Freedom Quotes

To relate oneself expectantly to the possibility of the good is to hope. To relate oneself expectantly to the possibility of evil is to fear. By the decision to choose hope one decides infinitely more than it seems, because it is an eternal decision

~ Søren Kierkegaard

Freedom is anxiety's petri dish. If routine blunts anxiety, freedom incubates it. Freedom says, Even if you don't want to make choices, you have to, and you can never be sure you have chosen correctly. Freedom says, Even not to choose is to choose. Freedom says, So long as you are aware of your freedom, you are going to experience the discomfort that freedom brings. Freedom says, You're on your own. Deal with it.

~ Daniel Smith

Is It Frightening To Be Free?You said it.You Say To People 'Throw Off Your Chains' And They Make New Chains For Themselves?Seems to be a major human activity, yes.

~ Terry Pratchett

Human nature is universally imbued with a desire for liberty, and a hatred for servitude.

~ Julius Ceasar

The true champions of a nation's freedom are those who reject the limitations of stereotypes and affirm the rich diversity of human nature to be found.

~ Vasily Grossman

I consider Anarchism the most beautiful and practical philosophy that has yet been thought of in its application to individual expression and the relation it establishes between the individual and society. Moreover, I am certain that Anarchism is too vital and too close to human nature ever to die. It is my conviction that dictatorship, whether to the right or to the left, can never work--that it never has worked, and that time will prove this again, as it has been proved before. When the failure of modern dictatorship and authoritarian philosophies becomes more apparent and the realization of failure more general, Anarchism will be vindicated. Considered from this point, a recrudescence of Anarchist ideas in the near future is very probable. When this occurs and takes effect, I believe that humanity will at last leave the maze in which it is now lost and will start on the path to sane living and regeneration through freedom.

~ Emma Goldman

He freed man from outer religiosity because he made religiosity the inner man. He freed the body from chains because he enchained the heart.

~ Karl Marx

We must fight for the freedom of religion, because that is the only way we can stand against irrationality.

~ M.f. Moonzajer

One of the first unanswerable questions I asked was when I was eight years old. Some cousins of mine always said a prayer before eating: God is kind, God is good, And we thank him For our food.At that time we always heard the children in Europe were starving, therefore we should not waste any food. Two questions arose in my mind. First, what I knew about poetry was that it had to rhyme, and 'food' and 'good' didn't rhyme, so I always said 'Fud' with a silent sneer, and made it rhyme.Second: I once asked my aunt if god is good and we thank him for our Fud, why are the kids in Europe starving? I asked her if the kids in Europe were all bad. I remember her saying, 'Be thankful that you have food,' but, of course, she couldn't deal with the rest of it.I never accepted religion so I had nothing to reject as such. The history of 'Christiansanity' (my own coinage of which I am proud!) is so brutal of mind, emotions, freedom, progress, science, and all that I hold precious, that by any standards of justice its leaders in almost any given period would be incarcerated for life, or worse!

~ Madison Arnold

If I were to construct a God I would furnish Him with some way and qualities and characteristics which the Present lacks.

~ Mark Twain

Anyone I love takes away part of my freedom, but in that case it is I who wished it; and there is so much pleasure in loving that one gladly sacrifices something for its sake. Any one who loves me takes away all my freedom. Anyone who admires me (as a writer) threatens to take it away from me. I even fear those who understand me, which is why I spend so much time covering my tracks - both in my private life and in the persona I express through my books. What would have delighted me, had I loved god, is the thought that god gives nothing in return.

~ Henry De Montherlant

Oh, you knew that your deed would be preserved in books, would reach tghe depths of the ages and the utmost limits of the earth, and you hoped that, following you, man, too, would remain with God, having no need of miracles. But you did not know that as soon as man rejects miracles, he will at once reject God as well, for man seeks not so much God as miracles. And since man cannot bear to be left without miracles, he will go and create new miracles for himself... Oh, there will be centuries of free reason, of their science and anthropophagy... Freedom, free reason, and science willl lead them into such a maze, and confront them with such miracles and insoluble mysteries, that some of them, unruly and ferocious, will exterminate themselves.

~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The true value of man is shown when with all freedom possible, he sets himself limits.

~ Anonymous

The general rule of law is, that the noblest of human productions -- knowledge, truths ascertained, conceptions, and ideas -- become, after voluntary communication to others, free as the air to common use.~Louis D. Brandeis

~ Louis D. Brandeis

Believe me, you're going to have to do much worse than this--in the pursuit of freedom, the innocents will suffer--and at your hands.

