in: Anne Birgitte Fyhn (2007, p. 14)
“The least we desire from the institutions of the free world, and especially the US and the countries of the European Union, is that they appreciate our struggle for freedom. We want them to discharge their responsibilities towards vulnerable people and support them in the face of the cruelty of rulers who continue to kill.”
Tawakkol Karman (born 1979) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...in the 10 years after Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule ... I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not... If you're too free, you're like the way Hong Kong is now. It's very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic... I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want.”
Jackie Chan (born 1954) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jackie Chan at the annual Boao Forum for Asia (18 April 2009)
“Mozilla believes both in equality and freedom of speech. Equality is necessary for meaningful speech, and you need free speech to fight for equality. Figuring out how to stand for both at the same time can be hard.”
Mitchell Baker (born 1957) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: cnet.com: "Mozilla CEO Eich resigns after gay-marriage controversy" 3 Apr 2014; on the resignation of Brendan Eich, 3 April 2014:
“Congress and its allies have shamed democracy once again. Blatant misuse of state power against Republic TV & Arnab Goswami is an attack on individual freedom and the 4th pillar of democracy. It reminds us of the Emergency. This attack on free press must be and WILL BE OPPOSED.”
Amit Shah (born 1964) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: About the arrest of Arnab Goswami, who was arrested and put into jail in November 2020
“You recognize but one rule of commerce; that is (to avail myself of your own terms) to allow free passage and freedom of action to all buyers and sellers whoever they may be.”
François Quesnay (1694–1774) first seen 1767 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: François Quesnay in letter from M. Alpha to de Quesnay, 1767; cited in: Antony Jay (2010). Lend Me Your Ears: Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations. p. 253.
“In fine, a condition of our making freedom possible in a world ordered by the rigour of natural law is that we accept an idealistic philosophy of Nature: the laws of Nature must issue from the free actor himself, and upon a world consisting of states in his own consciousness, a world in so far of his own making.”
George Holmes Howison (1834–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It might pertinently be said that determinism and freedom are of course compatible enough when they are merely viewed as the two reciprocal aspects of self-activity in a single mind, but that the real difficulty is to reconcile the self-determinisms in different free minds.”
George Holmes Howison (1834–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Consideration of motives brings up the matter of free will. I had better say once, that my project of taking animal comparisons seriously does not involve a slick mechanistic or deterministic view of freedom. Animals are not machines; one of my main concerns is to combat this notion. Actually only machines are machines.”
Mary Midgley (1919–2018) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Introduction, Beast and Man: The Roots of Human Nature (1979).
“America's got a much stronger tradition of free speech and freedom of the press. In Europe, it's much more nuanced and they put a lot of meaning on the rights of your reputation.”
Noam Cohen wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In all cases, for all commodities that serve to provide for the tangible or intangible needs of the consumer, it is in the consumer's best interest that labor and trade remain free, because the freedom of labor and of trade have as their necessary and permanent result the maximum reduction of price.”
Gustave de Molinari (1819–1912) said by 1912 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where laws rule, people are free. Conversely, where not laws, but individuals, rule, people are unfree. Law is the indispensable tool for securing personal freedom, because only under the rule of law are individuals able to plan their lives according to known expectations about the social order.”
Alan O. Ebenstein (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To live means to struggle, the slave for freedom and the free man for perfection.”
Yane Sandanski (1872–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cited in Black Lambs & Grey Falcons: Women Travellers in the Balkans (2000), pp. 180—181
“Kant’s theory of freedom, and especially the idea that we are free only in the intelligible world beyond nature, has also been the chief stumbling block to the acceptance of his moral philosophy. The scandal has only increased with the passage of time, as fewer and fewer moral philosophers find it tolerable to burden morality with an extravagant supernaturalist metaphysics.”
Allen W. Wood (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For quite some time in America it's been illegal to employ racists, sexists and fascists, and mandatory to employ a precisely calibrated percentage of women, workers and peasants. Because America is a free country and that's what freedom means.”
