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Quotes about freedom

567 quotes from 261 people

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We said there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.
Mark Twain1835–1910Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Chapter XVIIIIn context
When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets.
James Joyce1882–1941A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Chapter V (2 of 3)In context
- Patriotism
- Religion
I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use⁠—silence, exile and cunning.
James Joyce1882–1941A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Chapter V (3 of 3)In context
- Art
- Religion
Whipping and abuse are like laudanum; you have to double the dose as the sensibilities decline.
Harriet Beecher Stowe1811–1896Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), Volume II, Chapter XXIn context
- Slavery
The number of those men who know how to use wholly irresponsible power humanely and generously is small. Everybody knows this, and the slave knows it best of all
Harriet Beecher Stowe1811–1896Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), Volume II, Chapter XXIXIn context
- Power
- Slavery
There is one kind of prison where the man is behind bars, and everything that he desires is outside; and there is another kind where the things are behind the bars, and the man is outside.
Upton Sinclair1878–1968The Jungle (1906), Chapter XXVIIIn context
- Money
The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth.
Kate Chopin1850–1904The Awakening (1899), Chapter XXVIIIn context
- Courage
Solitude is independence. It had been my wish and with the years I had attained it. It was cold.
Hermann Hesse1877–1962Steppenwolf (1927), Harry Haller’s RecordsIn context
Verily, he who possesseth little is so much the less possessed: blessed be moderate poverty!
Friedrich Nietzsche1844–1900Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883–1885), First Part, XIIn context
- Money
As you from crimes would pardon’d be,
Let your indulgence set me free.
William Shakespeare1564–1616The Tempest (c. 1611), EpilogueIn context
- Forgiveness
Independence? That’s middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950Pygmalion (1912), Act V, spoken by HigginsIn context
- Friendship
I heartily accept the motto,⁠—“That government is best which governs least;” and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe⁠—“That government is best which governs not at all;” and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Civil Disobedience (1849)In context
- Government
There will never be a really free and enlightened State, until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Civil Disobedience (1849)In context
- Government
I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness.
Frederick Douglass1817–1895Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), Chapter IIIn context
- Music
- Slavery
The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness. Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever. It was heard in every sound, and seen in every thing.
Frederick Douglass1817–1895Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), Chapter VIIIn context
- Slavery