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Freedom

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“We are as great as our belief in human liberty — no greater. And our belief in human liberty is only ours when it is larger than ourselves.”
Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Now Let Us Address the Main Question: Bicentennial of What?, New York Times (3 July 1976)
“I never thought I would see the day when America (which is based on the idea of liberty, from which the world Liberal comes) would become so self-centered and hypocritical. I mean if democracy considers liberal to be a term of abuse, then we should be terrified. A liberal is someone who believes in liberty. And if it is wrong to be liberal, then the other side has to be fascist. (1987)”
Derek Walcott (1930–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Enforcing equality to compensate for the monstrous unfairness of nature destroys liberty. But total liberty leads to various forms of "aristocracy" and decay. Yet total equality leads to oppressive statism and decay. However, equality of opportunity leads to a vibrantly chaotic and creative meritocracy.”
Peter J. Carroll (1953–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Liberty is only valued when it is threatened, therefore it is the threat that highlights the value. We should be grateful to the Nadir, since they heighten the value of our liberty.”
David Gemmell (1948–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where the forms of civil, religious and political liberty still exist, they must be strengthened and given new power over the hearts as well as over the minds of men. Faith must not be lost, and courage must not be lacking. The call is for every civilized human being who believes in justice, in liberty and in public morals. The bell is ringing!”
Nicholas Murray Butler (1862–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why, if (as Boaz maintains) the liberty of a human being to own another should be trumped by equal human rights, the liberty to own large amounts of property should not also be trumped by equal human rights?”
Jeffrey Friedman (political scientist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no one force, no group, and no class that is the preserver of liberty. Liberty is preserved by those who are against the existing chief power. Oppositions which do not express genuine social forces are as trivial, in relation to entrenched power, as the old court jesters.”
James Burnham (1905–1987) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: James Burnham (1987) The Machiavellians, Defenders of Freedom. p. 280
“For at least 8 years, Republican domestic policies have demonstrated that man is capable of doing good only in an atmosphere of liberty and faith, not compulsion and atheism. However, man's basic nature is inclined towards evil, and when the exercise of liberty takes the shape of pornography, drug abuse, or homosexuality, the government must restrain, punish, and deter.”
Bob McDonnell (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The law of England is a law of liberty, and, consistently with this liberty, we have not what is called an imprimatur (let it be printed); there is no such preliminary licence necessary. But if a man publish a paper, he is exposed to the penal consequences, as he is in every other act, if it be illegal.”
Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough (1750–1818) first seen 1804 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: R. v. Cobbett (1804), 29 How. St. Tr. 49.
“The liberty of the press is dear to England; the licentiousness of the press is odious to England: the liberty of it can never be so well protected as by beating down the licentiousness.”
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon (1732–1802) first seen 1799 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cuthell's Case (1799), 27 How. St. Tr. 674.
“Liberty of the Individual has to be Fundamental and it has been so declared by the people... To change the Fundamental part of Individual's liberty is a usurpation of constituent functions because they have been placed outside the scope of the power of the constituted Parliament.”
Mohammad Hidayatullah (1905–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Liberty, then, is the sovereignty of the individual, and never shall man know liberty until each and every individual is acknowledged to be the only legitimate sovereign of his or her person, time, and property, each living and acting at his own cost.”
Josiah Warren (1798–1874) said by 1874 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Equality as it is currently pursued is incompatible with true liberty; for liberty involves an inner working with reference to standards, the right subordination, in other words, of man's ordinary will to a higher will. There is an inevitable clash, in short, between equality and humility.”
Irving Babbitt (1865–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Liberty is the ideal of aristocracy, just as equality stands for the bourgeoisie and fraternity for the peasantry. One can combine liberty with fraternity but neither of them with equality.”
Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn (1909–1999) said by 1999 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Liberty is not about class war, income war, race war, national war, a war between the sexes, or any other conflict apart from the core conflict between individuals and those who would seek power and control over the human spirit. Liberty is the dream that we can all work together, in ways of our choosing and of our own human volition, to realize a better life.”
