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Freedom

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“She's not a bad girl because She made me see, hmmm... How love could be. But she's a bad girl because (bad girl because) She wants to be free, hmmmm... (bad girl because) She wants to be free (bad girl)”
Smokey Robinson (born 1940) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bad Girl, written by Smokey Robinson and Berry Gordy, Jr. (1959)
“A shadowy government with it's own Air Force, it's own navy, it's own fund-raising mechanism, and the ability to pursue its own ideas of the national interests, free from all sects and balances, and free from the law itself.”
Steven M. Greer (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education & free discussion are the antidotes of both.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) first seen 1816 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to John Adams (1 August 1816)
“[F]or us here, 43,000,000 of people in these two small islands, dependent as we are upon extraneous sources of supply for the food of the people and the materials of the industry, the one free, open, untrammelled market in the whole world—for us, I say, free trade is the breath of life, and there is no social reform that would not be dearly purchased by its sacrifice.”
H. H. Asquith (1852–1928) first seen 1907 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Budget speech in the House of Commons (18 April 1907)
“One can say that the most radical transformation of society is determined by the transformation that women will offer. The more equal and free women are, the more equal and free all parts of society are.”
Abdullah Öcalan (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am sitting on the sofa. By the fire and staying in. Me head is free of comfort And me nose is free of skin Me friends have run for cover, They have left me pale and sick With me pockets full of tissues And me nostrils full of Vick.”
Pam Ayres (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A free society is a community of free beings, bound by the laws of sympathy and by the obligations of family love. It is not a society of people released from all moral constraint–for that is precisely the opposite of a society. Without moral constraint there can be no cooperation, no family commitment, no long-term prospects, no hope of economic, let alone social, order.”
Roger Scruton (1944–2020) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Limits of Liberty", The American Spectator (December 2008)
“It is only when we speak what is right that we stand a chance at night of being blown to bits in our homes. Can we call this a free country, when I am afraid to go to sleep in my own home in Mississippi?... I might not live two hours after I get back home, but I want to be a part of setting the Negro free in Mississippi.”
Fannie Lou Hamer (1917–1977) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in This Little Light of Mine, ch. 8, by Hay Mills (1993). Said on September 13, 1965, in a hearing before the United States House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Elections.
“People used to try to hijack quantum mechanics and its inherent mystery to cast a cloud around determinism, in the hope that free will could survive modern physics. But that never worked very well. Since when does random chance equal free will? The only salvation for volition is a soul and faith and you’re not allowed to ask me about that.”
Janna Levin (born 1967) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: How the Universe Got its Spots (2002)
“The United Presbyterian Church was a purely voluntary association; and with regard to the Free Church, there was some doubt as to what was the real cause of the Disruption of 1843. In his opinion, the Free Church went out on the higher ground of spiritual independence, and that patronage was only the overt occasion of the Disruption.”
Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1836–1908) first seen 1874 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons on the Scottish Church Patronage Bill (13 July 1874)
“When another writer in another house is not free, no writer is free.”
Orhan Pamuk (born 1952) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Freedom to Write", Prague Writer's Festival (May 8, 2006)
“Let the rabbit of free enterprise out of its velveteen bag and too many people would have to be fired, too much idiocy exposed to the light of judgment or ridicule, too much vanity sacrificed to the fires of efficiency. Such a catastrophe obviously would threaten the American way of life, to say nothing of the belief in free markets.”
Lewis H. Lapham (1935–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If someone claims to have free will, ask them, "free from precisely what?”
Peter J. Carroll (1953–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Almost all of today's rich countries used protection and subsidies to develop their industries. Interestingly, Britain and the USA, the two countries that are supposed to have reached the summit of the world economy through their free-market, free-trade policy, are actually the ones that had most aggressively used protection and subsidies.”
Ha-Joon Chang (born 1963) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Kicking Away the Ladder", post-autistic economics review, issue no. 15 (1 September 2002) article 3
“The has been so totally re-written that many people in the rich world do not perceive the historical s involved in recommending free trade and free market to developing countries.”
Ha-Joon Chang (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Rich countries have 'kicked away the ladder' by forcing free-market, free-trade policies on poor countries. Already established countries do not want more competitors emerging through the nationalistic policies they themselves successfully used in the past.”
