Freedom Quotes

500+ Sourced quotes

Maximilien Robespierre

Vladimir Lenin

Malcolm X

John F. Kennedy

Rabindranath Tagore

Henrik Ibsen

Bertrand Russell

When one makes a Revolution, one cannot mark time; one must always go forward – or go back. He who now talks about the 'freedom of the press' goes backward, and halts our headlong course towards Socialism.

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

John F. Kennedy

Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.

Pope John Paul II

You should never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.

Maximilien Robespierre

Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in the ancient Greek republics: freedom for the slave-owners.

Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure...

Bertrand Russell

You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.

Emancipation from the bondage of the soil is no freedom for the tree.

Rabindranath Tagore

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

John F. Kennedy

How does the Meadow-flower its bloom unfold?
Because the lovely little flower is free
Down to its root, and, in that freedom, bold.

William Wordsworth

I loved the feeling of freedom in running, the fresh air, the feeling that the only person I'm competing with is me.

I am here to speak on freedom of speech. It is a great topic, and I am going to make my speech as free as possible. But you know that this cannot be done, for when anyone announces that he is going to speak his mind freely, everyone is frightened. This shows that there is no such thing as true freedom of speech. No one can afford to let his neighbors know what he is thinking about them. Society can exist only on the basis that there is some amount of polished lying and that no one says exactly what he thinks.

In short, is not liberty the freedom of every person to make full use of his faculties, so long as he does not harm other persons while doing so?

Frédéric Bastiat

Time misspent in youth is sometimes all the freedom one ever has.

I believe we are on an irreversible trend towards more freedom and democracy, but that could change.

It is very appropriate that from this cradle of the Confederacy, this very heart of the great Anglo-Saxon Southland, that today we sound the drum for freedom as have our generations of forebears before us time and again down through history. Let us rise to the call for freedom-loving blood that is in us and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South. In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever.

It is not true that democracy will always safeguard freedom of conscience better than autocracy. Witness the most famous of all trials. Pilate was, from the standpoint of the Jews, certainly the representative of autocracy. Yet he tried to protect freedom. And he yielded to a democracy.

Joseph Schumpeter

Here was an action that touched on raw and sensitive nerves in a community that had already undergone the trauma of two military takeovers. There was an undoubted threat to public order, welfare and freedom. I suspect the psychological pressure associated with that crisis caused the first mental blackout I had ever suffered. It contributed to a deterioration in my health that later required the insertion of a heart pacemaker.

The mere thought of investment in human beings is offensive to some among us. Our values and beliefs inhibit us from looking upon human beings as capital goods, except in slavery, and this we abhor... To treat human beings as wealth that can be augmented by investment runs counter to deeply held values. It seems to reduce man once again to a mere material component, something akin to property. And for man to look upon himself as a capital good, even if it did not impair his freedom, may seem to debase him... (But) by investing in themselves, people can enlarge the range of choice available to them. It is one way free men can enhance their welfare.

Theodore Schultz

A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom.

The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.

William O. Douglas

We breathed the air of freedom without knowing the language or any person.

Whenever men take the law into their own hands, the loser is the law. And when the law loses, freedom languishes.

Robert F. Kennedy

None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free.