
„Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.“
— Bob Marley Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician 1945 - 1981
A collection of quotes on the topic of travel, freedom, people, can.
„Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.“
— Bob Marley Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician 1945 - 1981
„Our greatest freedom is the freedom to choose our attitude.“
— Viktor E. Frankl Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, and Holocaust survivor 1905 - 1997
„Freedom for the wolves has often meant death to the sheep.“
— Isaiah Berlin Russo-British Jewish social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas 1909 - 1997
„We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.“
— William Faulkner American writer 1897 - 1962
Source: Essays, Speeches & Public Letters
„Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.“
— Sören Kierkegaard Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism 1813 - 1855
Source: The Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Orienting Deliberation on the Dogmatic Issue of Hereditary Sin
„A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself.“
— Jim Morrison lead singer of The Doors 1943 - 1971
„Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves.“
— Abraham Lincoln 16th President of the United States 1809 - 1865
Variant: Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God cannot retain it.
Source: Complete Works - Volume XII
„I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.“
— Jean Jacques Rousseau Genevan philosopher 1712 - 1778
„When law becomes despotic, morals are relaxed, and vice versa.“
— Honoré de Balzac French writer 1799 - 1850
Quand le despotisme est dans les lois, la liberté se trouve dans les mœurs, et vice versa.
The Wild Ass’s Skin (1831), Part I: The Talisman
„Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.“
— Jean Paul Sartre French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary cri… 1905 - 1980
Variant: Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you.
Total 4733 quotes freedom, filter:
— Andrzej Majewski Polish writer and photographer 1966
Niewolnik marzy o wolności, człowiek wolny o bogactwie, bogacz o władzy, a władca o wolności.
Aphorisms. Magnum in Parvo (2000)
— Megan Marie Hart American opera singer 1983
on Marilyn Horne's influence; 2005, as quoted by Zachary Lewis https://solokeyboard.typepad.com/Music2005Final.doc and edited into the Oberlin Review article The Marilyn Horne Experience http://www2.oberlin.edu/con/connews/2006/of_note.html#3
— Gavrilo Princip Bosnian assassin 1894 - 1918
Said to the prison warden on being moved to another prison; as quoted by Borivoje Jevtic (1914) http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_Assassination_of_Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand
— Joseph Goebbels Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister 1897 - 1945
https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/haken32.htm “Those Damn Nazis: Why Are We Socialists?”
Written by Joseph Goebbels and Mjölnir, Die verfluchten Hakenkreuzler. Etwas zum Nachdenken (Munich: Verlag Frz. Eher (1932). “Those Damned Nazis,” (Nazi propaganda pamphlet).
1930s
— Emiliano Zapata Mexican Revolutionary 1879 - 1919
¡Tierra y Libertad!
A slogan popularized by Zapata, quoted in Tierra y Libertad (1920) published by Imprenta Germinal; further attributed to Zapata in works in the 1930s and later, including, Without History: Subaltern Studies, the Zapatista Insurgency, and the Specter of History (2010) by José Rabasa, p. 122, where the influence of the anarchist Ricardo Flores Magón on its development is also attested.
„Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.“
— Hannah Arendt Jewish-American political theorist 1906 - 1975
— Vladimir Lenin Russian politician, led the October Revolution 1870 - 1924
Source: The State and Revolution (1917), Ch. 5
Context: Democracy for an insignificant minority, democracy for the rich – that is the democracy of capitalist society. If we look more closely into the machinery of capitalist democracy, we see everywhere, in the "petty" – supposedly petty – details of the suffrage (residential qualifications, exclusion of women, etc.), in the technique of the representative institutions, in the actual obstacles to the right of assembly (public buildings are not for "paupers"!), in the purely capitalist organization of the daily press, etc., etc., – we see restriction after restriction upon democracy. These restrictions, exceptions, exclusions, obstacles for the poor seem slight, especially in the eyes of one who has never known want himself and has never been in close contact with the oppressed classes in their mass life (and nine out of 10, if not 99 out of 100, bourgeois publicists and politicians come under this category); but in their sum total these restrictions exclude and squeeze out the poor from politics, from active participation in democracy.
„Without freedom of speech, there is no modern world, just a barbaric one.“
— Ai Weiwei Chinese concept artist 1957
2000-09, Ai Weiwei, Nursing Head Wound, Sharpens Criticism, 2009
Variant: Without freedom of speech, there is no modern world, just a barbaric one.
