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Freedom

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“[Boucher admits that the use of slavery in the British colonies is better regulated than in other countries, but notes that:] "it is surely worse in this, that here, in one sense, it never can end. An African slave, even when made free, supposing him to be possessed even of talents and of virtue, can never, in these colonies, be quite on terms of equality with a free white man.”
Jonathan Boucher (1738–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now you say you wanna be set free? And wanna set me free? Well I'm told that can only come from A union with the One who never dies.”
Aaron Weiss wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To be free of time is to be free of the psychological need of past for your identity and future for your fulfillment.”
Eckhart Tolle (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our Judeo-Christian culture is far superior to the Islamic one. I can give you a million reasons. But here is an important one. We have got humor and they don't. There is no humor in Islam. ... Islam does not allow free speech, because free speech shows how evil and wrong Islam is. And Islam does not allow humor, because humor shows how foolish and ridiculous it is.”
Geert Wilders (born 1963) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Muhammad Cartoon Contest, Garland, Texas (3 May 2015)
“Who rules you, nomads? Do you answer to someone's will besides your own? Are you free to choose your own path, or will the Volturi decide how you will live? "I came to witness. I stay to fight. The Volturi care nothing for the death of a child. They seek the death of our free will.”
Stephenie Meyer (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Free will again,” Cathy said. “Or free won’t,” Peterson said mildly.”
Gregory Benford (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is the essential importance of the Alliance for Better Campaigns' efforts backed by Common Cause. It is our campaign to give free time to all legitimate candidates. … What our campaign asks is that the television industry yield just a tiny percentage of that windfall, less than 1 percent, to fund free airtime.”
Walter Cronkite (1916–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Echoing the Christian faith in free will, humanists hold that human beings are – or may someday become – free to choose their lives. They forget that the self that does the choosing has not itself been chosen.”
John Gray (philosopher) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Good slaves are free, but bad free men are slaves of many passions.”
Bion of Borysthenes (born 325 BC) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If your son is nontraditional, he needs to know that the most important work of his life is selecting a woman who is free enough from social constraints to free him from social constraints.”
Warren Farrell (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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, because man is related to man under all circumstances for good or for ill.”
Marcus Garvey (1887–1940) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speaking during a speech entitled "The Work That Has Been Done" at Menelik Hall, Sydney, Nova Scotia on Sunday, October 31, 1937. Hill, R. A., Garvey, M. (1983). The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Associa…
“There exists a shadowy government with its own Air Force, its own Navy, its own fundraising mechanism, and the ability to pursue its own ideas of national interest, free from all checks and balances, and free from the law itself.”
Daniel Inouye (1924–2012) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition (Iran-Contra hearings) (1987)
“The free circulation of citizens, which is sacrosanct, cannot become the free circulation of criminals.”
Franco Frattini (1957–2022) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview by La Stampa, (23 April 2008)
“The notion that the church, the press, and the universities should serve the state is essentially a Communist notion. In a free society these institutions must be wholly free – which is to say that their function is to serve as checks upon the state.”
Alan Barth (1906–1979) said by 1979 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Rights of Free Men: An Essential Guide to Civil Liberties (1984).
“There can be no free speech in a mob: free speech is one thing a mob can't stand.”
Northrop Frye (1912–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cause day and night, the lonely stoner seems to free his mind at night, he's all alone through the day and night, the lonely loner seems to free his mind at night”
Kid Cudi (born 1984) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If there is one who’s not free, then I am not free. If there is one who suffers, then I suffer.”
Ai Weiwei (born 1957) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ai Weiwei Twitter feed: @AiWW (6:38 p.m. August 23, 2009)
“Without civil intervention the free market tends to monopoly. What we should do is try to restore a truly free market, try to restore a market where there are no barriers to access and people have something other than their labour which they can trade or exchange.”
Phillip Blond (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I wanna be high, so high. I wanna be free to know The things I do are right. I wanna be free, Just me, babe! That's why I'm easy. I'm easy like Sunday morning.”
Lionel Richie (born 1949) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Easy (1977).
“The west has fiscalised its basic power relationships through a web of contracts, loans, shareholdings, bank holdings and so on. In such an environment it is easy for speech to be "free" because a change in political will rarely leads to any change in these basic instruments. Western speech, as something that rarely has any effect on power, is, like badgers and birds, free.”
Julian Assange (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Far We've been traveling far Without a home But not without a star.Free, Only want to be free. We huddle close; Hang on to a dream.”
Neil Diamond (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Tyrants forbid citizens to do their duty as free men. Free government permits them to do it. Liberal education enables them to do it.”
Stringfellow Barr (1897–1982) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Liberal Education: Enabling Citizens to do their Duty as Free Men", Report of the president of St. John's College to the Board of Visitors and Governors, May, 1941. Hanging in Buchanan Hall, St. John's College Annapolis
“Love in its most genuine sense, can only flourish if it is FREE. We, as people, can only flourish if we are free.”
