Quotes about freedom
567 quotes from 261 people
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Letter to Edward Carrington, Paris (27 May 1788)I conceive of God, in fact, as a means of liberation and not a means to control others.
James Baldwin1924–1987“In Search of a Majority” address delivered at Kalamazoo College (February 1960)Liberty is the right of every man to be honest, to think and to speak without hypocrisy.
José Martí1853–1895Martí: Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)License they mean when they cry, Liberty!
For who loves that must first be wise and good.
John Milton1608–1674On the Detraction which followed upon my writing certain Treatises, reported in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)There is no substitute for a militant freedom. The only alternative is submission and slavery.
Calvin Coolidge1872–1933The Price of Freedom: Speeches and Addresses, Coolidge, The Minerva Group (2001), p. 159Without slavery the rebellion could never have existed; without slavery it could not continue.
It is the rare fortune of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks.
Tacitus55–120Histories (100-110), Book I, 1You can’t separate peace from freedom, because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.
Malcolm X1925–1965Speech in New York City (7 January 1965)Because they didn’t know better, they called it “civilization,” when it was part of their slavery.
Tacitus55–120Agricola (98), Book 1, paragraph 21
Mark Twain1835–1910“Consistency” (5 December 1887)
Frederick Douglass1817–1895The Heroic Slave (1853), Madison Washington- Malcolm X1925–1965Malcolm X Speaks (1965), p. 111
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Sceptical Essays (1928), Ch. 12: Free Thought and Official Propaganda- Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Eighth State of the Union Address (8 November 1808)
Alexis de Tocqueville1805–1859Democracy in America, Volume I (1835), Chapter XV.