~ Jasper Fforde

Justice and judgement lie often a world apart.~ Emmeline Pankhurst

~ Emmeline Pankhurst

When there is liberty, you expect a higher degree of freedom and not human rights abuse.

~ Auliq Ice

Without peace, justice and freedom, the true value and dignity of mankind disappears.

~ Auliq Ice

The land of the free full of freedom is the home of the brave.

~ Auliq Ice

The measure of man's ability to extend the sphere of social possibility can only start with the values of democracy.

~ Auliq Ice

Any constituency that needs amending, is a prototype in error.

~ Justin K. Mcfarlane Beau

Illusions of freedom will never satisfy me.

~ Marquita Burke-Dejesus

Slavery remains rife, the shackles are just different. Labels and desires have replaced the cuffs and chains.

~ Aisha Mirza

Are we Pakistanis, children of a lesser God? Is there one law for the west and one for us? Is our democracy supposed to be only democracy if you give us a no objection certificate?

~ Imran Khan

Take from a man his freedom or his goods and you may have taken his innocence, almost his humanity, as well.

~ C.s. Lewis

Fear has become normal and is covered by the idea of “patriotism”.

~ Nilantha Ilangamuwa

Can it be true that freedom only exists when it is a treasure, shared by all?

~ Margarita Engle

As things stand the intellectuals only come out to lick the bones left over by the tyrant.

~ Nilantha Ilangamuwa

Patriotism, currently, is nothing but the deadly evolution of narrow minded politics which has distorted language.

~ Nilantha Ilangamuwa

Social systems are neither a consumer product that we can buy or rent from the market nor a material that we can import from another country. It is not a creation of the almighty gifted from the heavens. A social system is a creation of mankind. That is a reflection of our responsibilities. In other words, the social system is the result of our behavior and the decisions we take in our way of life.

~ Nilantha Ilangamuwa

Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for us to change the mindset which has tended to create ad hoc solutions for the political madness and social farce. In fact, our age of tragedy which has been represented by the so-called “Marxists” in the Sinhalese community and “liberalists” in Tamil community since the 70s to the late 90s, has been replaced by the age of farce.

~ Nilantha Ilangamuwa

I don’t have a problem with someone using their talents to become successful, I just don’t think the highest calling is success. Things like freedom and the expansion of knowledge are beyond success, beyond the personal. Personal success is not wrong, but it is limited in importance, and once you have enough of it it is a shame to keep striving for that, instead of for truth, beauty, or justice.

~ Richard M. Stallman

People and their values are almost infinitely diverse, and people will never agree on many elements of social arrangements that might be subjected to uniform rules of governance. Hence, the greater the scope of strictly individual self-determination, the lesser the scope of governance, and the greater the tolerance with which people live and let live among their fellows, the more peaceful and flourishing society will be

~ Robert Higgs

It is a smokescreen if someone believes that they can make change without identifying the root causes which influence social disorder.

~ Nilantha Ilangamuwa

True, the US Government does not have moral authority to ask for an independent investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity that occurred in final stages of the civil war in Sri Lanka. This is so not just because of what they have done in Sri Lanka, but what they do all around the world. Certainly, the US enhanced their assistance in many ways during last decades to fight against the Tamil Tiger rebels. But does the Government of Sri Lanka have moral authority to deny an international investigation? The answer is no.

~ Nilantha Ilangamuwa

What unified the Balochis in their quest to regain self-determination, which resulted in the ‘existing state’? On the one hand, authoritarianism, militarization, and conquest has robbed them of their history and put them into the do or die situation. On the other hand, natural resources which would allow the citizens at large to achieve a respectable existence have been controlled by the military or political elites, well connected to feudal political elites in Pakistan.

~ Nilantha Ilangamuwa

When man lost touch with his humanity he had no reason to walk along the higher path.

~ Nilantha Ilangamuwa

We have created our own fake world in order to satisfy our imagination through the illusion.

~ Nilantha Ilangamuwa

Mr. President, not only are you disastrous for the land, you are the man who must be held responsible for all the sins of the cowards, the cowards who were fooled into electing you as president.

~ Nilantha Ilangamuwa

We lost our country somewhere along the way. We know where we lost it but we do not appear to have the strength to eliminate those blocking our view to enable us to develop our common identity.

~ Nilantha Ilangamuwa