“Free again, but it's just a feeling; freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose - and commit yourself to what is best for you.”

— Paulo Coelho, book The Zahir

Variant: Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose - and commit myself to - what is best for me.
Source: The Zahir

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Paulo Coelho844

Brazilian lyricist and novelist 1947

Engr.Abah Sule

“fear or freedom
choose freedom
choose freedom
--
being free
is not an idea
it is a feeling
it emanates from within”

Prem Rawat (1957) controversial spiritual leader

From a collection of hundreds of quotes set to music and available online at Maharaji's personal website http://www.maharaji.net/ (2001)
2000s

“Tolstoy, the Russian writer, said in War and Peace: “I cannot conceive of a man not being free unless he is dead.” While this statement sounds a bit exaggerated, it gets at a basic truth. What Tolstoy is saying in substance is that the absence of freedom is the presence of death. Any nation or government that deprives an individual of freedom is in that moment committing an act of moral and spiritual murder. Any individual who is not concerned about his freedom commits an act of moral and spiritual suicide.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

[http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol5/17July1959_AddressattheFiftiethAnnualNAACPConvention.pdf Address at the Fiftieth Annual NAACP Convention (17 July 1959)
1950s