Quotes about freedom
567 quotes from 261 people
The formula for prison is a lack of space counterbalanced by a surplus of time.
Joseph Brodsky1940–1996Less Than One: Selected Essays (1986), p. 28Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself.
Salman Rushdieborn 1947Address at Columbia University (1991)Civil courage, in fact, can grow only out of the free responsibility of free men.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer1906–1945“After Ten Years” (Christmas 1942), in Letters and Papers from PrisonI saw that my life was a vast glowing empty page and I could do anything I wanted.
Jack Kerouac1922–1969The Dharma Bums (1958)The truth is, all might be free if they valued freedom, and defended it as they ought.
Samuel Adams1722–1803Essay, written under the pseudonym “Candidus,” in The Boston Gazette (14 October 1771), later published in The Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams (1865) by William Vincent Wells, p. 425Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.
Thomas Sowellborn 1930Knowledge and Decisions (1980; 1996), Ch. 5: Political Trade-OffsIf there is one who’s not free, then I am not free. If there is one who suffers, then I suffer.
Ai Weiweiborn 1957Ai Weiwei Twitter feed: @AiWW (6:38 p.m. August 23, 2009)I have four children, and I want them to grow up in a country that has a working First Amendment.
Frank Zappa1940–1993Appearance on CBS Morning News (18 September 1985)—YouTube videoTo know how to free oneself is nothing; the arduous thing is to know what to do with one’s freedom.
André Gide1869–1951The Immoralist, Chapter 1 (1902)Freedom is for honest people. No man who is not himself honest can be free — he is in his own trap.
L. Ron Hubbard1911–1986“Honest People Have Rights, Too” (February 8, 1960).An open society is always in danger. It must constantly reaffirm its principles in order to survive.
George Sorosborn 1930Speech at the National Press Club (2004)
Germaine Greerborn 1939The Female Eunuch (1970), Introduction
Herbert Spencer1820–1903The Principles of Ethics (1897), Part IV: The Ethics of Social Life: Justice, Ch. 6, The Formula of Justice
B. R. Ambedkar1891–1956Speech delivered to the Bombay Presidency Mahar Conference (31 May 1936)
H. L. Mencken1880–1956“For the Defense Written for the Associated Press, for use in my obituary” (20 November 1940)