— Bartolomé de las Casas Spanish Dominican friar, historian, and social reformer 1474 - 1566
History of the Indies (1561)
— Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Bengali revolutionary, founder ("father") of Bangladesh 1920 - 1975
Quote, This time the struggle is for our freedom (1971)
— Virginia Woolf, book A Room of One's Own
Variant: There is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.
Source: A Room of One's Own (1929), Ch. 4, p. 90
— Vladimir Lenin Russian politician, led the October Revolution 1870 - 1924
Collected Works, Vol. 32, pp. 504–9.
Collected Works
Source: Revolution!: Sayings of Vladimir Lenin
„If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.“
— George Orwell, book Animal Farm
Sometimes paraphrased as "Liberty is telling people what they do not want to hear."
Variant: Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
Source: Original preface to Animal Farm; as published in George Orwell: Some Materials for a Bibliography (1953) by Ian R. Willison
— Clarence Darrow American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union 1857 - 1938
Address to the court in People v. Lloyd (1920)
— Wilhelm Reich, book Listen, Little Man!
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
Context: You beg for happiness in life, but security is more important to you, even if it costs you your spine or your life. Your life will be good and secure when aliveness will mean more to you than security; love more than money; your freedom more than party line or public opinion; when your thinking will be in harmony with your feelings; when the teachers of your children will be better paid than the politicians; when you will have more respect for the love between man and woman than for a marriage license.
„There’s freedom in honesty. If you just face it today, tomorrow you can move on to something else.“
— Rihanna Barbadian singer, songwriter, and actress 1988
„Money buys you the freedom to live your life the way you want.“
— Keanu Reeves Canadian actor, director, producer and musician 1964
— Noam Chomsky american linguist, philosopher and activist 1928
Quotes 1990s, 1990-1994, Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, 1992
Context: If you believe in freedom of speech, you believe in freedom of speech for views you don't like. Goebbels was in favor of freedom of speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you're in favor of freedom of speech, that means you're in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise.
„freedom would be not to choose between black and white but to abjure such prescribed choices.“
— Theodor W. Adorno German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for his critical theory of society 1903 - 1969
— Karen Blixen, book Out of Africa
Source: Out of Africa (1937)
Context: People who dream when they sleep at night know of a special kind of happiness which the world of the day holds not, a placid ecstasy, and ease of heart, that are like honey on the tongue. They also know that the real glory of dreams lies in their atmosphere of unlimited freedom. It is not the freedom of the dictator, who enforces his own will on the world, but the freedom of the artist, who has no will, who is free of will. The pleasure of the true dreamer does not lie in the substance of the dream, but in this: that there things happen without any interference from his side, and altogether outside his control. Great landscapes create themselves, long splendid views, rich and delicate colours, roads, houses, which he has never seen or heard of...
— Pierre Joseph Proudhon French politician, mutualist philosopher, economist, and socialist 1809 - 1865
— Rosa Parks African-American civil rights activist 1913 - 2005
Quoted in "Women of the Hall: Rosa Parks," http://womenshalloffame.org/women.php?action=viewone&id=117 Women's National Hall of Fame (undated); said upon her 77th birthday (1990-02-04)
„Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.“
— Frank Herbert, book Chapterhouse: Dune
Source: Chapterhouse: Dune
— Alexis De Tocqueville French political thinker and historian 1805 - 1859
12 September 1848, "Discours prononcé à l'assemblée constituante le 12 Septembre 1848 sur la question du droit au travail", Oeuvres complètes, vol. IX, p. 546 https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Tocqueville_-_%C5%92uvres_compl%C3%A8tes,_%C3%A9dition_1866,_volume_9.djvu/564; Translation (from Hayek, The Road to Serfdom):
Original text:
La démocratie étend la sphère de l'indépendance individuelle, le socialisme la resserre. La démocratie donne toute sa valeur possible à chaque homme, le socialisme fait de chaque homme un agent, un instrument, un chiffre. La démocratie et le socialisme ne se tiennent que par un mot, l'égalité; mais remarquez la différence : la démocratie veut l'égalité dans la liberté, et le socialisme veut l'égalité dans la gêne et dans la servitude.
