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

English Italiano Polski עברית Français Português فارسی Español 中文 Русский Deutsch العربية हिन्दी 日本語 Ελληνικά Latina

Freedom

Love Friendship Happiness Hope Fear Courage Death Life Time War Peace Freedom Truth Wisdom Knowledge Science Art Music Nature Money Work Power God Beauty Laughter Family Success and failure Change Dreams Books and reading

“[Beauty] is always free and adherent: free because it does not adhere to conceptual knowledge, adherent because it adheres to an interpretation of nature.”
Luigi Pareyson (1918–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Free people make the only milieu possible in society for the full gift of one's self to church, state, and family. Free people enjoy and sustain and feel with one another because they live for one another. The paths of life are intermingled lives.”
Haniel Long (1888–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Emigration should be a free decision. People must be able to choose whether they want to leave or stay, because the country belongs to everyone. So I should be free to decide whether I go to another country or stay in my country.”
Joachim Hermenegilde Ouédraogo (born 1962) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Refugees: "Staying or emigrating is no longer a choice" says the Bishop of Koudougou (26 September 2023) Fides News Agency
“To be or not to be, To free or not to free, To crawl or not to crawl. Fuck all those perfect people! To sleep or not to sleep, To creep or not to creep. And some can't remember, What others recall... Fuck all those perfect people!”
Chip Taylor (1940–2026) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fuck All The Perfect People - Chip'Taylor & The New Ukrainians Alt version (2012)
“When human beings seek to assert their independence from God, they are free only through death; they are free only through destruction and ruin.”
Divo Barsotti (1914–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Be a liberated person. Not just a free person, who gives free time to others. Be a liberator, who frees others from their anxieties!”
Antonio Bello (1935–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are nine types of cancer linked to alcohol consumption. The first is oesophageal cancer. We live in a free country and everyone is free to take whatever risks they wish. However, as science enthusiasts, we must provide accurate information. We certainly cannot claim that drinking – even in small amounts – is good for you.”
Silvio Garattini (born 1928) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Heart free, hand free, Blue above, brown under, All the world to me Is a place of wonder.”
William Stanley Braithwaite (1878–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No woman is free until all women are free.”
Solome Nakaweesi Kimbugwe wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There was free trade in Africa. There was free enterprise in Africa before the colonialists came.”
George Ayittey (1945–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“we collectively want to be free, yet we normalize subjugation; we dream of an Africa able to determine its future, free from external influences, but when you look at the current phase of attacks against queer Africans, you see right-wing groups entering the continent”
Sibongile Ndashe wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And as ye would . . .and feel no crime In being human, fair and true; rejoice to see, like bird, All human souls sour happily and free; Unfettered, but encouraged to speak free.”
Herbert Dhlomo (1903–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If the slavery of the parents be unjust, much more is their children's; if the parents were justly slaves, yet the children are born free; this is the natural, perfect right of all mankind; they are nothing but a just recompense to those who bring them up: And as much less is commonly spent on them than others, they have a right, in justice, to be proportionably sooner free.”
Thomas Paine (disputed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is incredible how important it is that the corporeal frame should be kept under the influence of constant, continuous, and unbroken order, and free from the impressions of vicissitude, which always more or less derange the corporeal functions. After all, it is continued temperance which sustains the body for the longest period of time, and which most surely preserves it free from sickness.”
Wilhelm von Humboldt (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We need to codify our values and build consensus around what we want from a free society and a free internet. We need to put into law protections for our privacy and our right to speak and assemble.”
Heather Brooke (attributed) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: We should all be hacktivists now" The Guardian (20 April 2012).
“I sought not in her visage, for the tinge of the morning, and the lustre of heaven. These had vanished with life; but I hoped for liberty to print a last kiss upon her lips. This was denied me; for such had been the merciless blow that destroyed her, that not a lineament remained!”
Charles Brockden Brown (1771–1810) said by 1810 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Liberty is not an option. It is a human right.”
Giannina Braschi (born 1953) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the decolonization of Puerto Rico. (World Policy Institute, October 17, 2017)
“What is dignity? The measure of liberty.”
Giannina Braschi (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Without liberty there is no wealth.”
