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Freedom
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“In the modern view, unbridled personal freedom is the only good to be pursued; any obstacle to it is a problem to be overcome.”
Anthony Daniels (psychiatrist) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: All Sex, All the Time (Summer 2000).
“The victory over cruelty is never final, but, like the maintenance of freedom, requires eternal vigilance.”
Anthony Daniels (psychiatrist) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: How—and How Not—to Love Mankind (Summer 2001).
“Freedom of mind and mind itself have been most fully developed in regions where trade developed at the same time. In all ages, without exception, every intense production of art, ideas, and spiritual values has occurred in some locality where a remarkable degree of economic activity was also manifest.”
Paul Valéry (1871–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...Fatherland without freedom and merit is a large word with little meaning.”
Anders Chydenius (1729–1803) first seen 1765 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: For What Reason do so Many Swedes Emigrate Every Year?, 1765.
“Since these foreigners are an invasion force, since there is now a war, and since we do live under a tyrannical Zionist Occupation Government, we have no choice but to actively fight for our freedom, our race and our lands. We must fight the non-Aryan invaders who have settled in our lands.”
David Myatt (born 1950) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The National-Socialist, No. 17 (9 November 1996), p. 2, quoted in Black Sun, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, p. 50
“Our Aryan culture, our Aryan way of life, and our very Aryan race are in danger. Nowhere on this planet is there an Aryan nation, an Aryan homeland: a piece of land where Aryans dwell in freedom and live according to their unique Aryan way of life. Nowhere on this planet is there a place where Aryan culture is upheld.”
David Myatt (born 1950) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Practical Guide to Aryan Revolution, 1997
“Jesus was a revolutionary, who did not become an extremist, since he did not offer an ideology, but Himself. He was also a mystic, who did not use his intimate relationship with God to avoid the social evils of his time, but shocked his milieu to the point of being executed as a rebel. In this sense he also remains for nuclear man the way to liberation and freedom.”
Henri Nouwen (1932–1996) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Wounded Healer (1972)
“My hope is that the description of God's love in my life will give you the freedom and the courage to discover . . . God's love in yours.”
Henri Nouwen (1932–1996) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Here and Now: Living in the Spirit (1994), pg. 175
“Either Germanic ideals or Anglo-Saxon ones must prevail. Justice, freedom, honor, and virtue will triumph, or the worship of money. There can be only one victor in this struggle. German ideals are at stake!”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) first seen 1918 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the aftermath of the Spring Offensive (18 July 1918), quoted in Fritz Fischer, World Power or Decline (New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 1974), p. 92
“Under the much-used word freedom, and under its banner, artists often degenerate into monstrosity and exaggeration and conceit.”
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The day the cease-fire was signed she was caught in a crowd. Peasant boys from Europe who had made up the colonial army and freedom fighters whose column had marched into town were staggering about together outside the barracks, not three blocks from her house in whose rooms, for ten years, she had heard the blurred parade-ground bellow of colonial troops being trained to kill and be killed.”
Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is such a thing as freedom of speech in this country. It is a constitutional right. Too often these days when people speak out on certain matters there are attempts to intimidate or muzzle them and breach their rights by throwing allegations of racism or making hate speeches.”
Apisai Tora (1934–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He doesn't understand I want the freedom to make my own mistakes.”
Jeanette Winterson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No federal legislation prior to 1812 placed any restriction on the right of suffrage in consequence of the color of the citizen. From 1789 to 1812 Congress passed ten separate laws establishing new Territories. In all these, freedom, and not color, was the basis of suffrage.”
James A. Garfield (1831–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Under this Constitution the boundaries of freedom have been enlarged, the foundations of order and peace have been strengthened, and the growth of our people in all the better elements of national life has indicated the wisdom of the founders and given new hope to their descendants.”
James A. Garfield (1831–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That men should pray and fight for their own freedom, and yet keep others in slavery, is certainly acting a very inconsistent, as well as unjust and, perhaps, impious part, but the history of mankind is filled with instances of human improprieties.”
John Jay (1745–1829) said by 1829 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every man of every color and description has a natural right to freedom.”