1840s
„The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.“
— Aung San Suu Kyi State Counsellor of Myanmar and Leader of the National League for Democracy 1945
„If freedom is short of weapons, we must compensate with willpower.“
— Adolf Hitler Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party 1889 - 1945
— Jimmy Carter American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981) 1924
— Byron Katie American spiritual writer 1942
Source: Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life
„Yoga allows you to find a new kind of freedom that you may not have known even existed.“
— B.K.S. Iyengar Indian yoga teacher and scholar 1918 - 2014
Source: Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom, p.xiv
— Shankar Dayal Sharma Indian politician 1918 - 1999
Address By Dr. Shanker Dayal Sharma President Of India On The Occasion Of The 50th Anniversary Of The First Sitting Of The Constituent Assembly
— RuPaul Actriz de Televisa, dueña y señora de los ejidos cacaoahuateros 1960
Quoted by Doug Rule in RuPaul: Ultimate Queen http://www.metroweekly.com/2016/04/ultimate-queen-rupaul/ (2016)
— Joan Baez American singer 1941
"The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti, Part Three"
Sacco e Vanzetti (1971)
— George W. Bush 43rd President of the United States 1946
Remarks by the President In Photo Opportunity with the National Security Team http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010912-4.html, September 12, 2001
2000s, 2001
— Paul Robeson American singer and actor 1898 - 1976
As quoted in Paul Robeson, The Whole World in His Hands (1981) by Susan Robeson, p. 60
— Ursula K. Le Guin, book Four Ways to Forgiveness
"A Woman's Liberation", p. 158; first published in Asimov's (1995)
Four Ways to Forgiveness (1995)
— Adam Weishaupt German philosopher and founder of the Order of Illuminati 1748 - 1830
Die neuesten Arbeiten des Spartacus und Philo in dem Illuminaten-Orden (1794) pp. 20-21.
„Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people.“
— Nelson Mandela President of South Africa, anti-apartheid activist 1918 - 2013
Nelson Madenla on leadership, Chief Albert Luthuli Centenary celebrations, Kwadukuza, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa (25 April 1998). Source: From Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations © 2010 by Nelson R. Mandela and The Nelson Mandela Foundation http://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/mini-site/selected-quotes
1990s
— Albert Einstein German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity 1879 - 1955
Attributed in “The Conflict Between Church And State In The Third Reich”, by S. Parkes Cadman, La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press (28 October 1934), viewable online on p. 9 of the issue here http://newspaperarchive.com/us/wisconsin/la-crosse/la-crosse-tribune-and-leader-press/1934/10-28/ (double-click the page to zoom). The quote is preceded by “In this connection it is worth quoting in free translation a statement made by Professor Einstein last year to one of my colleagues who has been prominently identified with the Protestant church in its contacts with Germany.” [Emphasis added.] While based on something that Einstein said, Einstein himself stated that the quote was not an accurate record of his words or opinion. After the quote appeared in Time magazine (23 December 1940), p. 38 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,765103,00.html, a minister in Harbor Springs, Michigan wrote to Einstein to check if the quote was real. Einstein wrote back “It is true that I made a statement which corresponds approximately with the text you quoted. I made this statement during the first years of the Nazi-Regime — much earlier than 1940 — and my expressions were a little more moderate.” (March 1943) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/200706A19.html
In a later letter to Rev. Cornelius Greenway of Brooklyn, who asked if Einstein would write out the statement in his own hand, Einstein was more vehement in his repudiation of the statement (14 November 1950) http://books.google.com/books?id=T5R7JsRRtoIC&pg=PA94: <blockquote><p>The wording of the statement you have quoted is not my own. Shortly after Hitler came to power in Germany I had an oral conversation with a newspaper man about these matters. Since then my remarks have been elaborated and exaggerated nearly beyond recognition. I cannot in good conscience write down the statement you sent me as my own.</p><p> The matter is all the more embarrassing to me because I, like yourself, I am predominantly critical concerning the activities, and especially the political activities, through history of the official clergy. Thus, my former statement, even if reduced to my actual words (which I do not remember in detail) gives a wrong impression of my general attitude.</p></blockquote>
: In his original statement Einstein was probably referring to the actions of the Emergency Covenant of Pastors organized by Martin Niemöller, and the Confessing Church which he and other prominent churchmen such as Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer established in opposition to Nazi policies.
