No one is truly free, they are a slave to wealth, fortune, the law, or other people restraining them from acting according to their will.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.
—Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964) American Military Leader
What is freedom? Freedom is the right to choose: the right to create for oneself the alternatives of choice.
—Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982) American Poet, Dramatist
There should be a sympathy with freedom, a desire to give it scope, founded not upon visionary ideas, but upon the long experience of many generations within the shores of this happy isle, that in freedom you lay the firmest foundations both of loyalty and order.
—William Ewart Gladstone (1809–98) English Liberal Statesman, Prime Minister
Freedom begins as we become conscious of it.
—Vernon Howard (1918–92) American Spiritual Teacher, Philosopher
Freedom exists only with power.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom.
—Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86) French Philosopher, Writer, Feminist
We are all of us the worse for too much liberty.
—Terence (c.195–159 BCE) Roman Comic Dramatist
Real freedom isn’t subject to how others estimate our value; it is in realizing that none are free who find their sense of worth wondering how others measure their lives.
—Guy Finley
Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.
—George Washington (1732–99) American Head of State, Military Leader
He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.
—Augustine of Hippo (354–430) Roman-African Christian Philosopher
Freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of person under protection of habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected, these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Will power is only the tensile strength of one’s own disposition. One cannot increase it by a single ounce.
—Cesare Pavese (1908–50) Italian Novelist, Poet, Critic, Translator
The supreme belief of our society is the dignity and freedom of the individual. To the respect of that dignity, to the defense of that freedom, all effort is pledged.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free.
—Charles Evans Hughes (1862–1948) American Elected Rep, Judge, Politician, Lawyer, Professor
Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you’re a man, you take it.
—Malcolm X (1925–65) American Civil Rights Leader
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
Responsibility and self-discipline give you the freedom to be more spontaneous because you won’t risk abusing your freedom.
—Steve Pavlina (b.1971) American Motivational Speaker
The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
Freedom is the only law which genius knows.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
There are two good things in life—freedom of thought and freedom of action.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
Liberty is a different kind of pain from prison.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-born British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
I believe in a religion that believes in freedom. Any time I have to accept a religion that won’t let me fight a battle for my people, I say to hell with that religion.
—Malcolm X (1925–65) American Civil Rights Leader
Liberty is one of the most precious gifts which heaven has bestowed on man; with it we cannot compare the treasures which the earth contains or the sea conceals; for liberty, as for honor, we can and ought to risk our lives; and, on for the other hand, captivity is the greatest evil that can befall man.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
—John Adams (1735–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.
—William Faulkner (1897–1962) American Novelist
Men are free when they are in a living homeland, not when they are straying and breaking away. Men are free when they are obeying some deep, inward voice of religious belief. Obeying from within. Men are free when they belong to a living, organic, believing community, active in fulfilling some unfulfilled, perhaps unrealized purpose. Not when they are escaping to some wild west. The most unfree souls go west, and shout of freedom. Men are freest when they are most unconscious of freedom. The shout is a rattling of chains, always was.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
We have confused the free with the free and easy.
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–65) American Diplomat, Politician, Orator
Freedom unexercised may become freedom forfeited.
—Margaret Chase Smith (1897–1995) American Politician
In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued – they may be essential to survival.
—Noam Chomsky (b.1928) American Linguist, Social Critic
Liberty doesn’t work as well in practice as it does in speeches.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
There are no galley-slaves in the royal vessel of divine love—every man works his oar voluntarily!
—Francis de Sales (1567–1622) French Catholic Saint
Freedom to be your best is nothing unless you’re willing to do your best.
—Colin Powell (b.1937) American Military Leader
No one can be free who believes freedom is coming.
—Guy Finley
The only freedom worth possessing is that which gives enlargement to a people’s energy, intellect, and virtues. The savage makes his boast of freedom. But what is its worth? He is, indeed, free from what he calls the yoke of civil institutions. But other and worse chains bind him. The very privation of civil government is in effect a chain; for, by withholding protection from property it virtually shackles the arm of industry, and forbids exertion for the melioration of his lot. Progress, the growth of intelligence and power, is the end and boon of liberty; and, without this, a people may have the name, but want the substance and spirit of freedom.
—William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) American Unitarian Theologian, Poet
Freedom is not being a slave to any circumstance, to any constraint, to any chance; it means compelling Fortune to enter the lists on equal terms.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
It is for each of us freely to choose whom we shall serve, and find in that obedience our freedom.
—M. C. Richards (1916–99) American Poet, Potter, Writer
The most intellectual of men are moved quite as much by the circumstances which they are used to as by their own will. The active voluntary part of a man is very small, and if it were not economized by a sleepy kind of habit, its results would be null.
—Walter Bagehot (1826–77) English Economist, Journalist
The East knew and to the present day knows only that One is Free; the Greek and the Roman world, that some are free; the German World knows that All are free. The first political form therefore which we observe in History, is Despotism, the second Democracy and Aristocracy, the third, Monarchy.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) German Philosopher
The clash of ideas is the sound of freedom.
—Lady Bird Johnson (1912–2007) First Lady of the United States, Conservationist
The bigger the information media, the less courage and freedom they allow. Bigness means weakness.
—Eric Sevareid (1912–92) American Journalist, Author
Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people, by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations.
—James Madison (1751–1836) American Founding Father, Statesman, President
Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be.
—James Baldwin (1924–87) American Novelist, Social Critic
It requires greater courage to preserve inner freedom, to move on in one’s inward journey into new realms, than to stand defiantly for outer freedom. It is often easier to play the martyr, as it is to be rash in battle.
—Rollo May (1909–94) American Philosopher
Freedom lies in being bold.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
There is no truer and more abiding happiness than the knowledge that one is free to go on doing, day by day, the best work one can do, in the kind one likes best, and that this work is absorbed by a steady market and thus supports one’s own life. Perfect freedom is reserved for the man who lives by his own work and in that work does what he wants to do.
—R. G. Collingwood (1889–1943) English Philosopher, Historian, Archaeologist
A major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.
—Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American Economist