Giannina Braschi (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even on the white English crags A few strong spirits, in a race that binds Its body in chains and calls them Liberty, And calls each fresh link Progress, stood erect With faces pale that hunger'd to the light.”
Robert Williams Buchanan (1841–1901) said by 1901 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“New York is a woman holding, according to history, a rag called liberty with one hand and strangling the earth with the other.”
Adunis (born 1930) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Funeral of New York" (1971), from The Pages of Day and Night, trans. Samuel Hazo and Esther Allen (Northwestern University Press, 2000, .
“I cannot see, why arms should be denied to any man who is not a slave, since they are the only true badges of liberty; and ought never, but in times of utmost necessity, to be put into the hands of mercenaries or slaves: neither can I understand, why any man that has arms, should not be taught the use of them. p. 50”
Andrew Fletcher (1655–1716) said by 1716 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Anglo-Saxon has four great loves. Love of liberty, love of home, love of women, and love of life. He’ll wade through blood for these. When we make up our minds to not take substitutes for them, we’ll get them.”
Nannie Helen Burroughs (1879–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army. If we retrench the wages of the schoolmaster, we must raise those of the recruiting sergeant.”
Edward Everett (1794–1865) first seen 1852 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Common School Journal and Educational Reformer (1852), edited by William B. Fowle, p. 28.
“How could liberty ever have established itself amongst us? Apart from several tragic scenes, the revolution has been nothing but a web of farcical scenes… But it is in the nation’s senate that the most grotesque parades have taken place.”
Jean-Paul Marat (1743–1793) first seen 1792 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: L'Ami du peuple, no.672 (1792-07-14)
“One of the paradoxes of history has been the way in which the name of England has come to be so closely associated with liberty on the one hand and tradition on the other hand.”
Herbert Butterfield (1900–1979) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Liberty in the Modern World (1952), p. 21
“Whatever we may feel about the defects of our own Whig interpretation of history, we have reason to be thankful for its influence on our political tradition; for it was to prove of the greatest moment to us that by the early seventeenth century our antiquarians had formulated our history as a history of liberty.”
Herbert Butterfield (1900–1979) said by 1979 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Behold! in Liberty’s unclouded blaze We lift our heads, a race of other days.”
Charles Sprague (1791–1875) said by 1875 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Centennial Ode. Stanza 22, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Individual self-sovereignty is a load-bearing pillar on which liberty rests.”
Robert J. Marks II (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cranks live by theory, not by pure desire. They want votes, peace, nuts, liberty and spinning-looms not because they love these things, as a child loves jam, but because they think they ought to have them. That is one element which makes the crank. Another is lack of proportion, the obsession with one desire or one principle to the minimising or exclusion of others; exaggeration, in fact.”
Rose Macaulay (1881–1958) first seen 1918 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cranks", Woman's Suffrage: The Common Cause of Humanity, vol. 10, p. 132, June 28, 1918.
“So vast has been the change in the claim and position of slavery! So entirely has it reversed the classic story, and the blind, begging Belisarius has become the imperial general! So proudly, in such long and dazzling and magnificent array, stands Xerxes at the fiery pass of war! And where is Leonidas? Where is liberty?”
George William Curtis (1824–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There was a time indeed when it was not so, when the bold mariner, Roger Williams, sailed beyond the Boston Light of two centuries ago, and asked of the wilds of the Seekonk and the Mawshawsuc, 'What cheer? What cheer?' And the friendly solitudes answered, 'A truer liberty than you left behind'. And if Boston Light cheers the world to-day it is because the spirit of Roger Williams feeds the flame.”
George William Curtis (1824–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Never fear, true hearts! A people which has shown the quality of its genius as this nation has in the last four years will finish its work. It will go forward and not backward. For our America shall be the Sinai of the nations, and from the terrible thunders and lightnings of its great struggle shall proceed the divine law of liberty that shall subdue and harmonize the world.”
George William Curtis (1824–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“a man we can regard as a spiritual fellow countryman, a man eminent in music, eminent in human virtues, eminent in liberty. Of all his qualities the least is music-and he is one of the great musicians of the world: Maestro Pablo Casals!”