: Einstein also made some scathingly negative comments about the behavior of the Church under the Nazi regime (and its behavior towards Jews throughout history) in a 1943 conversation with William Hermanns recorded in Hermanns' book Einstein and the Poet (1983). On p. 63 http://books.google.com/books?id=QXCyjj6T5ZUC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA63#v=onepage&q&f=false Hermanns records him saying "Never in history has violence been so widespread as in Nazi Germany. The concentration camps make the actions of Ghengis Khan look like child's play. But what makes me shudder is that the Church is silent. One doesn't need to be a prophet to say, 'The Catholic Church will pay for this silence.' Dr. Hermanns, you will live to see that there is moral law in the universe. . . .There are cosmic laws, Dr. Hermanns. They cannot be bribed by prayers or incense. What an insult to the principles of creation. But remember, that for God a thousand years is a day. This power maneuver of the Church, these Concordats through the centuries with worldly powers . . . the Church has to pay for it. We live now in a scientific age and in a psychological age. You are a sociologist, aren't you? You know what the Herdenmenschen (men of herd mentality) can do when they are organized and have a leader, especially if he is a spokesmen for the Church. I do not say that the unspeakable crimes of the Church for 2000 years had always the blessings of the Vatican, but it vaccinated its believers with the idea: We have the true God, and the Jews have crucified Him. The Church sowed hate instead of love, though the Ten Commandments state: Thou shalt not kill." And then on p. 64 http://books.google.com/books?id=QXCyjj6T5ZUC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA64#v=onepage&q&f=false: "I'm not a Communist but I can well understand why they destroyed the Church in Russia. All the wrongs come home, as the proverb says. The Church will pay for its dealings with Hitler, and Germany, too." And on p. 65 http://books.google.com/books?id=QXCyjj6T5ZUC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA65#v=onepage&q&f=false: "I don't like to implant in youth the Church's doctrine of a personal God, because that Church has behaved so inhumanely in the past 2000 years. The fear of punishment makes the people march. Consider the hate the Church manifested against the Jews and then against the Muslims, the Crusades with their crimes, the burning stakes of the Inquisition, the tacit consent of Hitler's actions while the Jews and the Poles dug their own graves and were slaughtered. And Hitler is said to have been an alter boy! The truly religious man has no fear of life and no fear of death—and certainly no blind faith; his faith must be in his conscience. . . . I am therefore against all organized religion. Too often in history, men have followed the cry of battle rather than the cry of truth." When Hermanns asked him "Isn't it only human to move along the line of least resistance?", Einstein responded "Yes. It is indeed human, as proved by Cardinal Pacelli, who was behind the Concordat with Hitler. Since when can one make a pact with Christ and Satan at the same time? And he is now the Pope! The moment I hear the word 'religion', my hair stands on end. The Church has always sold itself to those in power, and agreed to any bargain in return for immunity. It would have been fine if the spirit of religion had guided the Church; instead, the Church determined the spirit of religion. Churchmen through the ages have fought political and institutional corruption very little, so long as their own sanctity and church property were preserved."
Misattributed
— Johnny Cash American singer-songwriter 1932 - 2003
From "Ragged Old Flag" on The Great Lost Performance
„Freedom lies beneath reality.“
— Anastacia American singer-songwriter 1968
Maybe Today
Anastacia (2004)
„You should never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.“
— Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People
Dr. Stockmann, Act V
Robert Farquharson translation
An Enemy of the People (1882)
— Mikhail Bakunin Russian revolutionary, philosopher, and theorist of collectivist anarchism 1814 - 1876
As quoted in Michael Bakunin (1937) by E.H. Carr, p. 356<!-- New York: NY, Vintage Books -->
Context: I hate Communism because it is the negation of liberty and because humanity is for me unthinkable without liberty. I am not a Communist, because Communism concentrates and swallows up in itself for the benefit of the State all the forces of society, because it inevitably leads to the concentration of property in the hands of the State, whereas I want the abolition of the State, the final eradication of the principle of authority and the patronage proper to the State, which under the pretext of moralizing and civilizing men has hitherto only enslaved, persecuted, exploited and corrupted them. I want to see society and collective or social property organized from below upwards, by way of free association, not from above downwards, by means of any kind of authority whatsoever.
— Eric Voegelin American philosopher 1901 - 1985
Source: "From Enlightenment to Revolution" (1975), p. 260
Context: But it is useless to subject this hash of uncritical language to critical questioning. We can make no sense of these sentences of Engels unless we consider them as symptoms of a spiritual disease. As a disease, however, they make excellent sense for, with great intensity, they display the symptoms of logophobia, now quite outspokenly as a desperate fear and hatred of philosophy. We even find named the specific object of fear and hatred: it is "the total context of things and of knowledge of things." Engels, like Marx, is afraid that the recognition of critical conceptual analysis might lead to the recognition of a "total context," of an order of being and perhaps even of cosmic order, to which their particular existences would be subordinate. If we may use the language of Marx: a total context must not exist as an autonomous subject of which Marx and Engels are insignificant predicates; if it exists at all, it must exist only as a predicate of the autonomous subjects Marx and Engels. Our analysis has carried us closer to the deeper stratum of theory that we are analysing at present, the meaning of logophobia now comes more clearly into view. It is not the fear of a particular critical concept, like Hegel's Idea, it is rather the fear of critical analysis in general. Submission to critical argument at any point might lead to the recognition of an order of the logos, of a constitution of being, and the recognition of such an order might reveal the revolutionary idea of Marx, the idea of establishing a realm of freedom and of changing the nature of man through revolution, as the blasphemous and futile nonsense which it is.
