100 Quotes About Liberty

Freedom is something that nearly all of us yearn for. Even if our parents didn’t frequently set limits for us, most of us have experienced periods of rebellion during our childhoods. And as adults, we have the freedom to do many things that we could not do as children. We can travel, study, work, date, and even vote! But freedom comes with responsibilities, too Read more

We can’t just let our freedoms run wild. Anyone who thinks they are free often finds that it is costing them far more than what they realize. These quotes about freedom are here to remind you that you are free to do whatever you want, but it’s up to you to decide what is right for you!

If you truly want to be respected by people you...
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If you truly want to be respected by people you love, you must prove to them that you can survive without them. Michael Bassey Johnson
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Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life. Bob Marley
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What are you thinking?" he asks. I know Gage hates it when I cry - he is completely undone by the sight of tears - so I blink hard against the sting. "I'm thinking how thankful I am for everything, " I say, "even the bad stuff. Every sleepless night, every second of being lonely, every time the car broke down, every wad of gum on my shoe, every late bill and losing lottery ticket and bruise and broken dish and piece of burnt toast." His voice is soft. "Why, darlin'?"" Because it all led me here to you. Lisa Kleypas
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous...
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Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty. Thomas Jefferson
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A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government Unknown
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People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take. Emma Goldman
The end may justify the means as long as there...
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The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end. Leon Trotsky
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Socrates: Have you noticed on our journey how often the citizens of this new land remind each other it is a free country? Plato: I have, and think it odd they do this. Socrates: How so, Plato?Plato: It is like reminding a baker he is a baker, or a sculptor he is asculptor. Socrates: You mean to say if someone is convinced of their trade, they haveno need to be reminded. Plato: That is correct. Socrates: I agree. If these citizens were convinced of their freedom, they would not need reminders. E.a. Bucchianeri
It is easy to be conspicuously 'compassionate' if others are...
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It is easy to be conspicuously 'compassionate' if others are being forced to pay the cost. Murray N. Rothbard
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SCREW CHILDREN! That's the mantra of the world. Instead of burying them with a national debt, shoving them in shitty schools, drugging them if they don't comply, hitting them, yelling at them, indoctrinating them with religion and statism and patriotism and military worship, what if we just did what was right for them? The whole world is built on "screw children", and if we changed that, this would be an alien planet to us. Stefan Molyneux
Distraction serves evil more than any other mental state.
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Distraction serves evil more than any other mental state. Stefan Molyneux
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A person whose desires and impulses are his own–are the expression of his own nature, as it has been developed and modified by his own culture–is said to have a character. One whose desires and impulses are not his own, has no character, no more than a steam-engine has character… John Stuart Mill
If you can convince people that freedom is injustice, they...
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If you can convince people that freedom is injustice, they will then believe that slavery is freedom. Stefan Molyneux
When people have invested their identities into clichés, the only...
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When people have invested their identities into clichés, the only counter argument they have is 'being offended'. Stefan Molyneux
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The world, viewed philosophically, remains a series of slave camps, where citizens — tax livestock — labor under the chains of illusion in the service of their masters. Stefan Molyneux
There's a huge swath of humanity that has developed verbal...
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There's a huge swath of humanity that has developed verbal abilities to extract resources from guilt-ridden people. They used to be priests, and now they're leftists. Stefan Molyneux
Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty.
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Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. Henry David Thoreau
We may not yet know the right way to go,...
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We may not yet know the right way to go, but we should at least stop going in the wrong direction. Stefan Molyneux
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If you spend time with crazy and dangerous people, remember — their personalities are socially transmitted diseases; like water poured into a container, most of us eventually turn into — or remain — whoever we surround ourselves with. We can choose our tribe, but we cannot change that our tribe is our destiny. Stefan Molyneux
Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of production...
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Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of production and trade... Ayn Rand
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Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias. Learned Hand
Nothing is right or wrong. It's all an interpretation of...
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Nothing is right or wrong. It's all an interpretation of which lens we are looking through. Tarun Sharma
The loss of liberty may imprison a person, but it...
