Freedom quotes

Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. Albert Einstein
(also about
Compassion)
People should have their rights to be who they want to be and love who they want to love. Sasha Cohen
(also about
Human rights)
I'm William Wallace, and the rest of you will be spared. Go back to England and tell them... Scotland is free! William Wallace
The intense happiness of our union is derived in a high degree from the perfect freedom with which we each follow and declare our own impressions. George Eliot
Some books leave us free and some books make us free. Ralph Waldo Emerson
(also about
Books)

Freedom quotes by Francois Voltaire

Also about
Inspiration, Human rights, Principles, Great, Foolishness, Choice
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it. It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere. Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.
Responsibility is the price of freedom. Elbert Hubbard
(also about
Responsibility)

Freedom quotes by Abraham Linkoln

Also about
Slavery, People
In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. The people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions.
One thing I can tell you is you have to be free. Come together, right now, over me. John Lennon
To those who can hear me, I say, do not despair.
The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed,
The bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress.
The hate of men will pass, and dictators die,
And the power they took from the people will return to the people.
And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men -
Machine men with machine minds and machine hearts!
You are not machines, you are not cattle, you are men!
You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful,
To make this life a wonderful adventure
Let us use that power!
Let us all unite! Charles Chaplin
(also about
Inspiration, Humanity, Life, Democracy, Liberty)

Freedom quotes by Mahatma Gandhi

Also about
Mistakes, Slavery
Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right. The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave. His fetters fall... freedom and slavery are mental states.
He who has overcome his fears will truly be free. Aristotle
(also about
Inspiration, Fear)
Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility. Sigmund Freud
(also about
Psychology, Responsibility)

Freedom quotes by Stephen Hawking

Also about
Intellect, Search, Choice
To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit. I think those who have a terminal illness and are in great pain should have the right to choose to end their own life, and those that help them should be free from prosecution.

Freedom quotes by Victor Hugo

Also about
Challenge, Hardships
Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings. He who is not capable of enduring poverty is not capable of being free. Liberation is not deliverance. Freedom in art, freedom in society, this is the double goal towards which all consistent and logical minds must strive.

Freedom quotes by Richard Bach

Also about
Love, Happiness, Independence, Integrity, Choice, Advice, Shame, Fear
If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they're yours; if they don't they never were. If your happiness depends on what somebody else does, I guess you do have a problem. You are always free to change your mind and choose a different future, or a different past. Allow the world to live as it chooses, and allow yourself to live as you choose. Live never to be ashamed if anything you say or do is published around the world, even if what is said is not true.
I know but one freedom, and that is the freedom of the mind. Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Yet, Freedom! yet thy banner, torn, but flying, streams like the thunderstorm against the wind. George Gordon Byron

Freedom quotes by Albert Camus

Also about
Culture, Society, Media, Press, Inspiration, Integrity, Death, Reason
The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion. Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better. Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future. A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad. I was born poor and without religion, under a happy sky, feeling harmony, not hostility, in nature. I began not by feeling torn, but in plenitude. Men are never really willing to die except for the sake of freedom: therefore they do not believe in dying completely.
Every human has four endowments - self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom... The power to choose, to respond, to change. Stephen Covey
(also about
Power, Potential)

Freedom quotes by Karl Marx

Also about
Necessity, Religion, Atheism
Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness of necessity. He freed man from outer religiosity because he made religiosity the inner man. He freed the body from chains because he enchained the heart.

Freedom quotes by Jim Morrison

Also about
Fear
The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free. I'm interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos, especially activity that appears to have no meaning. It seems to me to be the road toward freedom.

Freedom quotes by Jimi Hendrix

Also about
Life, Death, Music, Wishes, Challenge
I'm the one that has to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life, the way I want to. When I die, I want people to play my music, go wild and freak out and do anything they want to do. If I'm free, it's because I'm always running.
Liberty is the right to choose, freedom is the result of that choice. Anonymous
(also about
Liberty, Choice)

Freedom quotes by Martin Luther King Jr

Also about
Change, Struggle
Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent. Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure. Stephen King
(also about
Life, Letting-go)

Freedom quotes by Kirk Douglas

Also about
Professionalism, Criticism, Advice, Wishes, Character
I don't need a critic to tell me I'm an actor. I make my own way. Nobody's my boss. Nobody's ever been my boss. Too often, I have not been what I wanted to be; I've succumbed to pressures. Yes, I have. The things I've done that I liked, I've always done against advice.
The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, 'Thus far and no farther.' Ludwig van Beethoven
(also about
Inspiration, Ability, Opportunity)
Religion has the right to express its opinion in the service of the people, but God in creation has set us free: it is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person. Pope Francis
(also about
Religion, Personality, Privacy)

Freedom quotes by Charles Dickens

Also about
Willpower, Choice, Life, Change
I wear the chain I forged in life... I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.

