Freedom Quotes

"Much literary criticism comes from people for whom extreme specialization is a cover for either grave cerebral inadequacy or terminal laziness, the latter being a much cherished aspect of academic freedom"

John Kenneth Galbraith, Economist

"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, Writer

"It is very easy to make clear what you want a film to say, but I did not wish to engage in overt propaganda, even for the right cause. I wanted to create an experience through the films, something where people could have the freedom of their own response to them"

Godfrey Reggio, Director

"Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past"

Theodore Roosevelt, President

"Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty"

Frank Herbert, Writer

"Wealth is a tool of freedom, but the pursuit of wealth is the way to slavery"

Frank Herbert, Writer

"Negation is the mind's first freedom, yet a negative habit is fruitful only so long as we exert ourselves to overcome it, adapt it to our needs; once acquired it can imprison us"

Emile M. Cioran, Philosopher

"For you who no longer posses it, freedom is everything, for us who do, it is merely an illusion"

Emile M. Cioran, Philosopher

"I had crossed the line. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land"

Harriet Tubman, Activist

"The success I have achieved in bodybuilding, motion pictures, and business would not have been possible without the generosity of the American people and the freedom here to pursue your dreams"

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Actor

"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"

Jim Morrison, Musician

"Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free"

Jim Morrison, Musician

"God tolerates even our stammering, and pardons our ignorance whenever something inadvertently escapes us - as, indeed, without this mercy there would be no freedom to pray"

John Calvin, Theologian

"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"

Jim Morrison, Musician

"If we wish to free ourselves from enslavement, we must choose freedom and the responsibility this entails"

Leo Buscaglia, Author

"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, Author

"Freedom is not an ideal, it is not even a protection, if it means nothing more than freedom to stagnate, to live without dreams, to have no greater aim than a second car and another television set"

Adlai Stevenson, Politician

"In our excessive involvement in the affairs of other countries, we are not only living off our assets and denying our own people the proper enjoyment of their resources; we are also denying the world the example of a free society enjoying its freedom to the fullest"

J. William Fulbright, Politician

"President Bush in his inaugural address talked about bringing freedom to countries that don't have it. He didn't specify how"

Barbara Boxer, Politician

"Freedom is the only law which genius knows"

James Russell Lowell, Poet

"Pleasure and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends"

John Stuart Mill, Philosopher

"How does the Meadow flower its bloom unfold? Because the lovely little flower is free down to its root, and in that freedom bold"

William Wordsworth, Poet

"Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth; when perfect sincerity is expected, perfect freedom must be allowed; nor has anyone who is apt to be angry when he hears the truth any cause to wonder that he does not hear it"

Tacitus, Historian

"Painters have always needed a sort of veil upon which they can focus their attention. It's as though the more fully the consciousness is absorbed, the greater the freedom of the spirit behind"

Bridget Riley, Artist

"I try to give the media as many confusing images as I can to retain my freedom. What's real is for my children and the people I live with"

Sting, Musician

"One of the rewards of success is freedom, the ability to do whatever you like"

Sting, Musician

"One of the things that bothers me most is the growing belief in the country that security is more important than freedom. It ain't"

Lyn Nofziger

"Freedom is our most precious commodity and if we are not eternally vigilant, government will take it all away. Individual freedom demands individual responsibility"

Lyn Nofziger

"I think the American people have become more reliant upon government and less reliant upon themselves and that they now tend to put security ahead of freedom, but I think freedom is the most important aspect of our lives"

Lyn Nofziger

"True freedom is where an individual's thoughts and actions are in alignment with that which is true, correct, and of honor - no matter the personal price"

Bryant H. McGill, Author

"Freedom is not a gift nor does it simply exist for us to have, but rather it is a sacred duty, and its blessed yield of hope is born from none other than the blood of the innocent"

Bryant H. McGill, Author

"Art requires neither complaisance nor politeness; nothing but faith, faith and freedom"

Gustave Flaubert, Novelist

"We are willing enough to praise freedom when she is safely tucked away in the past and cannot be a nuisance. In the present, amidst dangers whose outcome we cannot foresee, we get nervous about her, and admit censorship"

E. M. Forster, Novelist

"Only people who have been allowed to practise freedom can have the grown-up look in their eyes"

E. M. Forster, Novelist

"My desire to curtail undue freedom of speech extends only to such public areas as restaurants, airports, streets, hotel lobbies, parks, and department stores. Verbal exchanges between consenting adults in private are as of little interest to me as they probably are to them"

Fran Lebowitz, Journalist

"No, my work does not reflect my sexual preferences, it reflects the fact that I feel total freedom as an artist"

Patti Smith, Musician

"My father had retained an emotional affection for the ceremonial of his parental home, without allowing it to influence his intellectual freedom"

Franz Boas, Scientist

"It is capitalist America that produced the modern independent woman. Never in history have women had more freedom of choice in regard to dress, behavior, career, and sexual orientation"

Camille Paglia, Author

"Pornography is human imagination in tense theatrical action; its violations are a protest against the violations of our freedom by nature"

Camille Paglia, Author

"The more decisions that you are forced to make alone, the more you are aware of your freedom to choose"

Thornton Wilder, Writer

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