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The loss of liberty may imprison a person, but it does not confine their mind. Anthony T. Hincks
There is more for us to gain through love than...
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There is more for us to gain through love than hate. Suzy Kassem
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But what is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint. Those who know what virtuous liberty is, cannot bear to see it disgraced by incapable heads, on account of their having high-sounding words in their mouths. Edmund Burke
It is impossible to enslave, mentally or socially, a bible-reading...
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It is impossible to enslave, mentally or socially, a bible-reading people. The principles of the bible are the groundwork of human freedom. Horace Greeley
The Truth is found when men (and Women) are free...
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The Truth is found when men (and Women) are free to pursue it. Franklin D. Roosevelt
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When I became convinced that the Universe is natural — that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide world -- not even in infinite space. I was free -- free to think, to express my thoughts -- free to live to my own ideal -- free to live for myself and those I loved -- free to use all my faculties, all my senses -- free to spread imagination's wings -- free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope -- free to judge and determine for myself -- free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds, all the "inspired" books that savages have produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past -- free from popes and priests -- free from all the "called" and "set apart" -- free from sanctified mistakes and holy lies -- free from the fear of eternal pain -- free from the winged monsters of the night -- free from devils, ghosts and gods. For the first time I was free. There were no prohibited places in all the realms of thought -- no air, no space, where fancy could not spread her painted wings -- no chains for my limbs -- no lashes for my back -- no fires for my flesh -- no master's frown or threat — no following another's steps -- no need to bow, or cringe, or crawl, or utter lying words. I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously, faced all worlds. And then my heart was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain -- for the freedom of labor and thought -- to those who fell on the fierce fields of war, to those who died in dungeons bound with chains -- to those who proudly mounted scaffold's stairs -- to those whose bones were crushed, whose flesh was scarred and torn -- to those by fire consumed -- to all the wise, the good, the brave of every land, whose thoughts and deeds have given freedom to the sons of men. And then I vowed to grasp the torch that they had held, and hold it high, that light might conquer darkness still. Robert G. Ingersoll
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Just like freedom, Truth is not cheap. Yet both are worth more than all the gold in the world. But what is freedom, if there is no truth? And what is truth, if there is no freedom? Both are worth fighting for – because one without the other would be hell. Suzy Kassem
LIBERTY! FREEDOM! DEMOCRACY! True anyhow no matter how many Liars...
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LIBERTY! FREEDOM! DEMOCRACY! True anyhow no matter how many Liars use those words. Langston Hughes
...for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and...
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...for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works. Unknown
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Life, faculties, production-in other words, individuality, liberty, property-this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it. Unknown
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If you find God, you shall be free forever. Lailah Gifty Akita
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Liberty without Learning is always in peril and Learning without Liberty is always in vain. John F. Kennedy
Always remember that you were once alone, and the crowd...
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Always remember that you were once alone, and the crowd you see in your life today are just as unecessary as when you were alone. Michael Bassey Johnson
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The object of this Essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control, whether the means used be physical force in the form of legal penalties, or the moral coercion of public opinion. That principle is, that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinions of others, to do so would be wise, or even right. These are good reasons for remonstrating with him, or reasoning with him, or persuading him, or entreating him, but not for compelling him, or visiting him with any evil, in case he do otherwise. To justify that, the conduct from which it is desired to deter him must be calculated to produce evil to someone else. The only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign. . John Stuart Mill
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness... but only when...
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Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness... but only when you pay your taxes? That means your freedom is rented, leased, & not unalienable. Steve Maraboli
I am happy that I can aid those admirable men,...
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I am happy that I can aid those admirable men, both living and dead, who by their pens or their tongues have aided the great cause of human liberty and universal happiness. James Watson
Happiness is exercising the little freedom that we have by...
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Happiness is exercising the little freedom that we have by choosing things that create harmony in our lives. Kamand Kojouri
The essence of one life is empowering another life, and...