Freedom quotes by George Orwell

Also about
Human rights, Life, War, Ignorance, Absurd, Power, Privacy, Control
Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. Big Brother is watching you.
But the whole point of liberation is that you get out. Restructure your life. Act by yourself. Jane Fonda
(also about
Independence, Self-determination, Action, Individuality)
I think I prefer producing a little more than DJing because you have more freedom, you can make anything you want; it doesn't necessarily have to be four to the floor. You can go more with your mood, or the atmosphere that you're in. Armin van Buuren
(also about
Work, Mood)

Freedom quotes by Nelson Mandela

Also about
Business, Money, Success, Human rights, Respect, Revolution, Struggle, Africa, Nation, Contribution
Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will. For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. Where globalization means, as it so often does, that the rich and powerful now have new means to further enrich and empower themselves at the cost of the poorer and weaker, we have a responsibility to protest in the name of universal freedom. I will not leave South Africa, nor will I surrender. Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be won. The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days. There is no such thing as part freedom. The names of Dingane and Bambata, Hintsa and Makana, Squngthi and Dalasile, Moshoeshoe and Sekhukhuni, were praised as the glory of the entire African nation. I hoped then that life might offer me the opportunity to serve my people and make my own humble contribution to their freedom struggle. Communists have always played an active role in the fight by colonial countries for their freedom, because the short-term objects of Communism would always correspond with the long-term objects of freedom movements.
To seek freedom is the only driving force I know. Freedom to fly off into that infinity out there. Freedom to dissolve; to lift off; to be like the flame of a candle, which, in spite of being up against the light of a billion stars, remains intact, because it never pretended to be more than what it is: a mere candle. Carlos Castaneda
(also about
Inspiration)
America lives in the heart of every man everywhere who wishes to find a region where he will be free to work out his destiny as he chooses. Woodrow Wilson
(also about
Work, Choice, America)
We are witnessing a slow, steady takeover of our true freedoms. We are becoming a socialist nation, and whoever can't see this is probably hoping it isn't true. If we permit Mr. Obama to take over all our industries, if we permit him to raise our taxes to support unconstitutional causes, then we will be in default. This great America will become a paralyzed nation.
 Jon Voight
(also about
Politics, Decay, America, Socialism)

Freedom quotes by Ronald Reagan

Also about
Liberty, Memory, Pride, Religion
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same. We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free. Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.

Freedom quotes by Bob Marley

Also about
Life, Death, Revolution, Challenge, Lifesense, Rules, Search, Vocation, Choice, Inspiration
Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life. You can't find the right roads when the streets are paved. Free speech carries with it some freedom to listen. They will always tell you that you can't do what you want to do, but you can do what you want to do. You just have to believe in yourself. The system is to bring you down, but you can rise up. The truth is an offense but not a sin
Is he who laugh last, children! Is he who win

Is a foolish dog bark at a flying bird
One sheep must learn, children! To respect the shepherd

Freedom quotes by Paulo Coelho

Also about
Memories, Repression, Dictatorship, Life, Posession
I lived in a dictatorship in Brazil, and I was arrested three times. I felt in my flesh what it is to live under such a regime and experience deprivation of freedom. No one loses anyone, because no one owns anyone. That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it.
If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter. George Washington
(also about
Democracy, Liberty, Silence)

Freedom quotes by Umberto Eco

Also about
Religion, Equality, Civilization, Islam, Capitalism, Liberty, Creativity, Mediocrity, Individuality
We are a pluralist civilization because we allow mosques to be built in our countries, and we are not going to stop simply because Christian missionaries are thrown into prison in Kabul. If we did so, we, too, would become Taliban. Creativity can only be anarchic, capitalist, Darwinian. I have lost the freedom of not having an opinion.
To criticize a person for their race is manifestly irrational and ridiculous, but to criticize their religion, that is a right. That is a freedom. Rowan Atkinson
(also about
Religion, Sarcasm, Racism, Rights, Criticism)

Freedom quotes by Chuck Palahniuk

Also about
Loss, Materialism, Posession
It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything. I let go. Lost in oblivion. Dark and silent and complete. I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom. The things you own end up owning you. It's only after you lose everything that you're free to do anything.

