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Quotes about freedom

567 quotes from 261 people

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I think that the sweetest freedom for a man on earth consists in being able to live, if he likes, without having the need to work.
Salvador Dalí1904–1989Diary of a Genius (1964), p. 79
- Work
The Constitution is a delusion and a snare if the weakest and humblest man in the land cannot be defended in his right to speak and his right to think as much as the strongest in the land.
Clarence Darrow1857–1938Arguments in the Case of the Communist Labor Party (1920), p.17
You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man’s freedom. You can only be free if I am free.
Clarence Darrow1857–1938Arguments in the Case of the Communist Labor Party (1920), p. 39
- Liberty
Aristocrats need not be rich, but they must be free, and in the modern world freedom grows rarer the more we prate about it.
Robertson Davies1913–1995“Osbert Sitwell” (1945)
I may not be able to say all I think; but I am not going to say anything that I do not think. I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets.
Eugene V. Debs1855–1926The Canton, Ohio Speech, Anti-War Speech (1918)
- Courage
There has never been a free people, a civilized nation, a real republic on this earth.
Eugene V. Debs1855–1926The Socialist Party and the Working Class (1904)
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
Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death;⁠—the last, much the easiest to bestow, O Guillotine!
Charles Dickens1812–1870A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Book the Third: The Track of a Storm, Chapter VIn context
- Liberty
- Life & Death
I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out.
Charles Dickens1812–1870A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Book the Third: The Track of a Storm, Chapter XVIn context
- Hope
‘T is the majority
In this, as all, prevails.
Assent, and you are sane;
Demur,⁠—you’re straightway dangerous,
And handled with a chain.
Emily Dickinson1830–1886Much Madness is divinest Sense (1890)In context
- Thinking
Once a man has tasted freedom he will never be content to be a slave.
Walt Disney1901–1966Radio address “Our American Culture” broadcast during an intermission of the Metropolitan Opera. (1 March 1941)
Any time someone puts a lock on something you own against your wishes, and doesn’t give you the key, they’re not doing it for your benefit.
Cory Doctorowborn 1971“Digital Distribution and the Whip Hand: Don’t Get iTunesed with your eBooks”, O’Reilly (11 February 2009)
- Technology
No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.
Frederick Douglass1817–1895Speech at Civil Rights Mass Meeting, Washington, D.C. (22 October 1883).
- Slavery
Where there is seeming contentment with slavery, there is certain treachery to freedom.
Frederick Douglass1817–1895The Heroic Slave (1853), Madison Washington
- Slavery
To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.
Frederick Douglass1817–1895A Plea For Free Speech in Boston (10 December 1860), as contained in Words That Changed America, Alex Barnett, Rowman & Littlefield (reprint, 2006), p. 156
- Talking