Ha-Joon Chang (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The importance of international trade for cannot be overemphasized. But free trade is not the best path to economic development. Trade helps economic development only when the country employs a mixture of protection and open trade, constantly adjusting it according to its changing needs and capabilities. Trade is simply too important for economic development to be left to free trade economists.”
Ha-Joon Chang (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whether or not your actions are determined, you have to act on the assumption that you have free will. If you are determined, your attempt at free will loses you nothing. However, if you are not determined and you act on the assumption that you are, you will never attempt anything. You will simply be a passive blob that things happen to.”
Alexei Panshin (1940–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The flow of information it promotes is free in one respect only. The flow is expected to be freely admitted to all the spaces that its providers desire to transmit to. Otherwise there is nothing free about the information. Quite the contrary. Information and message flows are already, and will continue to be, priced to exact the highest revenues extractable.”
Herbert Schiller (1919–2000) said by 2000 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Of course we're good enough. Switzerland has negotiated more global free-trade agreements than we have, without being part of the European Union, and Iceland, with a population of 300,000 people has signed its own tariff-free deal with China.”
Nigel Farage (born 1964) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Election 2015: UK good enough to go it alone - Farage BBC News (25 April 2015)
“(About Raul Gardini) Fifteen minutes earlier, I spoke with his lawyer and we agreed that he would come to me, of his own free will and with his hands free, and he would tell me how things stood. Then, evidently out of pride, he committed suicide.”
Antonio Di Pietro (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The praise of free men is worth having, for it is the only praise which is free from either servility or condescension.”
Bernard Crick (1929–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If they were part of the self-correction (i. e., of the space-time continuum) what did that do to the notion of free will? Or was free will part of the plan as well?”
Connie Willis (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anarchism is just the way people act when they are free to do as they choose, and when they deal with others who are equally free — and therefore aware of the responsibility to others that entails.”
David Graeber (1961–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What the prisoner said made some sense. He could see how technological progress—and social change with it—was coupled with free trade and the free exchange of ideas. Yet, he wasn’t at all sure that it was necessarily a good thing. There was a lot to be said for stability and continuity.”
Michael F. Flynn (1947–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Free verse may be written as very beautiful prose; prose may be written as very beautiful free verse. Which is which ?”
John Livingston Lowes (1867–1945) first seen 1916 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nation (February 1916)
“My grand total for the free film was $132,000, and that is a business model I am totally sticking to. And everything that I do now is totally free.”
Nina Paley (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The free market in ideas has never been free, but always a market. To undo this necessitates not commissars and censors but critical intelligence loyal to an objective notion of truth. If there is a repressive tolerance, then there is also a liberating intolerance.”
Russell Jacoby (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As virtue is a thing that has no master, that is, is free, everything that is free will be united with virtue.”
Gregory of Nyssa (born 335) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have a vision of India: an India free of hunger and fear, an India free of illiteracy and want. I dream of an India that is prosperous, strong and caring. An India, that regains a place of honour in the comity of great nations.”
Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924–2018) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Vajpayee during his 1999 Independence Day speech. Quoted from Vajpayee No More: Here Are His Five Most Powerful Quotes Swaraja, Aug 16 2018
“For us to cross that hurdle, because the trade between us [African countries] is only about 16%, which is too low, we have to make sure that all the regional markets work. We have to remove requirements of visas. We have to allow free movement of people, free movement of goods and services, then the AfCFTA will work, without that it's almost impossible.”
Aliko Dangote (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is of the greatest importance that the administration of justice should not only be free from spot or blame, but that it should be, so far as human infirmity could allow it to become, as free from all suspicion.”
Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough (1750–1818) said by 1818 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: King v. Hunt (1820), 2 Chit. Bep. 134.
Also quoted by: Sir John Bayley, 1st Baronet
“We are offered silence, free speech is all but dead in Europe. We live in a post free speech era, the attacks on Charlie Hebdo have proven that to the whole world.”
Tommy Robinson (born 1982) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Do not let Germany be dragged back to chaos and destruction': EDL founder Tommy Robinson speaks to 40,000 strong crowd at the Pegida anti-immigrant rally in Germany", Daily Mail (19 October 2015)
“Very often, unfortunately the wrong kind of publicity appears in the press...That happens. Is God free from it? Was Mahatma Gandhi free from it? It’s due to ignorance also. Some of these people deliberately misquote.”