Freedom quotes by Simone de Beauvoir

Also about
Life, People, Wishes, Philosophy, Feminism, Existantialism, Men, Work, Liberty, Choice
I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom. Regardless of the staggering dimensions of the world about us, the density of our ignorance, the risks of catastrophes to come, and our individual weakness within the immense collectivity, the fact remains that we are absolutely free today if we choose to will our existence in its finiteness, a finiteness which is open on the infinite.
And in fact, any man who has known real loves, real revolts, real desires, and real will knows quite well that he has no need of any outside guarantee to be sure of his goals; their certitude comes from his own drive. And without a doubt it is more comfortable to endure blind bondage than to work for one's liberation; the dead, too, are better suited to the earth than the living. A freedom which is interested only in denying freedom must be denied.
And it is not true that the recognition of the freedom of others limits my own freedom: to be free is not to have the power to do anything you like; it is to be able to surpass the given toward an open future; the existence of others as a freedom defines my situation and is even the condition of my own freedom.
I am oppressed if I am thrown into prison, but not if I am kept from throwing my neighbor into prison. To will oneself moral and to will oneself free are one and the same decision. Woman is shut up in a kitchen or in a boudoir, and astonishment is expressed that her horizon is limited. Her wings are clipped, and it is found deplorable that she cannot fly. Let but the future be opened to her, and she will no longer be compelled to linger in the present.

Freedom quotes by Olivier Martinez

Also about
Language, Celebrity, Fame
I don't feel restricted by the language: I feel more free. Otherwise, to be a movie star, it's a lot of compromise and also a lot of headaches. You can't do what you want. You become a prisoner of your fame. This happened to me in France and I don't want it.
Betrayed and wronged in everything,
I'll flee this bitter world where vice is king,
And seek some spot unpeopled and apart
Where I'll be free to have an honest heart. Moliere
(also about
Solitude, Disappointment, Asceticism, Misanthropy)

Freedom quotes by Muhammad Ali

Also about
Inspiration, Self-determination, Vocation, Choice, Racism, Slavery
I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want. Cassius Clay is a name that white people gave to my slave master. Now that I am free, that I don't belong anymore to anyone, that I'm not a slave anymore, I gave back their white name, and I chose a beautiful African one.
Free is the one who has lost everything which is worth living. Erich Maria Remarque
(also about
Loss)
I love the freedom of movement that my phone gives me. That has definitely transformed my life. Richard Branson
(also about
Technology)
Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. Janis Joplin

Freedom quotes by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Also about
Society, Authority, Worship, People, Anxiety
Nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than freedom. Man, so long as he remains free, has no more constant and agonizing anxiety than find as quickly as possible someone to worship.
To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves. Virginia Woolf
(also about
Self-control)
Let us do or die. Robert Burns
(also about
Lifesense, Action)
Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom. Oprah Winfrey
(also about
Education, Opportunity)

Freedom quotes by Thomas Paine

Also about
Liberty
To say that any people are not fit for freedom, is to make poverty their choice, and to say they had rather be loaded with taxes than not. Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.
Books can not be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can abolish memory... In this war, we know, books are weapons. And it is a part of your dedication always to make them weapons for man's freedom. Franklin D. Roosevelt
(also about
Books, Memory, Immortality)
We should not forget, no matter how we quantify it: 'Freedom is not free.' It is a painful lesson, but one from which we have learned in the past and one we should never forget. Paul Gillmor
(also about
Liberty, Sacrifice, Price)
It is impossible to enslave, mentally or socially, a bible-reading people. The principles of the bible are the groundwork of human freedom. Horace Greeley
(also about
Bible, Principles)

Freedom quotes by Charles Lindbergh

Also about
Nature, Civilization, Feelings
Real freedom lies in wildness, not in civilization. I owned the world that hour as I rode over it. Free of the earth, free of the mountains, free of the clouds, but how inseparably I was bound to them.
There is nothing in this world that I fear to say. No one nor anything can silence me. Dmitri Mendeleev
(also about
Bravery, Courage, Fear)
For many minutes, for many hours, for a bleak eternity, he lay awake, shivering, reduced to primitive terror, comprehending that he had won freedom, and wondering what he could do with anything so unknown and so embarrassing as freedom. Sinclair Lewis
(also about
Terror, Anxiety)
Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking... Leo Tolstoy
(also about
Prejudice, Independence, Thinking)

Freedom quotes by Roald Dahl

Also about
Writers, Life, Imagination, Fantasy, Escapism
A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it. There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you'll be free if you truly wish to be.
The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it - basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them. Charles Bukowski
(also about
Spirit, Soul)

Freedom quotes by Haruki Murakami

Also about
Trust, Youth, Time, Money, Opportunity, Finance
Young people these days don't trust anything at all. They want to be free. You know, if you are kind of rich, the best thing is that you don't have to think about money. The best thing you can buy with money is freedom, time. I don't know how much I earn a year. I have no idea. I don't know how much I pay in taxes.

