The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 176 (1955)
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Quotations about:
freedom
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Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others.
William Allen White (1868-1944) American writer and journalist
“A Free Press in a Machine Age,” speech, U. of Pennsylvania (2 May 1938)
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
[Niemand ist mehr Sklave als der sich für frei hält ohne es zu sein.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Elective Affinities [Die Wahlverwandtschaften], Part 2, ch. 5, “From Ottilie’s Journal [Aus Ottiliens Tagebuche]” (1809) [tr. Wenckstern (1853)]
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(Source (German)). Alternate translation:
No one is more a slave than the man who thinks himself free while he is not.
[Niles ed. (1872)]
No one is more a slave than he who thinks he is free without being so.
[tr. Hollingdale (1971)]
It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions makes it impossible to earn a living.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Free Thought and Official Propaganda,” lecture, South Place Institute, London (1922-03-24)
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The first measure of a free society is NOT that its government performs the will of the majority. That’s what we had in 1930s Germany, 1950s Georgia, and 1980s Iran. The FIRST measure of a free society is that its government protects the just freedoms of its minorities AGAINST the preferences, will and caprice of the majority.
Who would be free themselves must strike the blow.
George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto 2, st. 76 (1818)
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There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.
P. J. O'Rourke (b. 1947) American humorist, editor
“The Liberty Manifesto,” speech, Cato Institute, Washington, DC (1993-05-06)
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Reprinted in Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut (1995).
Only free men can negotiate; prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter to Archibald Stuart (23 Dec 1791)
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Jefferson originally wrote "dangers" instead of "inconveniencies."
I wish men to be free
As much from mobs as kings — from you as me.
I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.
Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist
“The Spirit of Liberty,” speech, “I Am an American Day,” New York (1941-05-21)
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We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
“Remarks on the 20th Anniversary of the Voice of America” (speech), Washington, DC (26 Feb 1962)
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We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
Viktor Frankl (1905-1997) German-American psychologist, writer
Man’s Search for Meaning, Part 1 (1959)
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What is so advantageous to the people as liberty? which is sought out and preferred to everything, not only by men, but even by the beasts.
[Quid tam populare quam libertas? Quam non solum ab hominibus verum etiam a bestiis expeti atque omnibus rebus anteponi videtis.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
De Lege Agraria [On the Agrarian Law], Oration 2 “Contra Rullum,” sec. 9 (63 BC) [tr. Yonge (1856)]
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(Source (Latin)). Alternate translation:
What is so beneficial to the people as liberty, which we see not only to be greedily sought after by men, but also by beasts, and to be preferred to all things.
[Source (1884)]
The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence.
Many politicians are in the habit of laying down as self-evident the proposition that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. This maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim! If men are to wait for liberty till they become wise and good in slavery, they may indeed wait forever.
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
“John Milton,” Edinburgh Review (Aug 1825)
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The Framers knew, better perhaps than we do today, the risks they were taking. They knew that free speech might be the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the deadliest enemy of tyranny. With this knowledge they still believed that the ultimate happiness and security of a nation lies in its ability to explore, to change, to grow and ceaselessly to adapt itself to new knowledge born of inquiry free from any kind of governmental control over the mind and spirit of man. Loyalty comes from love of good government, not fear of a bad one.
Hugo Black (1886-1971) American politician and jurist, US Supreme Court Justice (1937-71)
James Madison Lecture, NYU School of Law (1960-02-17)
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The inaugural Madison lecture. Reprinted as "The Bill of Rights," NYU Law Review, Vol. 35 (Apr 1960).
Freedom is not free.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Speech, Institute on Nonviolence and Social Change, Bethel Baptist Church (3 Dec 1959)
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Be convinced that to be happy means to be free and that to be free means to be brave.
[T]he price of freedom of religion or of speech or of the press is that we must put up with, and even pay for, a good deal of rubbish.
Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941-54), lawyer, jurist, politician
United States v. Ballard, 322 U.S. 78 (1944) [dissent]
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If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a State has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his own house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.
This clearly shows that we learn better in a free spirit of curiosity than under fear and compulsion.
[Hinc satis elucet maiorem habere vim ad discenda ista liberam curiositatem quam meticulosam necessitatem.]
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
Confessions, Book 1, ch. 14 / ¶ 23 (1.14.23) (c. AD 398) [tr. Pine-Coffin (1961)]
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(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:
No doubt, then, that a free curiosity has more force in our learning these things, than a frightful enforcement.
[tr. Pusey (1838)]
Hereby it appears that free curiosity has more force in our learning of tongues than frightful enforcement.
[ed. Shedd (1860)]
From this it is sufficiently clear that a free curiosity hath more influence in our learning these things than a necessity full of fear.
[tr. Pilkington (1876)]
Whence it is sufficiently clear, that the free desire of knowledge has more power to make us learn these things than the urgency of fear.
[tr. Hutchings (1890)]
It is plain then that the freedom of curiosity is a far better instructor in language than the compulsion of fear.
[tr. Bigg (1897)]
All this goes to prove that free curiosity is of more value in learning than harsh discipline.
[tr. Sheed (1943)]
From this it is sufficiently clear that a free curiosity is more effective in learning than a discipline based on fear.
[tr. Outler (1955)]
Hence it is plain enough that for learning a language free interest has greater power than frightening constraint.
[tr. Ryan (1960)]
It is clear enough from this that free curiosity is a more powerful aid to the learning of languages than a forced discipline.
[tr. Warner (1963)]
By this it is clear that a free curiosity is a greater force in learning than a fear-ridden compulsion.
[tr. Blaiklock (1983)]