Jeffrey Tucker (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Liberty is as much a matter of compulsion as duty, but where duty says to a person that he must or must not, liberty says to other persons that they must not interfere with that person, or that they even must help to prevent still other persons from interfering, if necessary.”
John R. Commons (1862–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To the ignorant and bawling fanatics who stun you with their pother about liberty, political or civil liberty seems to be the principal end for which government ought to exist. But the final cause or purpose for which government ought to exist, is the furtherance of the common weal to the greatest possible extent.”
John Austin (legal philosopher) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Remember on the other hand that, though neither Reformers in the sixteenth century or Puritans in the seventeenth century strove in any sense for "religious liberty," or for anything but to set up one intolerant system instead of another, yet every blow of the kind was a gain for religious liberty in the long run.”
Edward Augustus Freeman (1823–1892) first seen 1882 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Edith Thompson (17 December 1882), quoted in W. R. W. Stephens, The Life and Letters of Edward A. Freeman, Volume II (1895), p. 267
“The people who wrote the constitution ... didn't say life, liberty and welfare or life, liberty and food stamps.”
Howard Jarvis (1903–1986) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tax Reformer,” Interview, NBC Meet the Press, June 18, 1978
“Nothing is more devastating than a life without liberty. A life in which one can be forced into parenthood is just such a life. Rape is among the most profound denials of liberty, and compelling a woman to bear a rapist's child is an assault on her humanity. How different is it to force her to remain pregnant... because efforts at birth control accidentally failed?”
Laurence Tribe (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But what is [Bartolomeo] Arena but a four-day patriot? I drank in liberty with my mother's milk, but they and their connections whirl about with every wind. My patriotism is of long standing. I have been a patriot for 65 years. I am hardly likely to submit to the censure of slaves who have known liberty for only three.”
Pasquale Paoli (1725–1807) first seen 1725 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reply to the report of Étienne Clavière, which stated that of all the Departments of France, Corsica contributed least to the national good (c. February 1793), quoted in Peter Adam Thrasher, Pasquale Paoli: An Enlighten…
“The people who were once owners of this soil ask you for their liberty, and law is liberty.”
Susette La Flesche (1854–1903) said by 1903 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our people have experience with crooked politicians full of empty promises. In the 1940's, luis munoz marin and the slogan "Bread, Land, and Liberty." Where is the bread? Where is the land? Where is the liberty? munoz marin was for independence, until he got into office. Then he became a traitor, and a rich man.”
Juan González (journalist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I could take some liberty and propose a generality based on my own experience, I would say that scientists live internally with fundamentals, harmonics, overtones, and dissonances, but strive to seek and sort out the fundamental from the harmonics and overtones. Artists, on the other hand, have the liberty of portraying all of these simultaneously.”
Susan Kieffer (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Liberty produces wealth, and wealth destroys liberty.”
Henry Demarest Lloyd (1847–1903) said by 1903 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you have to defend liberty, you've got to defend liberty. It's as simple as that. But I found the actual combat a horrible, horrible thing, to be acutely avoided. Whatever you can do, it's best to avoid it... I was scared all the time I was in Vietnam. I didn't enjoy it for a second.”
Jack H. Jacobs (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Take off this idea that liberty and security can’t work together, and think that liberty and security are essential to each other.”
Amira Yahyaoui (born 1984) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Man must have liberty — he was made for it; but what liberty would that be which he has not learned to use?”
Robert Hugh Benson (1871–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Give to the faithful the example of submission and obedience to the Republic. You have long cherished the hope of enjoying the liberty which makes our brethren of the United States so happy; the liberty you shall have.”
Louis-Jacques-Maurice de Bonald (1787–1870) said by 1870 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Louis-Jacques-Maurice de Bonald (1913) Catholic Encyclopedia
“As so often before, liberty has been wounded in the house of its friends. Liberty in the wild and freakish hands of fanatics has once more, as frequently in the past, proved the effective helpmate of autocracy and the twin-brother of tyranny.”