Steve Maraboli (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The second part of the New Right's policy package has been the belief that free-market solutions are always best. It is this latter view which is profoundly mistaken. Markets and profits are crucial, but the pure free-market model itself is deeply flawed.”
Paul Ormerod (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am a determinist. As such, I do not believe in free will. The Jews believe in free will. They believe that man shapes his own life. I reject that doctrine philosophically. In that respect, I am not a Jew.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions makes it impossible to earn a living. It is clear also that thought is not free if all the arguments on one side of a controversy are perpetually presented as attractively as possible, while the arguments on the other side can only be discovered by diligent search.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are as many perfections as there are imperfect men. And while to the claims of charity a man may yield and yet be free, to the claims of conformity no man may yield and remain free at all.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There's no free will," says the philosopher; "To hang is most unjust." "There is no free will," assents the officer; "We hang because we must.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everyone is in favour of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Coalmining Situation", Speech to the House of Commons (October 13, 1943)
“Socialism is, in its essence, an attack not only upon British enterprise, but upon the right of the ordinary man or woman to breathe freely without having a harsh, clumsy, tyrannical hand clapped across their mouths and nostrils. A Free Parliament—look at that—a Free Parliament is odious to the Socialist doctrinaire.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Broadcast for the 1945 general election (4 June 1945), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Never Despair': Winston S. Churchill, 1945–1965 (1988), p. 33
“It is the firm duty of each of our free citizens and of every free citizen everywhere to place the cause of his country before the comfort, the convenience of himself.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The day that this country ceases to be free for irreligion it will cease to be free for religion — except for the sect that can win political power.”
Robert H. Jackson (1892–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1854 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Slavery in Massachusetts" (1854)
“If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is not a barking dog, to be tethered on a ten-foot chain.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (8 October 1952)
“Men may be born free; they cannot be born wise; and it is the duty of the university to make the free wise.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: What I Think (1956), p. 55
“We have confused the free with the free and easy.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Putting First Things (1960)
“In historical events great men — so-called — are but labels serving to give a name to the event, and like labels they have the least possible connection with the event itself. Every action of theirs, that seems to them an act of their own free will, is in an historical sense not free at all, but in bondage to the whole course of previous history, and predestined from all eternity.”
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As long as I am mayor of this city the great industries are secure. We hear about constitutional rights, free speech and the free press. Every time I hear these words I say to myself, "That man is a Red, that man is a Communist." You never hear a real American talk like that.”
Frank Hague (1876–1956) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Jersey City Chamber of Commerce (12 January 1938), as quoted in The Last Three Miles : Politics, Murder, and the Construction of America's First Superhighway (2007) by Steven Hart, p. 137.
“Men in the mass never brook the destructive discussion of their fundamental beliefs, and that impatience is naturally most evident in those societies in which men in the mass are most influential. Democracy and free speech are not facets of one gem; democracy and free speech are eternal enemies.”
H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If, when the chips are down, the world's most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world.”
Richard Nixon (1913–1994) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the nation on the situation in Southeast Asia (April 30, 1970); in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard Nixon, 1970, p. 409
“I fully understand it takes time for free societies, truly free societies to evolve. I don't expect instant success.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview on Middle East Television Network, February 18, 2004
“Because free peoples believe in the future, free peoples will own the future.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(In answer to the question: In the extreme case, if it was just you doing all the code, and the rest of the world quietly used it, would it make sense to give it away free? Unless you're particularly grateful for other free things you've got off the Net, would the answer be No?":)”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are "extremists" in the free software world, but that's one major reason why I don't call what I do "free software" any more. I don't want to be associated with the people for whom it's about exclusion and hatred.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me — That ever with a frolic welcome took The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed Free hearts, free foreheads — you and I are old; Old age hath yet his honor and his toil. Death closes all; but something ere the end, Some work of noble note, may yet be done, Not unbecoming men that strove with gods.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By outlawing Solidarity, a free trade organization to which an overwhelming majority of Polish workers and farmers belong, they have made it clear that they never had any intention of restoring one of the most elemental human rights—the right to belong to a free trade union.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Radio Address to the Nation on Solidarity and United States Relations With Poland (1982-10-09). Compare with an earlier Reagan speech: "... where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost. The…
“I believe in an America where the rights that I have described are enjoyed by all, regardless of their race or their creed or their national origin — where every citizen is free to think and speak as he pleases and write and worship as he pleases — and where every citizen is free to vote as he pleases, without instructions from anyone, his employer, the union leader or his clergyman.”
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We can't be free ourselves if we can't free our women.”
Cesar Chavez (1927–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dacca is now the free capital of a free country.”
Indira Gandhi (1917–1984) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to Parliament announcing the victory of Bangladesh-India Forces over the Pakistan Army, (December 16, 1971) .
“No one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; no one can be perfectly happy till all are happy.”
Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) said by 1903 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source