Morarji Desai (1896–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And on that day, at that time, we as a collective being must not give in. On that day, we don’t have to change everything about our lives, we don’t have to add things that make us not a free people ... if we want to have a free nation, there’s give and there’s bend. If you see something, say something, but beyond that don’t freak out when it happens. Easier said than done, isn’t it?”
Shepard Smith (born 1964) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "After Ottawa Shootings, Shep Smith Urges Public Not To 'Give In' To Panic" (October 23, 2014), by Avery Stone, The Huffington Post, The Huffington Post, Inc.
“For nearly three quarters of a century, Jim Crow imposed on free Negroes a regime in many respects harsher than slavery. The persons of slaves received a certain protection from the fact that they were valuable property, a protection that was stripped from them after they were free.”
Harry V. Jaffa (1918–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I myself believe in free trade and would be glad it could be implemented whenever possible. But in the actual conflict that led to the Civil War, we had two obstacles to free trade, and I ask you to think which one of them was the greater obstacle. One was the tariff, and the other was slavery.”
Harry V. Jaffa (1918–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She tells me to "live free and be free, but listen to other people's advice." I listen, but I don't always follow it.”
Frances Bean Cobain (born 1992) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Rousseau and his disciples were resolved to force men to be free; in most of the world, they triumphed; men are set free from family, church, town, class, guild; yet they wear, instead, the chains of the state, and they expire of ennui or stifling lonelines.”
Russell Kirk (1918–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As long as man is a slave to another power, he is not free to serve God with mature responsibility. He is not free to become what he is—human.”
James H. Cone (1938–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am opposed to the use of nuclear weapons. I am opposed to the holding of nuclear weapons. I want to see a nuclear-free world. I believe it is possible. I do not think we should be renewing Trident... I think we should be promoting an international nuclear weapons convention which would lead to a nuclear-free world.”
Jeremy Corbyn (born 1949) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jeremy Corbyn row after 'I'd not fire nuclear weapons' comment, BBC News (30 September 2015).
“[L]ots of philosophical discussions about free will are concerned with the question of assigning moral responsibility. ...If the judge is a determinist, I might argue it was all determined. I just had to do it. I'm not responsible. ...We're not concerned with assigning moral responsibility... I want you to think of free whim...”
John Horton Conway (1937–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dennis Overbye ...says ~everything we know of science convinces me ...that the world is deterministic, nevertheless I cling to the illusion of free will.~ (I'm not quoting his exact words.) ..~I can't run my life without this illusion.~ Some people have described it as a necessary illusion. We don't think it's an illusion ...It's not ...We think we have free will.”
John Horton Conway (1937–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God speaks where his people gather and are free to be led. The marks of the validity of the conclusions they reach are to be sought not alone in the principles applied but in the procedure of the meeting. Were all free to speak? Was every speech heard and weighed?”
John Howard Yoder (1927–1997) said by 1997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Australia's place on new trade routes was decisive in its early history. It aided the convict settlement. It prompted the rise of a new free group of Australian traders who did not depend heavily on the favours of governors, who were alert for new ways of making money, and who were eventually to hasten Australia's transition from a gaol to a series of free colonies.”
Geoffrey Blainey (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One reason why people cherish the delusion that they are still free long after they have lost or destroyed the liberties won by their ancestors lies in the boundless vanity of man when acting as mass. The mass in modern times believes it is sovereign. As sovereign it is free.”
Everett Dean Martin (1880–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Free speech – proper, full-blooded free speech – is the lifeblood of any progressive politics and of any progressive transformation of society. If we treasure the one, we must treasure the other.”
Kenan Malik (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[The UK should be part of the European free trade zone with access to the European single market but] free from EU regulation which costs us billions of pounds a year.”
Michael Gove (born 1967) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Michael Gove sets out post-exit UK-EU trade vision", BBC News (19 April 2016)
“I hope that I will be the last victim in China's long record of treating words as crimes. Free expression is the base of human rights, the root of human nature and the mother of truth. To kill free speech is to insult human rights, to stifle human nature and to suppress truth.”
Liu Xiaobo (1955–2017) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: NPR - "Liu Xiaobo: 'No Enemies, No Hatred,' Only Courage" 16 Feb. 2012
“When free discussion is denied, hardening of the arteries of democracy has set in, free institutions are but a lifeless form, and the death of the republic is at hand.”
William Randolph Hearst (1863–1951) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In the News" (13 June 1941)