Otto Hermann Kahn (1867–1934) first seen 1918 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address given at the University of Wisconsin, January 14, 1918. Extracts printed in Right Above Race (New York: The Century Co, 1918) p. 135
“It is one thing to believe in civil liberty and another thing to practice it in all the daily relationships of man to man. And I am afraid the facts are that some of us have been for civil liberty in theory but not very careful about practicing it in our daily lives.”
Frank Murphy (1890–1949) said by 1949 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) said by 1790 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“I want to be free from freedom. Free.”
Giannina Braschi (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As a slave one cannot undertake obligations without the consent of one’s master. As a citizen one cannot undertake obligations unless the legal system of the State in which one holds citizenship permits one to do so. Neither a slave nor a citizen is a free person, although those who are held as slaves or citizens may well be free persons: it is just that their freedom is not respected.”
Frank Van Dun (born 1947) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Perfect Law of Freedom (2004).
“Man is man because he is free to operate within the framework of his destiny. He is free to deliberate, to make decisions, and to choose between alternatives. He is distinguished from animals by his freedom to do evil or to do good and to walk the high road of beauty or tread the low road of ugly degeneracy.”
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Measures of Man (1959)
“You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free.”
Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Republics and limited monarchies derive their strength and vigor from a popular examination into the action of the magistrates.”
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) first seen 1737 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Freedom of Speech and the Press", Pennsylvania Gazette (17 November 1737)
“None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free.”
Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Listen to Hollywood Huddleston, Marine lance corporal. He says, "Let's free these people, so we can go home and be free again." And he's right. The terrible crimes and tortures committed by Saddam's henchmen against the innocent people of Kuwait are an affront to mankind and a challenge to the freedom of all.”
George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do. A ruling intelligentsia, whether in Europe, Asia or Africa, treats the masses as raw material to be experimented on, processed, and wasted at will.”
Eric Hoffer (1902–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers.”
Ayn Rand (1905–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I will accept the rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Throughout your treatment you forget that you said that 'free-will' can do nothing without grace, and you prove that 'free-will' can do all things without grace! Your inferences and analogies "For if man has lost his freedom, and is forced to serve sin, and cannot will good, what conclusion can more justly be drawn concerning him, than that he sins and wills evil necessarily?”
Martin Luther (1483–1546) said by 1546 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the name of Allah the all-powerful, all-merciful, all-knowing, know that it is by his holy will that we come to free the peoples of the Nile from their immemorial and most cruel bondage to the Turks and the Mamelukes, free men of Frankistan bringing freedom, respecting Islam and the tenets of the holy prophet, may his name be praised and the holy name of Allah most high exalted for ever more.”
Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some of her answers might excite popular prejudice, but if there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought—not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841–1935) first seen 1929 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: United States v. Schwimmer, 279 U.S. 644 (1929) (Holmes, J., dissenting).
“To be free, you have only to make the decision to be free. Freedom is waiting for you — anytime you're ready for it.”
Harry Browne (1933–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it … gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.”
Milton Friedman (1912–2006) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ch. 1 The Relation Between Economic Freedom and Political Freedom, 2002 edition, page 15
“Capitalism as a social order and as a creed is the expression of the belief in economic progress as leading toward the freedom and equality of the individual in a free and open society. Marxism expects this society to result from the abolition of private profit. Capitalism expects the free and equal society to result from the enthronement of private profit as supreme ruler of social behavior...”
Peter Drucker (1909–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Scientific progress on a broad front results from the free play of free intellects, working on subjects of their own choice, in the manner dictated by their curiosity for exploration of the unknown. Freedom of inquiry must be preserved under any plan for Government support of science...”
Vannevar Bush (1890–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If one awakens in men the idea of freedom then the free men will incessantly go on to free themselves; if on the contrary, one only educates them, then they will at all times accommodate themselves to circumstance in the most highly educated and elegant manner and degenerate into subservient cringing souls.”
Max Stirner (1806–1856) said by 1856 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source