„The mark of a moderate man
is freedom from his own ideas.“
— Laozi, book Tao Te Ching
Source: Tao Te Ching, Ch. 59 as interpreted by Stephen Mitchell (1992)
Context: The mark of a moderate man
is freedom from his own ideas.
Tolerant like the sky,
all-pervading like sunlight,
firm like a mountain,
supple like a tree in the wind,
he has no destination in view
and makes use of anything
life happens to bring his way.
„The government of the United States is not the champion of freedom“
— Ernesto Che Guevara Argentine Marxist revolutionary 1928 - 1967
Address to the United Nations (1964)
Context: Those who kill their own children and discriminate daily against them because of the color of their skin; those who let the murderers of blacks remain free, protecting them, and furthermore punishing the black population because they demand their legitimate rights as free men — how can those who do this consider themselves guardians of freedom? The government of the United States is not the champion of freedom, but rather the perpetrator of exploitation and oppression against the peoples of the world and against a large part of its own population.
— Ludwig von Mises, book Socialism
Socialism (1922), Epilogue (1947)
Context: When people were committed to the idea that in the field of religion only one plan must be adopted, bloody wars resulted. With the acknowledgment of the principle of religious freedom these wars ceased. The market economy safeguards peaceful economic co-operation because it does not use force upon the economic plans of the citizens. If one master plan is to be substituted for the plans of each citizen, endless fighting must emerge. Those who disagree with the dictator's plan have no other means to carry on than to defeat the despot by force of arms.
„Freedom of Nature is, to be under no other restraint but the Law of Nature.“
— John Locke, book Two Treatises of Government
Second Treatise of Civil Government, Ch. IV, sec. 21
Two Treatises of Government (1689)
Context: Freedom of Men under Government is, to have a standing Rule to live by, common to every one of that Society, and made by the Legislative Power erected in it; a Liberty to follow my own Will in all things, where the Rule prescribes not; and not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, unknown, Arbitrary Will of another Man: as Freedom of Nature is, to be under no other restraint but the Law of Nature.
— Taras Shevchenko, Testamento
Taras Shevchenko Zapovit, 1845 (Shevchenko's "Testament"), Translated by John Weir, Toronto, 1961; Online at
— Elliot Rodger American spree killer 1991 - 2014
My Twisted World (2014), 19-22, UC Santa Barbara, Building to Violence
— Thich Nhat Hanh Religious leader and peace activist 1926
Source: The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation
— Isaac Asimov, book The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories
Source: The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories
„Freedom is often the first casualty of war.“
— Gabriel García Márquez, book The General in His Labyrinth
Source: The General in His Labyrinth
„Can you not understand that liberty is worth more than just ribbons?“
— George Orwell, book Animal Farm
Source: Animal Farm
„Reactivity is enslavement. Responsibility is freedom.“
— Sadhguru, book Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy
Source: Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy
„God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.“
— Daniel Webster Leading American senator and statesman. January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852. Served as the Secretary of State for three… 1782 - 1852
Speech (3 June 1834); reported in Edward Everett, ed., The Works of Daniel Webster (1851), volume iv, page 47
„Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit.“
— Ronald Reagan American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989) 1911 - 2004
— Vladimir Lenin Russian politician, led the October Revolution 1870 - 1924
.
1900s
Context: Everyone is free to write and say whatever he likes, without any restrictions. But every voluntary association (including the party) is also free to expel members who use the name of the party to advocate anti-party views. Freedom of speech and the press must be complete. But then freedom of association must be complete too. I am bound to accord you, in the name of free speech, the full right to shout, lie and write to your heart’s content. But you are bound to grant me, in the name of freedom of association, the right to enter into, or withdraw from, association with people advocating this or that view. The party is a voluntary association, which would inevitably break up, first ideologically and then physically, if it did not cleanse itself of people advocating anti-party views.
„As government expands, liberty contracts.“
— Ronald Reagan American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989) 1911 - 2004