Luis Muñoz Marín (1898–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Moral liberty and intellectual objectivity constitute a priori man’s deiformity.”
Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is difficult to discern a serious threat to religious liberty from a room of silent, thoughtful schoolchildren.”
Sandra Day O'Connor (1930–2023) first seen 1985 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Upholding the constitutionality of a "moment of silent prayer" in schools in Wallce v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38 (1985) (concurring)
“Shall we not rejoice then and revel in the glorious liberty of extract, and quote to the thousandth line? Shall we not have pages like the Pyramids? Who ever skipped a quotation, though it made against the interest of the story? Besides, how many books might be numbered that are valuable only in a solitary quotation!—as the oyster is esteemed for the pearl it may sometimes contain.”
Samuel Laman Blanchard (1804–1845) said by 1845 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God has conferred upon men liberty of their own will, in order that by purity and sinlessness of life they may become like unto God.”
Pope Sixtus I (42–126) said by 126 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in On Nature and Grace, Ch. 77, by Augustine of Hippo, as translated by Peter Holmes, Robert Ernest Wallis and Benjamin B Warfield in A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Chu…
“Humanity has gained its suit; Liberty will nevermore be without an asylum.”
Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834) first seen 1780 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to friends (1780), published in Memoirs de La Fayette Vol. II, p. 50, quoted in Martin's History of France : The Decline of the French Monarchy (1866) by Henri Martin, Vol. II, p. 418
“Strange is the vigour in a brave man's soul. The strength of his spirit and his irresistible power, the greatness of his heart and the height of his condition, his mighty confidence and contempt of danger, his true security and repose in himself, his liberty to dare and do what he pleaseth, his alacrity in the midst of fears, his invincible temper, are advantages which make him master of fortune.”
Thomas Traherne (1636–1674) said by 1674 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Christian Ethicks (1675); cited from Bertram Dobell (ed.) The Poetical Works of Thomas Traherne, B.D. (London: Bertram Dobell, 1903) p. lvii.
“In every human soul there is a socialist and an individualist, an authoritarian and a fanatic for liberty, as in each there is a Catholic and a Protestant. The same is true of the mass movements in which men marshal themselves for common action.”
R. H. Tawney (1880–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.”
Gideon Tucker (1826–1899) first seen 1866 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Final accounting in the Estate of A.B. (1866)
“The repression of liberty that took place in the countries in which Communist regimes were established cannot be adequately explained as a product of backwardness, or of errors in the application of Marxian theory. It was the result of a resolute attempt to realize an Enlightenment utopia - a condition of society in which no serious form of conflict any longer exists.”
John Gray (philosopher) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Indians today are governed by different ideologies. Their political ideal set in the Preamble of the Constitution affirms a life of liberty, equality and fraternity. Their social ideal embodied in their religion denies them.”
B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every day, every year, and for every graduating class, there is a choice to be made, the same option for all grown-ups to make: to be one of three types of Americans — those who embrace liberty for all, those who won’t, or those who are indifferent — and only the first do the work of creating a more perfect union.”
Tom Hanks (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But if authors, even of taste and genius, be found at times to have made an injudicious use of that liberty which is allowed in the translation of poetry, we must expect to see it miserably abused indeed, where those talents are evidently wanting.”
Alexander Fraser Tytler (1747–1813) said by 1813 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What seems most significant to me about our movement is that we have freed painting from the importance of the subject. I am at liberty to paint flowers and call them flowers, without their needing to tell a story.”
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in: Charles Altieri (1989) Painterly Abstraction in Modernist American Poetry, p. 169: Talking about the movement of Impressionism.
“The revolutionary government is the despotism of liberty against tyranny.”
Georg Büchner (1813–1837) said by 1837 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Not until right is founded upon reverence, will it be secure; not until duty is based upon love, will it be complete; not until liberty is based on eternal principles, will it be full, equal, lofty, and universal.”
Henry Giles (1809–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And this is the mission of the church — not civilization, but salvation — not better laws, purer legislation, social elevation, human equality, and liberty, but FIRST, the " kingdom of God and His righteousness;" regenerated hearts, and all other things will follow.”
Abbott Eliot Kittredge (1834–1912) said by 1912 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source