Curtis Yarvin (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Without criticising the liberal model, we cannot repair its faults or go beyond it. But please note that this book could have been written only when people are still relatively free to think what they like and to express themselves as they wish. If you value this book, you should also value the freedom of expression.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Successive governments have refused to accept the threat posed to our society by Islamic fundamentalism and extremism and to take the necessary measures to meet it head-on. We should esteem our own values of freedom, free speech and liberal secular democracy and start defending them.”
Gerard Batten (born 1954) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Islamic fundamentalism is incompatible with freedom and Western liberal democracy (2006)
“Free speech is indeed a tool of the powerful, but it is also crucially the language of the powerless. The courageous protests by Iranian women, the #EndSARS protest in Nigeria, where young people rallied against police brutality, the Arab Spring: all wielded speech. Dissent is impossible without the freedom of speech.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Reith Lectures 2022
“If yogis are to come to the realization of the interconnectedness of life, then we must free ourselves from the conditioning that has caused us to think it is all right to exclude all the other animals from our own goals of peace, freedom, and happiness. … By working to alleviate the suffering of animals you are working at the cause level of human suffering.”
Sharon Gannon (born 1951) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sharon Gannon on Veganism”, in JivamuktiYoga.com (16 November 2016).
“The tame, the domesticated, try to monopolize the word freedom; they'd like to apply it to their own condition. They apply the word "wild" to the free.”
Fredy Perlman (1934–1985) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Against His-Story, Against Leviathan! (1983)
“Although a Buddhist seeks refuge in the Buddha, he does not make any self-surrender. Nor does a Buddhist sacrifice his freedom of thought by becoming a follower of the Buddha. He can exercise his own free will and develop his knowledge even to the extent of becoming a Buddha himself.”
Narada Maha Thera (1898–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A man is either free or he is not. There cannot be any apprenticeship for freedom.”
Amiri Baraka (1934–2014) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Wordsworth Dictionary of Quotations (1998)
“Do you feel free?” “I feel like I’ve lost too much.” “Freedom can feel that way.”
Jaroslav Kalfař (born 1988) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The more people are free, the greater their human development and national wealth. In short, freedom is the way to economic and social human security.”
Rudolph Rummel (1932–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The more freedom a people have, the more unlikely the government will murder them. Democratically free governments do not murder their own people.”
Rudolph Rummel (1932–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“«Free, yes, but freedom well understood».”
Silvia Elvira Martorell Kaswalder (1915–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The discovery of freedom, for instance, means little if we are not empowered to act, to be free for something, not just from something. As fear falls away, we are less afraid of power's Siamese twin, responsibility.”
Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We champion freedom - but Brexit will mean the next generation is less free to live, work and love across Europe”
Jo Swinson (born 1980) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lib Dems: Jo Swinson becomes party's first female leader BBC News (22 July 2019)
“Any time while I was a slave, if one minute's freedom had been offered to me, and I had been told that I must die at the end of that minute, I would have taken it—just to stand one minute on God's earth a free woman—I would.”
Elizabeth Freeman (1744–1829) said by 1829 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: in Douglas R. Egerton, ed., Death or Liberty: African Americans in Revolutionary America (Oxford University Press: 2009), p. 171
“I’m here tonight appearing before you as a well individual, free of the street poison that put me into the kind of position where I brutalized and exploited our Black queens. You have to have a realization that when you exploit your own kind … you are, in effect, counterrevolutionary; that you are hobbling and crippling the struggle of Black people for freedom and dignity.”
Iceberg Slim (1918–1992) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Black Pimp" (1971 episode of the TV program Black Journal)
“Canadian Prime Minister who says that “freedom of expression is not without limits.” Rather the stance to take – a simple one really – is that the aggression and provocation, the crux of the problem, is not free expression but murder. ...”
Maryam Namazie (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If a technology is exclusionary, it does not work. If a community is exclusionary, it must be fixed or thrown away. There is no middle ground here. There is no compromise. Without doing this, without taking the hard, painful steps to actually live the promise of user freedom and everything it requires and entails, our work is pointless and free software will fail.”
Molly de Blanc first seen 1028 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1028-words-on-free-software January 12, 2021