Freedom quotes by Walt Whitman

Also about
Life, Independence, Individuality, Law, Liberty, Anarchism
Oh while I live, to be the ruler of life, not a slave, to meet life as a powerful conqueror, and nothing exterior to me will ever take command of me. The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws.
If we don't show anyone, we're free to write anything. Allen Ginsberg
(also about
Writing)

Freedom quotes by Franz Kafka

Also about
Existantialism, Responsibility
It is often safer to be in chains than to be free. I am free and that is why I am lost.
You call yourself a free spirit, a "wild thing," and you're terrified somebody's gonna stick you in a cage. Well baby, you're already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it's not bounded in the west by Tulip, Texas, or in the east by Somali-land. It's wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself. Truman Capote
(also about
Self, Introspection)

Freedom quotes by Jack Kerouac

Also about
Comfort, Sleep, Life, Happiness
Better to sleep in an uncomfortable bed free, than sleep in a comfortable bed unfree. Happy. Just in my swim shorts, barefooted, wild-haired, in the red fire dark, singing, swigging wine, spitting, jumping, running - that's the way to live. All alone and free in the soft sands of the beach...
Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say? Kurt Vonnegut
(also about
Principles, Pity, Oppression, Censorship)
The man of virtuous soul commands not, nor obeys. Percy Bysshe Shelley
(also about
Virtue)
It is a strange fact that freedom and equality, the two basic ideas of democracy, are to some extent contradictory. Logically considered, freedom and equality are mutually exclusive, just as society and the individual are mutually exclusive. Thomas Mann
(also about
Equality, Democracy, Society)
Isn't it fascinating that Nazis always manage to adopt the word freedom? Stieg Larsson
(also about
Nazism)
Heresy is another word for freedom of thought. Graham Greene
(also about
Words)
No body of knowledge needs an organizational policy. Organizational policy can only impede the advancement of knowledge. There is a basic incompatibility between any organization and freedom of thought. William S. Burroughs
(also about
Power, Control)
We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it. William Faulkner
(also about
Practice)
The sight of it made the earth seem unearthly. They were accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there - there you could look at a thing monstrous, beautiful, and free. Joseph Conrad
(also about
Beauty, Earth)
When I discover who I am, I'll be free Ralph Ellison
(also about
Self, Introspection)
Art requires neither complaisance nor politeness; nothing but faith, faith and freedom Gustave Flaubert
(also about
Art, Manners, Obedience, Faith, Servility)
Political liberty, the peace of a nation, and science itself are gifts for which Fate demands a heavy tax in blood. Honoré de Balzac
(also about
Science, Politics, Liberty, Sacrifice, Peace)

Freedom quotes by Maya Angelou

Also about
Love, Bravery, Age, Experience, Unity
In the flush of love's light, we dare be brave. And suddenly we see that love costs all we are, and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free. Loving someone liberates the lover as well as the beloved. And that kind of love comes with age The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.
I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will. Charlotte Bronte
(also about
Independence, Individuality)

Freedom quotes by Adolf Hitler

Also about
Motivation, Willpower, Weapons, Politics, Control, Human rights, Dictatorship
If freedom is short of weapons, we must compensate with willpower. The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions. In this way, the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed.

Freedom quotes by Pietro Aretino

Also about
Sex, Prejudice, Evil, Style, Individuality, Happiness, Independence
What evil is there in seeing a man possess a woman? Why, the beasts would be more free than we. I am a free man. I do not need to copy Petrarca or Boccaccio. My own genius is enough. Let others worry themselves about style, and so cease to be themselves. Without a master, without a model, without a guide, I go to work and earn my living, my well-being and my fame. With a goose-quill and a few sheets of paper, I mock myself of the universe. They say I am the son of a courtesan; it may be so, but I have the heart of a King. I live free, I enjoy myself, I can call myself happy.