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Freedom

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“I'm a Reagan Republican, a proponent of lower taxes, less government, free markets, free trade, defense readiness, and democratic internationalism.”
John McCain (1936–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everywhere, unthinking mobs of "independent thinkers" wield tired clichés like cudgels, pummeling those who dare question “enlightened” dogma. If “violence never solved anything,” cops wouldn’t have guns and slaves may never have been freed. If it’s better that 10 guilty men go free to spare one innocent, why not free 100 or 1,000,000? Clichés begin arguments, they don’t settle them.”
Jonah Goldberg (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The story of the labor movement needs to be taught in every school in this land... America is a living testimonial to what free men and women, organized in free democratic trade unions can do to make a better life … we ought to be proud of it!”
Hubert Humphrey (1911–1978) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the 1977 Minnesota State AFL-CIO Convention.
“Free Trade is a great pacificator. We have had many quarrels, many causes of quarrels, during the last fifty years, but we have not had a single war with any first-class Power. Free Trade is slowly but surely cleaving a path through the dense and dark thicket of armaments to the sunny land of brotherhood amongst nations.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1908 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Manchester (21 April 1908), quoted in Better Times: Speeches by the Right Hon. D. Lloyd George, M.P., Chancellor of the Exchequer (1910), p. 43
“Like many older fans of Free Software and Open Source, I have discovered that it is really only free in the sense that the time you spend on it is worthless.”
Erik Naggum (1965–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At the root of the assault on our liberties is, in fact, an assault on our character--an assault that assumes that we are not good enough to be free, and that aims to make sure that we are no longer strong enough, courageous enough, disciplined enough to be a free people.”
Alan Keyes (born 1950) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rally in Idaho Falls, Idaho (12 May 2000)
“Open source is free like a puppy is free.”
Scott McNealy (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If we say that we believe in democracy, if we say that the fabric of a democratic society is one which allows for the free play of idea...then, in the name of all the gods, give that free play a chance to work within the constitutional framework.”
Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Opposition leader Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore Legislative Assembly (4 October 1956)
“I believe that for the small numbers of Jewish people in the United States, they exercise a tremendous amount of influence on the affairs of government ...Yes, they exercise extraordinary control, and black people will never be free in this country until they are free of that kind of control ...”
Louis Farrakhan (born 1933) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Meet The Press interview, The Guardian (April 1997)
“Maybe," he said, "you should be more careful about whom you let your dog bite." "Not I!" said Jamal. "I am a believer of free will. If my dog chooses to hate the whole human race except myself, it must be free to do so.”
Diana Wynne Jones (1934–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yet look again — His horn is free, Rising above chain, fence, and tree, Free hymn of love; His horn Bursts from his tranquil brow Like a comet born; Cleaves like a galley's prow Into seas untorn; Springs like a lily, white From the Earth below; Spirals, a bird in flight To a longed-for height; Or a fountain bright, Spurting to light Of early morn — O luminous horn!”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The mind must free itself from all kinds of “schools,” religions, sects, beliefs, etc. All those “cages” are obstacles which render the mind incapable of thinking freely. It is necessary for the mind to become free of the illusions of this world and become a fine and marvelous instrument of the Inner Being.”
Samael Aun Weor (1917–1977) said by 1977 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In part, free trade has not worked because we have not tried it: trade agreements of the past have been neither free nor fair. They have been asymmetric, opening up markets in the developing countries to goods from the advanced industrial countries without full reciprocation.”
Joseph Stiglitz (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Three times in my life I have been captured: by the orphanage, by school, and by the Army. I was four years in the orphanage, seven or eight in school, and three in the Army. Each seemed forever, though. But I'm mistaken. The fact is I was captured only once, when I was born, only that capture is also setting free, which is what this is actually all about. The free prisoner.”
William Saroyan (1908–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Well, if you want to sing out, sing out, And if you want to be free, be free. 'Cause there's a million things to be, You know that there are.”
Cat Stevens (born 1948) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out, originally recorded for the 1971 film Harold and Maude
“The substance of the teaching of the "Gita" is contained in Chapter XI Ver. 55, which translated reads: " He who does work for me, he who looks upon Me as his goal, he who worships me, free from attachment, he who is free from enmity to all creatures, he goes to me.”