John Jay (1745–1829) said by 1829 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People marched and demonstrated, and the Berlin Wall fell, and communism was ended. People marched and demonstrated, and apartheid ended. And democracy and freedom were born. And now people are marching, and people are demonstrating, because people are saying no to war!”
Desmond Tutu (1931–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We said no to communism. We said no to apartheid. We said no to injustice. We said no to oppression. And we said yes to freedom, yes to democracy. Now I ask you: What do we say to war? CROWD: No! (February 15, 2003 speaking before a massive rally in New York to oppose the imminent U.S. invasion of Iraq).”
Desmond Tutu (1931–2021) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) on Apartheid, War, Palestine, Guantánamo, Climate Crisis & More, Democracy Now!, December 27, 2021
“God has such a deep reverence for our freedom that he'd rather let us freely go to Hell than be compelled to go to Heaven.”
Desmond Tutu (1931–2021) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Beyers Naudé memorial lecture (15 August 2003)
“What has happened to us? It seems as if we have perverted our freedom, our rights into license, into being irresponsible. Perhaps we did not realise just how apartheid has damaged us so that we seem to have lost our sense of right and wrong.”
Desmond Tutu (1931–2021) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Desmond Tutu turns 75" at News24 (6 October 2006)
“Millions of people throughout the world are striving to put an end to poverty. They despise oppression, dogmatism, and demagogy (and their more extreme manifestations — racism, fascism, Stalinism, and Maoism). They believe in progress based on the use, under conditions of social justice and intellectual freedom, of all the positive experience accumulated by mankind.”
Andrei Sakharov (1921–1989) said by 1989 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lenin is best remembered for his famous retort, 'Freedom – yes, but for WHOM? To do WHAT?'”
Slavoj Žižek (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In short, what the sensitive liberals want is a thus try to deprive the French Revolution of its status as the founding event of modern democracy, relegating it to a historical anomaly: there was a historical necessity to assert the modern principles of personal freedom, etc.”
Slavoj Žižek (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Keep your freedom. It's the best thing you have. Never become a bushranger unless you are absolutely forced to it.”
Ned Kelly (1854–1880) said by 1880 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Source: Smith's Weekly (26 September 1936)
“To enjoy freedom, you need money p. 89”
Alexander Zinoviev (1922–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not enough to accept a concept of order and live by it; that is cowardice, and such cowardice cannot result from freedom. Chaos must be faced. Real order must be preceded by a descent into chaos.”
Colin Wilson (1931–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is in Shaw, as in Gurdjieff and Nietzsche, a recognition of the immense effort of Will that is necessary to express even a little freedom, that places them beside Pascal and St. Augustine as religious thinkers. Their view is saved from pessimism only by its mystical recognition of the possibilities of pure Will, freed from the entanglements of automatism.”
Colin Wilson (1931–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And in a flash I understood the meaning of sex. It is a craving for the mingling of consciousness, whose symbol is the mingling of bodies. Every time a man and a woman slake their thirst in the strange waters of the other's identity, they glimpse the immensity of their freedom.”
Colin Wilson (1931–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was Rousseau who was largely responsible for the problem by giving currency to the idea that freedom can exist without responsibility and discipline.”
Colin Wilson (1931–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once we can see how this question of freedom of the will has been vitiated by post-romantic philosophy, with its inbuilt tendency to laziness and boredom, we can also see how it came about that existentialism found itself in a hole of its own digging, and how the philosophical developments since then have amounted to walking in circles round that hole.”
Colin Wilson (1931–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Donald Trump should be given the Medal of Freedom for speaking his mind in such a bold, honest and straight-forward manner.”
Ted Nugent (born 1948) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Shaq Didn’t Call Trump the 'Best President (September 17, 2018) by Catherine Monk,
“Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.”
Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1989) edited by Robert Andrews, p. 114
“Peace, gentlemen, it is well known, does not come of its own accord, and neither does freedom. Peace has enemies. Peace must be won by the sword.”
John le Carré (1931–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the Stuart era, the English developed for themselves, without foreign participation or example, a system of Parliamentary government, local administration and freedom of speech and person, clean contrary to the prevailing tendencies on the continent, which was moving fast toward regal absolution, centralized bureaucracy, and the subjection of the individual to the State.”
