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Freedom

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“By relying primarily on voluntary co-operation and private enterprise, in both economic and other activities, we can insure that the private sector is a check on the powers of the governmental sector and an effective protection of freedom of speech, of religion, and of thought.”
Milton Friedman (1912–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The need for government in these respects arises because absolute freedom is impossible. However attractive anarchy may be as a philosophy, it is not feasible in a world of imperfect men.”
Milton Friedman (1912–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Exchange is truly voluntary only when nearly equivalent alternatives exist. Monopoly implies the absence of alternatives and thereby inhibits effective freedom of exchange.”
Milton Friedman (1912–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The essence of the problem is that once we begin to allow exceptions for special interests, we move from a system of private arrangements to a political system where everyone’s freedom is limited and government becomes a matter of trying to balance those interests. Nobody really wins under these terms.”
Milton Friedman (1912–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I never fuck with Facebook. I absolutely despise social networking. I think it's truly going to result in the destruction of mankind. Sometimes I just wish I didn't live in this time. Before, there was so much more freedom and privacy, and you could truly escape places.”
Conor Oberst (born 1980) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Conor Oberst's Mystical Awakening" by Chris Norris in Rolling Stone (25 June 2009), p. 66-84
“We are going to keep preaching the gospel that freedom and democracy in peace are indivisible values in the world and that no one can have them unless they are universal and all people may share them.”
Walter Reuther (1907–1970) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address before the special constitutional convention of the United Auto Workers, Detroit, Michigan, January 22, 1958, as quoted in Walter P Reuther: Selected Papers (1961), by Henry M. Christman, p. 215
“You cannot make peace and freedom secure in the world as long as hundreds of millions of people are denied the necessities of life, so long as millions and millions of people are committed to belong to the have-not nations, and they and their children are denied the right to achieve economic and social justice.”
Walter Reuther (1907–1970) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address accepting the Presidency of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, Atlantic City, New Jersey, December 4, 1952, as quoted in Walter P Reuther: Selected Papers (1961), by Henry M. Christman, p. 49-50 thumb|The…
“Only in an atmosphere of freedom can the creative genius of the human spirit find full expression.”
Walter Reuther (1907–1970) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address before the Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi, India, April 5, 1956, as quoted in Walter P Reuther: Selected Papers (1961), by Henry M. Christman, p. 135 thumb|Free management must realize that in a free…
“Freedom, like peace, can be made secure only as it is made universal.”
Walter Reuther (1907–1970) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address before the Berlin Freedom Rally, West Berlin, Germany, May 1, 1959, as quoted in Walter P Reuther: Selected Papers (1961), by Henry M. Christman, p. 280
“This is our goal—a world of peace, freedom, and social justice for all people everywhere.”
Walter Reuther (1907–1970) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address before the Berlin Freedom Rally, West Berlin, Germany, May 1, 1959, as quoted in Walter P Reuther: Selected Papers (1961), by Henry M. Christman, p. 280
“Together we shall build a world of peace, freedom, security, social justice, and brotherhood.”
Walter Reuther (1907–1970) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address before the Berlin Freedom Rally, West Berlin, Germany, May 1, 1959, as quoted in Walter P Reuther: Selected Papers (1961), by Henry M. Christman, p. 280
“First Amendment freedoms are most in danger when the government seeks to control thought or to justify its laws for that impermissible end. The right to think is the beginning of freedom, and speech must be protected from the government because speech is the beginning of thought.”
Anthony Kennedy (born 1936) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. 234 (2002) (Opinion of the Court).
“When Government seeks to use its full power, including the criminal law, to command where a person may get his or her information or what distrusted source he or she may not hear, it uses censorship to control thought. This is unlawful. The First Amendment confirms the freedom to think for ourselves.”
Anthony Kennedy (born 1936) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010) (Opinion of the Court).
“The essence of democracy is that the right to make law rests in the people and flows to the government, not the other way around. Freedom resides first in the people without need of a grant from government.”
