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Quotes about freedom

567 quotes from 261 people

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In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression — everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way — everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want … everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear … anywhere in the world.
Franklin D. Roosevelt1882–1945State of the Union Address (6 January 1941)
- Liberty
All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words “Ich bin ein Berliner.”
John F. Kennedy1917–1963Ich Bin Ein Berliner (1963)
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
Martin Luther King Jr.1929–1968“I Have a Dream”, March on Washington (28 August 1963)
- Race
You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.
Ronald Reagan1911–2004“A Time for Choosing”, televised address for Barry Goldwater (27 October 1964)
- America
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826The Declaration of Independence (1776), Declaration of Independence (4 July 1776), which he draftedIn context
- America
- Liberty
I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for. But, my lord, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
Nelson Mandela1918–2013Statement from the dock at the Rivonia Trial, Pretoria (20 April 1964)
- Courage
- Race
Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world. Let freedom reign!
Nelson Mandela1918–2013Inaugural address, Pretoria (10 May 1994)
If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.
Frederick Douglass1817–1895West India Emancipation (If There Is No Struggle, There Is No Progress) (1857)
- Change
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
Frederick Douglass1817–1895West India Emancipation (If There Is No Struggle, There Is No Progress) (1857)
- Power
At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.
Jawaharlal Nehru1889–1964“A Tryst with Destiny”, speech to the Constituent Assembly, New Delhi (14 August 1947)
- History
There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part! And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop!
Mario Savio1942–1996Speech at Sproul Hall, University of California, Berkeley (2 December 1964)
- Responsibility
Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind then that I was not one bit better than the meanest on Earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; and while there is a criminal element, I am of it; and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
Eugene V. Debs1855–1926Statement to the Court (1918)
- Justice
We declare our right on this earth to be a man, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being, in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.
Malcolm X1925–1965Speech at the founding rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, New York (28 June 1964)
- Race
For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
George Washington1732–1799Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island (18 August 1790)
- Government
- Religion
Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
Frederick Douglass1817–1895West India Emancipation (If There Is No Struggle, There Is No Progress) (1857)
- Justice
- Power