“Good slaves are free, but bad free men are slaves of many passions.”
Bion of Borysthenes (-325–-246 BC) ancient greek philosopher
As quoted by Stobaeus, iii.1.18
As quoted in Florilegium, XVIII, 23, as translated in Dictionary of Quotations (1906) by Thomas Benfield Harbottle, p. 368
No one is free who has not obtained the empire of himself.
As translated by Nicholas Rowe(1732)
No man is free who cannot command himself.
As quoted in Moral Encyclopaedia, Or, Varlé's Self-instructor, No. 3 (1831) by by Charles Varle
No man is free who cannot control himself.
As quoted in 25 Days to Better Thinking and Better Living: A Guide for Improving Every Aspect of Your Life (2006) by Linda Elder and Richard Paul
Florilegium
“Good slaves are free, but bad free men are slaves of many passions.”
Bion of Borysthenes (-325–-246 BC) ancient greek philosopher
As quoted by Stobaeus, iii.1.18
“For no man is free who is a slave to his body.”
Nemo liber est qui corpori servit.
Seneca the Younger (-4–65 BC) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XCII: On the Happy Life
“Bravest he who rules his passions,
Who his own impatience sways.”
Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic
"Die wiedergefundenen Söhne" [The Recovered Sons] (1801) as translated in The Monthly Religious Magazine Vol. 10 (1853) p. 445. <!-- * Tapfer ist der Löwensieger,<br/>Tapfer ist der Weltbezwinger,<br/>Tapfrer, wer sich selbst bezwang.— cited from Bernhard Suphan (ed.) Herders sämmtliche Werke (Berlin: Weidmann, 1877-1913) vol. 28, p. 237. -->
Context: Calmly take what ill betideth;
Patience wins the crown at length:
Rich repayment him abideth
Who endures in quiet strength.
Brave the tamer of the lion;
Brave whom conquered kingdoms praise;
Bravest he who rules his passions,
Who his own impatience sways.
“Freedom is the name of virtue: Slavery, of vice…. None is a slave whose acts are free.”
Epictetus (50–138) philosopher from Ancient Greece
Fragment x.
Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Fragments
Eliud Kipchoge (1984) Kenyan long-distance runner
Eliud Kipchoge (2018) cited in: " Eliud Kipchoge & David Bedford | Full Address and Q&A | Oxford Union https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc00mDtzIJU" in Oxford Union, 5 January 2018.
Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice
Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) German philosopher
The Spirit of Christianity and its Fate (1799)
“Can man be free if woman be a slave?”
Percy Bysshe Shelley The Revolt of Islam
Canto II, st. 43
The Revolt of Islam (1817)
Samuel Smiles (1812–1904) Scottish author
Source: Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct (1859), Ch. I : Self-Help — National and Individual
“The slave who dances is free… while he is dancing.”
Isabel Allende (1942) Chilean writer
Source: Island Beneath the Sea