Talk:Freedom

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The quotes about Freedom are also about Liberty, and the quotes about liberty are also about freedom. I think these articles should be merged. Binky The WonderSkull 18:44, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

The terms for Liberty and Freedom (political) or Freedom (philosophy) have often been used and abused in various ways. There are usually distinctions that are made between Freedom and Liberty, though often the meanings of different words and the differing ideas represented merge and mingle. The pages should probably remain separate for convenience in looking up words, as pointed out in Talk:Liberty. I will remove the merge tags and do a bit of cleanup on the articles. ~ V for Victory 04:44, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Unsourced

  • In a dictatorship one is more often sitting in the dock than standing up for rights.
  • The basis of a democratic state is liberty.
  • You are in control of your life. Don't ever forget that. You are what you are because of the conscious and subconscious choices you have made.
  • They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
  • It is better to die with a sword in your hands, than a chain over your wings.
  • If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other.
  • Freedom is participation in power
  • We hold in our hands, the most precious gift of all: Freedom. The freedom to express our art. Our love. The freedom to be who we want to be. We are not going to give that freedom away and no one shall take it from us!
  • Freedom is not the power to do what one wants. Freedom is the power to do what is right.
  • The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.
  • Patterning your life around other's opinions is nothing more than slavery.
  • While the State exists, there can be no freedom. When there is freedom there will be no State.
  • Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it.
  • You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.
  • It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.
  • Self-reliance is the only road to true freedom, and being one's own person is its ultimate reward.
  • To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.
  • I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
  • Man is free at the moment he wishes to be
  • The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.
  • Before you seek one’s freedom, you must assume that any individual, in and of itself, has that quality called freedom, meaning that he can act according to his own free choice.
  • That which you call your soul or spirit is your consciousness, and that which you call 'free will' is your mind's freedom to think or not, the only will you have, your only freedom, the choice that controls all the choices you make and determines your life and your character.
  • Intellectual freedom cannot exist without political freedom; political freedom cannot exist without economic freedom; a free mind and a free market are corollaries.
  • America was neither founded, nor freed, by the well-behaved.
    • Semmes Luckett

[edit] A-M

  • A political man can have as his aim the realization of freedom, but he has no means to realize it other than through violence.
  • 'Eternal Vigilence is the Price of Liberty' used to mean we watched the government — not the other way around.
    • Bill Stewart
  • Freedom is free of the need to be free.
  • Free your mind and your ass will follow. The kingdom of heaven is within.
  • No Dictator, No invader, can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe, than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand. -G'kar (fictional character, Babylon 5)
  • Free at last, free at last, Gawd Almighty, I'm free at last
    • Unknown
  • Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery.
  • Freedom? Oh, freedom, well, that's just some people talking, your prison is walking through this world all alone.
  • Ελευθερία ή θάνατος (freedom or death)
  • Freedom - Responsibility = Anarchy, Responsibility - Freedom = Slavery, Freedom + Responsibility = Liberty
  • Hydames, you have not equally weighed each side in your advice to us. For you have tried the one which you advise, the other has remained untried by you. You know what it means to be a slave, but you have never yet tried freedom, to know whether it is sweet or not. For if you had tried it, you would have advised us to fight for it, not merely with spears, but also with axes.
    • Spartans Sperthia and Bulis to Persian satrap Hydarnes
  • Easy isn’t for the free. Easy is for the willfully confined. So how easy do you want it?
  • If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money it values more, it will lose that, too.
  • Freedom is something that the human dream feeds, that none can explain and none cannot understand

[edit] N — Z

  • Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves.
  • Свобода или смърт (freedom or death)
  • Once a man has tasted freedom he will never be content to be a slave.
  • The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre.
  • This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.
  • Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
  • Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its many waters.
  • Value your freedom or you will lose it, teaches history. Don't bother us with politics, respond those who don't want to learn.
  • What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist
  • Without freedom, life is not worth living. --(Manuel Belgrano)
  • With the first link, a chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.
    • Jean Luc Picard (fictional character, Star Trek: The Next Generation)
  • 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 from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms--to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
  • You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
  • There is no worse cage for a bored man than freedom.
  • How can you ever be free without being given the choices to do what you please? Why should you be condemned from what you believe because of another person's grasp on you?

[edit] Anonymous

  • Freedom is like air, you breathe it in and never think of it until it runs out.
  • To be alone is to be free.
  • There is no peace, there is no freedom
  • A Free man is one who has enslaved himself to his inner ideals.
  • Full freedom is chaos, full order is slavery.
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