G. M. Trevelyan (1876–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would make any sacrifice but this; twenty times I can stake my life, even my honour, but my freedom I shall never sell. Why do I prize it so much? … What am I aiming at? Nothing, absolutely nothing.”
Mikhail Lermontov (1814–1841) said by 1841 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I believe that experience demonstrates that a democratic society that recognizes and enforces these basic rights—uncensored expression, freedom of conscience, due process, democracy, and equal protection of the laws—is preferable to a society that does not. That is my case for rights. That is why I have a strong preference for rights.”
Alan Dershowitz (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“An important assumption underlying our commitment to freedom of expression is that truth is a process, not a product.”
Alan Dershowitz (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Freedom of speech is something that represents the very dignity of what a human being is. If you cannot speak... I mean, that's what marks us off. That's what marks us off from the stones and the stars. You can speak freely. It is almost impossible for me to describe. It is the thing that marks us as just below the angels. I don't want to push this beyond where it should be pushed, but I feel it.”
Mario Savio (1942–1996) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in an interview by Douglas Gilles (December 1994) from the film Free@30 (1996).
“The American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as "Communists" or "Fascists" by their opponents. Freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America. It has been so abused by some that it is not exercised by others. The American people are sick and tired of seeing innocent people smeared and guilty people whitewashed.”
Margaret Chase Smith (1897–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It just always reveals to me how many misconceptions and what a misunderstanding there is about what feminism is. Feminism is about giving women choice. Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women with. It’s about freedom, it’s about liberation, it’s about equality. I really don’t know what my tits have to do with it. It’s very confusing.”
Emma Watson (born 1990) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Actress Emma Watson says revealing photo does not undermine feminism", Reuters, in response to critics of her photos in Vogue magazine (March 5, 2017)
“Feminism is about giving women choice. Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women. It’s about freedom, it’s about liberation, it’s about equality.”
Emma Watson (born 1990) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Islamic order can only be established in countries where Muslims represent the majority of the population. If this is not the case, the Islamic order is reduced to mere power (as the other element - an Islamic society - is missing) and may turn to violence. The non-Muslim minorities within an Islamic state, on condition that they are loyal, enjoy religious freedom and all protection.”
Alija Izetbegović (1925–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The true simple question of the present dispute is, whether the House of Lords and Court Influence shall predominate over the House of Commons, and annihilate its existence, or whether the House of Commons...shall have power to....regulate the prerogative of the Crown, which was ever ready to seize upon the freedom of the Electors of this country.”
Charles James Fox (1749–1806) first seen 1784 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to his constituents in Westminster (1784), quoted in W. T. Laprade, 'William Pitt and the Westminster Election', American Historical Review, 23 (1912), p. 263
“The people had been told by their representatives in parliament that they were surrounded with dangers, and had been shewn none. They were, therefore, full of suspicion and prompt of belief. All this had a material tendency to impede freedom of discussion, for men would speak with reserve, or not speak at all, under the terror of calumny.”
Charles James Fox (1749–1806) first seen 1793 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (1 February 1793), quoted in The Speeches of the Right Honourable Charles James Fox, in the House of Commons. Vol. V (1815), p. 26
“The Trickster represents the quality of randomness and chance in the universe, without which there could be no freedom. In the Craft the Goddess is not omnipotent. The cosmos is interesting rather than perfect, and everything is not part of some greater plan, nor is all necessarily under control. Understanding this keeps us humble, able to admit that we cannot know or control or define everything.”
“Another world is possible!" is the slogan created at the World Social Forum in Brazil in 2001. Another world is also necessary, for this one is unjust, unsustainable, and unsafe. It's up to us to envision, fight for, and create that world, a world of freedom, real justice, balance, and shared abundance, a world woven in a new design. (p8)”
“Restraint from ill is freedom to the wise; But Englishmen do all restraint despise.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) said by 1731 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some moments before you are aware of what you will do next - a time in which you subjectively appear to have complete freedom to behave however you please - your brain has already determined what you will do. You then become conscious of this "decision" and believe that you are in the process of making it.”
Sam Harris (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The feeling that we call "I" seems to define our point of view in every moment, and it also provides an anchor for popular beliefs about souls and freedom of will. And yet this feeling, however imperturbable it may appear at present, can be altered, interrupted, or entirely abolished.”
Sam Harris (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source