Peter de Noronha (1897–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We believe in marriage for life, and deprecate all this loose, pestiferous talk in favor of easy divorce... Be not deceived — free love means free lust.”
Lucy Stone (1818–1893) first seen 1870 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In an 1870 writing making it clear that those wishing for "free divorce" were not associated with Stone's organization, American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA)
“Who says I can’t be free? From all of the things that I used to be. Re-write my history. Who says I can’t be free?”
John Mayer (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[...] then the necessary decline of non-voluntary learning and rise of the self-assured will which perfects itself in the glorious sunlight of the free person may be somewhat expressed as follows: knowledge must die and rise again as will and create itself anew each day as a free person.”
Max Stirner (1806–1856) said by 1856 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed, that has nothing to do with the business of State.”
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876–1948) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Presidential Address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, 11 August, 1947
“You are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your masjids or any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed. That has nothing to do with the business of the State.”
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876–1948) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Presidential address to the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, Karachi (11 August 1947)
“We should have a State in which we could live and breathe as free men and which we could develop according to our own lights and culture and where principles of Islamic social justice could find free play.”
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876–1948) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to Civil, Naval, Military, and Air Force Officers of Pakistan Government, Karachi 11 October 1947.
“Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.”
Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357, 376 (1927).
“(...) one is always free. You are both conscious and free to be conscious. Nobody can take this away from you. (…)”
Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is but one question ultimately to be asked respecting every line you draw, Is it right or wrong? If right, it most assuredly is not a "free" line, but an intensely continent, restrained and considered line; and the action of the hand in laying it is just as decisive, and just as "free" as the hand of a first-rate surgeon in a critical incision.”
John Ruskin (1819–1900) first seen 1865 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cestus of Aglaia, chapter VI, section 72 (1865-66)
“I began with the premise that, deep down, everybody wants to censor something. Human beings, no matter how committed to the principles of free speech, have deep-seated distrust of the open marketplace of ideas, especially when they themselves—or the groups to which they belong—are ‘victims’ of the excesses of free speech.”
Alan Dershowitz (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am not a political person. My involvement in the Free Speech Movement is religious and moral... I don't know what made me get up and give that first speech. I only know I had to. What was it Kierkegaard said about free acts? They're the ones that, looking back, you realize you couldn't help doing.”
Mario Savio (1942–1996) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in interview with Jack Fincher, "The University Has Become a Factory," Life magazine (1965-02-26).
“Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong.”
Emma Watson (born 1990) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'd say exercising self-control is very important for a dissolute life. You don't need to control your drug intake to lead a free life. Whether you take no drugs at all or everything you can get your hands on, a free life is separated from that.”
Pete Doherty (born 1979) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: NME (New Musical Express), 15 December 2006
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. And I am not free as long as one person of Color remains chained. Nor is any one of you.”
Audre Lorde (1934–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is what I want to say to you: you are free, and can live as you like." There was a silence. She began crying quietly. "I set you free from the necessity of lying and keeping up pretences," Nikolay Yevgrafitch continued. "If you love that young man, love him; if you want to go abroad to him, go.”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) said by 1904 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There have been periods when our government continued free, with strong appearances of becoming absolute. Let it be your glory, my Lord, and that of the new generation springing up with you, that this government do not become absolute at any future period, with the appearances of being free.”
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751) said by 1751 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those who give way to great anger are like the dead: Those who are free from anger are free from death.”
Thiruvalluvar wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For my part I do not feel any great horror at the idea...of the possible establishment of a Republic in this country. (Loud cheers.) I am quite certain that sooner or later it will come. (Renewed cheers and ‘Bravo!’) But...there is really not any great practical difference between a free constitutional monarchy such as ours and a free republic.”
Joseph Chamberlain (1836–1914) first seen 1836 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Birmingham Town Hall at a meeting of sympathy with the French Third Republic (12 September 1870), quoted in J. L. Garvin, The Life of Joseph Chamberlain, Volume One: 1836–1885 (1932), p. 152
“Is the Labour Party to remain a democratic party in which the right of free criticism and free debate is not merely tolerated but encouraged? Or are the rank and file of the party to be bludgeoned or cowed into an uncritical subservience towards the leadership?”
