Freedom famous quotes
05-20-2025
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I take a grave view of the press. It is the weak slat under the bed of democracy
-- A. J. Liebling -
If there had been no troublemakers, no Dissenters, we should still be living in caves.
-- A. J. P. Taylor -
Justice is never given; it is exacted and the struggle must be continuous for freedom is never a final fact, but a continuing evolving process to higher and higher levels of human, social, economic, political and religious relationship.
-- A. Philip Randolph -
Yes there's a lady that stands in a harbor for what we believe. And there's a bell that still echoes the price that it cost to be free.
-- Aaron Tippin -
You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.
-- Abbie Hoffman -
Democracy is not something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, but it's something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles.
-- Abbie Hoffman -
Free speech means the right to shout 'theatre' in a crowded fire.
-- Abbie Hoffman -
Democracy is constructed like an edifice, freedom by freedom, right by right, until it reaches its snapping point.
-- Abdoulaye Wade -
The story of man is the history, first, of the acceptance and imposition of restraints necessary to permit communal life; and second, of the emancipation of the individual within that system of necessary restraints.
-- Abe Fortas -
We hail the return of the day of thy birth, Fair Columbia! washed by the waves of two oceans Where men from the farthest dominions of earth Rear altars to Freedom, and pay their devotions; Where our fathers in fight, nobly strove for the Right, Struck down their fierce foemen or put them to flight; Through the long lapse of ages, that so there might be An asylum for all in the Land of the Free.
-- Abraham Coles -
We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.
-- Abraham Lincoln -
This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.
-- Abraham Lincoln -
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
-- Abraham Lincoln -
Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.
-- Abraham Lincoln -
As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.
-- Abraham Lincoln -
Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought
-- Abraham Lincoln -
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
-- Abraham Lincoln -
And then, the negro being doomed, and damned, and forgotten, to everlasting bondage, is the white man quite certain that the tyrant demon will not turn upon him too?
-- Abraham Lincoln -
As a rule, dictatorships guarantee safe streets and terror of the doorbell. In democracy the streets may be unsafe after dark, but the most likely visitor in the early hours will be the milkman.
-- Adam Michnik -
My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.
-- Adlai E. Stevenson -
We have confused the free with the free and easy.
-- Adlai E. Stevenson -
Tell a lie loud enough and long enough and people will believe it.
-- Adolf Hitler -
Anyone who sees and paints a sky green and fields blue ought to be sterilized.
-- Adolf Hitler -
... how have I used rivers, how have I used wars to escape writing of the worst thing of all-- not the crimes of other, not even our own death, but the failure to want our freedom passionately enough so that blighted elms, sick rivers, massacres would seem mere emblems of that desecration of ourselves?
-- Adrienne Rich -
Silence is so much more productive of wisdom and clarity in thinking.
-- Ajahn Brahm -
The highest measure of democracy is neither the 'extent of freedom' nor the 'extent of equality', but rather the highest measure of participation.
-- Alain de Benoist -
Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear.
-- Alan Coren -
Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting.
-- Alan Dean Foster -
There is no 'slippery slope' toward loss of liberty, only a long staircase where each step down must first be tolerated by the American people and their leaders.
-- Alan K. Simpson -
The tree of research must be fed from time to time with the blood of bean-counters, for it is its natural manure.
-- Alan Kay -
Freedom is first of all a responsibility before the God from whom we come.
-- Alan Keyes -
To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.
-- Alan Watts -
As muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone, it could be argued that those who sit quietly and do nothing are making one of the best possible contributions to a world in turmoil.
-- Alan Watts -
The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
-- Albert Camus -
Without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself, and dies of all others.
-- Albert Camus -
Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.
-- Albert Camus -
But it takes a lot of money to live freely by the sea.
-- Albert Camus -
After all, I do not have so many ways of proving that I am free. We is always free at the expense of someone else. It is a bother,but it is normal.
-- Albert Camus -
... unhappiness is like marriage. We believe we chose it, but then it is choosing us. That is how it is, we can do nothing about it.
-- Albert Camus -
Thinking of the future, establishing aims for oneself, having preferences-all this presupposes a belief in freedom, even if one occasionally ascertains that one doesn't feel it.
-- Albert Camus -
Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.
-- Albert Einstein -
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
-- Albert Einstein -
Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.
-- Albert Einstein -
The splitting of the atom has changed everything except for how we think.
-- Albert Einstein -
People like you and I, though mortal of course like everyone else, do not grow old no matter how long we live.
-- Albert Einstein -
Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.
-- Albert Schweitzer -
Dictatorships are one-way streets. Democracy boasts two-way traffic.
-- Alberto Moravia -
A man may be a pessimistic determinist before lunch and an optimistic believer in the will's freedom after it.
