Unlocking the Spirit of Freedom: A Collection of Inspirational Quotes

"Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err and even to sin."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"While we are contending for our own liberty, we should be very cautious not to violate the rights of conscience in others."

- George Washington

"The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear."

- Aung San Suu Kyi

"May freedom be seen, not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to please to do what is right."

- Peter Marshall

"You call that freedom? To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing."

- Ayn Rand

"It also is an occasion for remembering that in the truest sense freedom cannot be bestowed, it must be achieved; and that there must be constant vigilance if it is to be maintained."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Freedom lies in being bold."

- Robert Frost

"Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and of human dignity."

- Herbert Hoover

"Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else."

- Epictetus

"For everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labour in freedom."

- Albert Einstein

"Life without liberty is like a body without spirit."

- Kahlil Gibran

"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you."

- Charlotte Brontë

"We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it; our freedom must be buttressed by a homogeny equally and unchallengeably free, no matter what color they are, so that all the other inimical forces everywhere—systems political or religious or racial or national—will not just respect us because we practice freedom, they will fear us because we do."

- William Faulkner

"Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be."

- Daniel J. Boorstin

"For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."

- Nelson Mandela

"Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life."

- Bob Marley

"Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be."

- James Baldwin

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

- John F. Kennedy

"He who is brave is free."

- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

"True patriotism springs from a belief in the dignity of the individual, freedom and equality not only for Americans but for all people on earth."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"The secret of happiness is freedom, the secret of freedom is courage."

- Carrie Jones

"Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better."

- Albert Camus

"Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves."

- Abraham Lincoln

"From every mountainside, let freedom ring."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

"Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"I have tasted freedom. I will not give up that which I have tasted."

- Harvey Milk

"Nothing speaks so strongly of freedom as the fact that the descendants of those who went through great agony — which, thank Heaven, has passed away — have now full opportunities and can help celebrate my fifty years’ work for liberty."

- Susan B. Anthony

"If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are opportunities to change things, there’s a chance you may contribute to making a better world. The choice is yours."

- Noam Chomsky

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it."

- Thomas Paine

"All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope."

- Winston Churchill

"Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

"The function of freedom is to free someone else."

- Toni Morrison

"Power can be taken, but not given. The process of the taking is empowerment in itself."

- Gloria Steinem

"In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

"Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom."

- Albert Einstein

"And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in all the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual."

- John Steinbeck

"If you assume that there's no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are opportunities to change things, there's a chance for you to contribute to making a better world. That's your choice."

- Noam Chomsky

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."

- George Orwell

"I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind."

- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires."

- Bertrand Russell

"The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission."

- John F. Kennedy

"Every human has four endowments - self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom. The power to choose, to respond, to change."

- Stephen R. Covey

"Do not keep silent when your own ideas and values are being attacked. If a dictatorship ever comes to this country, it will be by the fault of those who keep silent. We are still free enough to speak. Do we have time? No one can tell."

- Ayn Rand

"Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation and freedom in all just pursuits."

- Thomas Jefferson

"I may not agree with what you say, but to your death I will defend your right to say it."

- Voltaire

"You have a choice. Live or die. Every breath is a choice. Every minute is a choice. To be or not to be."

- Chuck Palahniuk

"Freedom is independence of the compulsory will of another, and in so far as it tends to exist with the freedom of all according to a universal law, it is the one sole original inborn right belonging to every man in virtue of his humanity."

- Immanuel Kant

"Man is a being with free will; therefore, each man is potentially good or evil, and it's up to him and only him (through his reasoning mind) to decide which he wants to be."

- Ayn Rand

"Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"If we do not believe in freedom of speech for those we despise we do not believe in it at all."

- Noam Chomsky

"What do you suppose will satisfy the Soul, except to walk free, and own no superior?"

- Alice Walker

"We must not believe the many, who say that only free people ought to be educated, but we should rather believe the philosophers who say that only the educated are free."

- Epictetus

"I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom."

- Bob Dylan

"The secret of Happiness is Freedom, and the secret of Freedom, Courage."

- Thucydides

"Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Freedom is the oxygen of the soul."

- Moshe Dayan

"Man is free at the moment he wishes to be."

- Voltaire

"For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail?"

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Mankind is at its best when it is most free. This will be clear if we grasp the principle of liberty. We must recall that the basic principle of liberty is freedom of choice, which saying many have on their lips but few in their minds."

- Dante Alighieri

"Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that all was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men for they may act their dream with open eyes and make it possible."

- T.E. Lawrence

"Liberty, taking the word in its concrete sense, consists in the ability to choose."

- Simone Weil

"Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves."

- Friedrich Nietzsche

"While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions."

- Stephen R. Covey

"Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility."

- Sigmund Freud

"No person is your friend (or kin) who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow."

- Amelia Earhart

"To know how to free oneself is nothing; the arduous thing is to know what to do with one's freedom."

- Andre Gide

"You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once."

- Robert A. Heinlein

"People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid."

- Soren Aabye Kierkegaard

"The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."

- Plato

"Freedom is not a reward or a decoration that is celebrated with champagne...Oh no! It's a...long distance race, quite solitary and very exhausting."

- Albert Camus

"As soon as we left the ground, I knew I myself had to fly."

- John Lennon

"In the end, they wanted security more than they wanted freedom."

- Edward Gibbon

"Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind."

"Tame birds sing of freedom. Wild birds fly."