Anthony Kennedy (born 1936) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hollingsworth v. Perry, 570 U.S. 693 (2013), Dissent
“I wished that I were the owner of every southern slave, that I might cast off the shackles from their limbs, and witness the rapture which would excite them in the first dance of their freedom.”
Thaddeus Stevens (1792–1868) first seen 1837 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement at the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention (July 1837), quoted in Thaddeus Stevens, Scourge of the South (1959) by Fawn M. Brodie, p. 63
“This is a political book... It has a political purpose: to strengthen the will to maintain freedom against the threat of its abandonment in favor of totalitarianism.”
Peter Drucker (1909–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[J]ustification of power must be the central problem. For it is through this problem alone that freedom and equality—or... justice—can be projected into the social and political reality... But to fascism the problem does not even exist except as a ridiculous relic of "Jewish liberalism.”
Peter Drucker (1909–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is an unbroken chain of opposition to the introduction of economic freedom and to the capitalist autonomy of the economic sphere... In every case the opposition could only be overcome - peacefully or by force - because of the promise of capitalism to establish equality... That this promise was an illusion we all know.”
Peter Drucker (1909–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With Christianity, freedom and equality became the two basic concepts of Europe; they are themselves Europe.”
Peter Drucker (1909–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he Western European democracies... will be forced into totalitarianism unless they produce a noneconomic society striving for the freedom and equality of the individual.”
Peter Drucker (1909–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have only one alternative: either to build a functioning industrial society or see freedom itself disappear in anarchy and tyranny.”
Peter Drucker (1909–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Freedom rests on ethical decisions. But the political sphere deals with power. ...Individually, power may well be the goal of personal ambition. But socially it is a servant; its organization is only a means to a social end. ...[P]ower distributes rank and determines relations within society; it is a means of internal organization. But the end of society is always an ethical purpose.”
Peter Drucker (1909–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There can be no freedom if one man or one group of men... is assumed... inherently perfect or perfectible. Its claim to perfection or perfectibility is a claim to absolute rule.”
Peter Drucker (1909–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One certain effect of war is to diminish freedom of expression. Patriotism becomes the order of the day, and those who question the war are seen as traitors, to be silenced and imprisoned.”
Howard Zinn (1922–2010) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Howard Zinn on War (2000), Ch. 21: Just and Unjust War
“Freedom of thought and of expression are not mere rights to be claimed. They have their roots deep in the existence of individuals as developing careers in time. Their denial and abrogation is an abdication of individuality and a virtual rejection of time as opportunity.”
John Dewey (1859–1952) said by 1952 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The laurelled exiles, kneeling to kiss these sands. Number there freedom's friends. One who Within the element of endless summer, Like leaf in amber, petrified by light, Studied the root of action. One in a garret Read books as though he broke up flints.”
Stephen Spender (1909–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think you will have to be very, very careful to have the regulations that will protect freedom.”
George Soros (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Freedom, like everything else, is relative.”
Margaret Atwood (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All of us know the true meaning of freedom. Some of us appreciate it more than those who have been here for many generations.”
Gloria Estefan (born 1957) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: www.orlandosentinel.com (July 5, 2007)
“I certainly do have this feeling of affection for the absolute sense of intellectual freedom that exists as a live nerve, a live wire, right through the center of American life. … Every time I get totally discouraged with this country, I remind myself, "No, the fact is that finally we can really say what we think, and some extraordinary things have come out of that.”
Norman Mailer (1923–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In a society where freedom of the press is enshrined in the Constitution, our media largely acts as a megaphone for those in power. That's why people are so hungry for independent media-and are starting to make their own.”
Amy Goodman (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With more channels than ever, the lack of any diversity of opinion is breathtaking. Freedom of the press is enshrined in the Constitution, yet our media largely act as a megaphone for those in power.”
Amy Goodman (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Truth enlightens man's intelligence and shapes his freedom.”
Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It must be poor life that achieves freedom from fear.”
Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God ... desires His creature to be able to oppose Him. He has given that creature freedom. ... When man turns away from evil with that whole measure of power with which he is able to rebel against God, then he has truly turned to God.”