Michael Foot (1913–2010) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tribune, 1954
“Think of it, a free Italy: it is the poetry of politics”, wrote Byron at a dark moment in the history of the Italian Risorgimento. Think of it, a free, democratic Socialist Spain – there is surely still some poetry in that kind of politics today, even if it is beyond the imagination of such stunted, pusillanimous souls as Bernard Levin.”
Michael Foot (1913–2010) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to The Times (25 October 1982), p. 11
“It is doubtful, too, whether we can achieve free minds by concentrating our efforts on making our pupils economically independent. We want free minds which will seek the goods in their order. Those who seek primarily their private economic interests may become enslaved to them and try to enslave the rest of us as well.”
Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899–1977) said by 1977 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What I see is European construction drifting towards a free-trade zone, that is to say an English-style Europe, which I reject. If we do nothing, this will lead in 15 years to a break-up. I reject a Europe that would be just a market, a free-trade zone without a soul, without a conscience, without political will, without a social dimension.”
Jacques Delors (1925–2023) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview (c. 16/17 October 1993), quoted in The Times (19 October 1993), p. 11
“It is said that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. But the universe is the ultimate free lunch.”
Alan Guth (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.”
William O. Douglas (1898–1980) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The One Un-American Act," Speech to the Author's Guild Council in New York, on receiving the 1951 Lauterbach Award (December 3, 1952).
“It is our attitude toward free thought and free expression that will determine our fate. There must be no limit on the range of temperate discussion, no limits on thought. No subject must be taboo. No censor must preside at our assemblies. We need all the ingenuity we possess to avert the holocaust.”
William O. Douglas (1898–1980) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The One Un-American Act," Speech to the Author's Guild Council in New York, on receiving the 1951 Lauterbach Award.
“Think of what our Nation stands for, Books from Boots and country lanes, Free speech, free passes, class distinction, Democracy and proper drains. Lord, put beneath Thy special care One-eighty-nine Cadogan Square.”
John Betjeman (1906–1984) said by 1984 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a fine line between free speech and hate speech. Free speech encourages debate whereas hate speech incites violence.”
Newton Lee wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Information wants to be free. (Excerpted from: "On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it's so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other."{{cite web”
Stewart Brand (born 1938) first seen 1985 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Whole Earth Review, May 1985, p. 49.
“The poor themselves can create a poverty-free world — all we have to do is to free them from the chains that we have put around them.”
Muhammad Yunus (born 1940) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Eliminating Poverty Through Market-Based Social Entrepreneurship" in Global Urban Development Magazine (May 2005)
“The way is open, comrades, free as Space Alone is free. The only gold is love, A coin that we have minted from the light Of others who have cared for us on Earth And who have deposited in us the power That nerves our nerves to seize the burning stars.”
Philip José Farmer (1918–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's not a third way between state capitalism and free markets, it is the free market way. Multi-national corporations should be the principal actors, but they should be properly regulated.”
Ian Bremmer (born 1969) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The West Should Fear the Growth of State Capitalism," The Daily Telegraph (July 10, 2010).
“In the last 21 months, if you've learnt anything, it's that the state is back. If the free market fails, it's not because it's been defeated by state capitalism; the only people that can defeat the free market is us, we're the only ones who can destroy it.”
Ian Bremmer (born 1969) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The West Should Fear the Growth of State Capitalism," The Daily Telegraph (July 10, 2010).
“When the last child cries for a crust of bread; When the last man dies for just words that he said; When there's shelter over the poorest head, We shall be free.When the last thing we notice is the color of skin, And the first thing we look for is the beauty within, When the skies and the oceans are clean again, Then we shall be free.”
Garth Brooks (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do not imagine that this problem is solely an Iraqi problem because the terrorist front represents a threat to all free countries and free people of the world... Thousands of lives were tragically lost on Sept. 11 when these impostors of Islam reared their ugly head. Thousands more continue to die in Iraq today at the hands of the same terrorists who show complete disregard for human life.”
Nouri al-Maliki (born 1950) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speaking before the U.S. Congress (26 July 2006).