-- Aldous Huxley -
Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.
-- Aldous Huxley -
... the greater part of the population is not very intelligent, dreads responsibility, and desires nothing better than to be told what to do. Provided the rulers do not interfere with its material comforts and its cherished beliefs, it is perfectly happy to let itself be ruled.
-- Aldous Huxley -
Remember, when you hear them beginning to say "freedom" look carefully-. see who it is they want you to butcher.
-- Alex Comfort -
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury.
-- Alexander Fraser Tytler -
[H]owever weak our country may be, I hope we shall never sacrifice our liberties.
-- Alexander Hamilton -
Man is either governed by his own laws - freedom - or the laws of another - slavery. Are you willing to become slaves? Will you give up your freedom, your life and your property without a single struggle? No man has a right to rule over his fellow creatures.
-- Alexander Hamilton -
The people is always expressive of the truth. The life of a people cannot be a lie.
-- Alexander Herzen -
Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville -
I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville -
The place where I had freedom most was when I painted. I was completely and utterly myself.
-- Alice Neel -
For in the end, freedom is a personal and lonely battle; and one faces down fears of today so that those of tomorrow might be engaged.
-- Alice Walker -
Where there is no freedom there can be no morality.
-- Alison Roberta Noble Neilans -
. . .nothing is more important than freedom. Nothing is more sacred than freedom. Nothing is greater than freedom. Nothing. . .can be permitted to stand in the way of freedom. Freedom. . .is all that makes men great. It is all men have to live for. Without freedom, what good is life?
-- Allen Drury -
One of our greatest assets is that all men aspire to be equal and free. This fact haunts the rulers of the Kremlin today for even they cannot change this law of nature and they know it. It is up to us, not only by example but by positive acts, to make the most of this driving force within mankind.
-- Allen Dulles -
Sometimes the lack of substantive freedoms relates directly to economic poverty
-- Amartya Sen -
Liberty: One of Imagination's most precious possessions.
-- Ambrose Bierce -
The road to freedom is full of thorns and fire, yet happy is he who follows it!
-- Aminu Kano -
There are many ways to be free. One of them is to transcend reality by imagination, as I try to do.
-- Anais Nin -
Reality doesn't impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls.
-- Anais Nin -
it was while helping others to be free that I gained my own freedom.
-- Anais Nin -
An artist discovers his genius the day he dares not to please.
-- Andre Malraux -
Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of four simple words: I do not know.
-- Andre Maurois -
Intellectual freedom is the only guarantee of a scientific - democratic approach to politics, economic development, and culture.
-- Andrei Sakharov -
We must all live so that our children do not have to pay for our deeds.
-- Andrejs Upits -
Tyranny and despotism can be exercised by many, more rigourously, more vigourously, and more severely, than by one.
-- Andrew Johnson -
[Freedom is] the societal condition that exists when every individual has 100% control of his own property.
-- Andrew Joseph Galambos -
Freedom is the by-product of economic surplus.
-- Aneurin Bevan -
We know the road to freedom has always been stalked by death.
-- Angela Davis -
The truth is I love being alive. And I love feeling free. So if I can't have those things then I feel like a caged animal and I'd rather not be in a cage. I'd rather be dead. And it's real simple. And I think it's not that uncommon.
-- Angelina Jolie -
There's something about death that is comforting. The thought that you could die tomorrow frees you to appreciate your life now.
-- Angelina Jolie -
That freedom that Picasso afforded himself, to be an artist in a huge number of ways, seems to be a huge psychological liberation.
-- Anish Kapoor -
After a burglary of all her most valued and treasured possessions, Winston Churchill's aging mother wrote: "That burglar relieved me of an obsession. For years, I've had to take houses big enough to hold all these bibelots. I am almost grateful to him."
-- Anne Sebba -
At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.
-- Anthony Kennedy -
The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.
-- Anthony Kennedy -
I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind.
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery -
In order to improve the condition of mankind all men must be given the certainty of security through the exchange of safeguards, the assurance of prosperity through an exchange of resources, the reality of freedom through the free movement of information, persons and ideas.
-- Antoine Pinay -
Once you permit those who are convinced of their own superior rightness to censor and silence and suppress those who hold contrary opinions, just at that moment the citadel has been surrendered.
-- Archibald MacLeish -
Freedom is the right to choose: the right to create for oneself the alternatives of choice. Without the possibility of choice and the exercise of choice a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing.
-- Archibald MacLeish -
He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.
-- Aristotle -
Democracy arose from men's thinking that if they are equal in any respect, they are equal absolutely.
-- Aristotle -
Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.
-- Aristotle -
If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost.
-- Aristotle