Martin Buber (1878–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is advertising that enthrones the customer as king. This infuriates the socialist...[it is] the crossing of the boundary between West Berlin and East Berlin. It is Checkpoint Charlie, or rather Checkpoint Douglas, the transition from the world of choice and freedom to the world of drab, standard uniformity.”
Enoch Powell (1912–1998) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attacking the Labour President of the Board of Trade, Douglas Jay, who wanted to standardise packaging for detergents. (The Daily Telegraph 29 April 1967); quoted in Simon Heffer, Like the Roman: The Life of Enoch Powel…
“Independence, the freedom of a self-governing nation, is in my estimation the highest political good, for which any disadvantage, if need be, and any sacrifice are a cheap price. It is worth living for; it is worth fighting for; and it is worth dying for.”
Enoch Powell (1912–1998) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Stockport (8 June 1973), quoted in The Times (9 June 1973), p. 3
“A society that does not recognize that each individual has values of his own which he is entitled to follow can have no respect for the dignity of the individual and cannot really know freedom.”
Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The data in the public domain suggest the truth about bin Laden's activities in Afghanistan is much closer to the picture of him as 'the great freedom fighter of the Islamic world" than to the Western experts' description of him as an Islamic do-gooder or an immature, irrational youth.”
Michael Scheuer (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I loved you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands and wrote my will across the sky in stars To gain you Freedom, the seven-pillared worthy house, that your eyes might be shining for me When I came.”
T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dedicatory poem, to "S. A.", as written in the 1922 "Oxford text"; variant : "When we came" for "When I came" in the 1926 edition, and others.
“I love the freedoms we got in this country, I appreciate your freedom to burn your flag if you want to, but I really appreciate my right to bear arms so I can shoot you if you try to burn mine.”
Johnny Cash (1932–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But Memory blushes at the sneer, And Honor turns with frown defiant, And Freedom, leaning on her spear, Laughs louder than the laughing giant.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809–1894) said by 1894 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Oliver Wendell Holmes
“Unlike Rachel, Player One has a complete overview both of the world and of time. Player One’s life is more like a painting than it is a story. Player One can see everything with a glance and can change tenses at will. Player One has ultimate freedom, the ultimate software on the ultimate hardware. That realm is also the one place where Player One feels, for lack of a better word, normal.”
Douglas Coupland (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I should like to see a Welsh Army in the field. I should like to see the race who faced the Normans for hundreds of years in a struggle for freedom, the race that helped to win Crecy, the race that fought for a generation under Glendower, against the greatest captain in Europe—I should like to see that race go and give a taste of its quality in this great struggle in Europe.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the Queen's Hall, London (19 September 1914), quoted in The Times (20 September 1914), p. 4
“As far as I can see, it is the only Empire that takes risks for humanity. There are men who fight for the flag, and rightly should do it for their national interest, but this is the one Empire that goes out armed for right, for freedom. It is the interest of Liberalism to make it strong. That I put as one of the chief items of any Liberal policy I would have anything to do with.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Lancashire and Cheshire Federation of the League of Young Liberals in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester (28 April 1923), quoted in The Times (30 April 1923), p. 17
“What was the use of talking about freedom if they had millions of people tethered to slums?”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1926 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Oxford University Liberal Club at the Oxford Union (15 June 1926), quoted in The Times (16 June 1926), p. 18
“1914 was a catastrophe for Liberalism. That was unfortunate, but the issues at stake were too big for treatment in terms of party interests. The challenge to international right and freedom was so tremendous that Liberalism—above all Liberalism—could not shirk it.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Among the basic freedoms to which men aspire that their lives might be full and uncramped, freedom from fear stands out as both a means and an end. A people who would build a nation in which strong, democratic institutions are firmly established as a guarantee against state-induced power must first learn to liberate their own minds from apathy and fear.”
Aung San Suu Kyi (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Solidarity is a beautiful word because it means that you reach out to those who are different from you and who have to cope with different circumstances because we recognize that we all share the same human needs and same values. It is the values that count most of all. The value of freedom of thought, the value of democratic practices, the value of respect for your fellow human beings.”
Aung San Suu Kyi (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source