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The essence of one life is empowering another life, and so your passion has to be linked to the liberation of other people’s happiness. Israelmore Ayivor
Give me liberty or give me death.
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Give me liberty or give me death.".] Patrick Henry
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Why should I fear death? If I am, then death is not. If Death is, then I am not. Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not? Long time men lay oppressed with slavish fear. Religious tyranny did domineer. At length the mighty one of GreeceBegan to assent the liberty of man. Epicurus
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Invariably, knowledge dictates life, liberty, and death, but those who have historically occupied the seats of power not only dictate what is defined as knowledge but also dictate what’s included, what’s excluded, and how it is filtered to society vis-à-vis America’s major institutions .. . particularly the educational system; ultimately, shaping the very essence of life. Martin Guevara Urbina
The adjacent shores resounded with the alternate shouts of the...
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The adjacent shores resounded with the alternate shouts of the sons of liberty and the groans of their parting spirits. William Apess
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I will not attack your doctrines nor your creeds if they accord liberty to me. If they hold thought to be dangerous - if they aver that doubt is a crime, then I attack them one and all, because they enslave the minds of men. I attack the monsters, the phantoms of imagination that have ruled the world. I attack slavery. I ask for room -- room for the human mind. Robert G. Ingersoll
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There are some who are still weak in faith, who ought to be instructed, and who would gladly believe as we do. But their ignorance prevents them..we must bear patiently with these people and not use our liberty; since it brings to peril or harm to body or soul..but if we use our liberty unnecessarily, and deliberately cause offense to our neighbor, we drive away the very one who in time would come to our faith. Thus St. Paul circumcised Timothy (Acts 16:3) because simple minded Jews had taken offense; he thought: what harm can it do, since they are offended because of ignorance? But when, in Antioch, they insisted that he out and must circumcise Titus (Gal. 2:3) Paul withstood them all and to spite them refused to have Titus circumcised.. He did the same when St. Peter..it happened in this way: when Peter was with the Gentiles he ate pork and sausages with them, but when the Jews came in, he abstained from this food and did not eat as he did before. Then the Gentiles who had become Christians though: Alas! we, too, must be like the Jews, eat no pork, and live according to the law of Moses. But when Paul learned that they were acting to the injury of evangelical freedom, he reproved Peter publicly and read him an apostolic lecture, saying: "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?" (Gal. 2:14). Thus we, too, should order our lives and use our liberty at the proper time, so that Christian liberty may suffer no injury, and no offense be given to our weak brothers and sisters who are still without the knowledge of this liberty. Martin Luther
Of all the religions in the world, perhaps the religion...
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Of all the religions in the world, perhaps the religion of liberty is the only faith capable of purity. Tiffany Madison
Faith is freedom.
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Faith is freedom. Lailah Gifty Akita
Whoever wishes to be free, shall seek the faith of...
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Whoever wishes to be free, shall seek the faith of liberty. Lailah Gifty Akita
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We light the oven so that everyone may bake bread in it. Unknown
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[Robert's eulogy at his brother, Ebon C. Ingersoll's grave. Even the great orator Robert Ingersoll was choked up with tears at the memory of his beloved brother] The record of a generous life runs like a vine around the memory of our dead, and every sweet, unselfish act is now a perfumed flower. Dear Friends: I am going to do that which the dead oft promised he would do for me. The loved and loving brother, husband, father, friend, died where manhood's morning almost touches noon, and while the shadows still were falling toward the west. He had not passed on life's highway the stone that marks the highest point; but, being weary for a moment, he lay down by the wayside, and, using his burden for a pillow, fell into that dreamless sleep that kisses down his eyelids still. While yet in love with life and raptured with the world, he passed to silence and pathetic dust. Yet, after all, it may be best, just in the happiest, sunniest hour of all the voyage, while eager winds are kissing every sail, to dash against the unseen rock, and in an instant hear the billows roar above a sunken ship. For whether in mid sea or 'mong the breakers of the farther shore, a wreck at last must mark the end of each and all. And every life, no matter if its every hour is rich with love and every moment jeweled with a joy, will, at its close, become a tragedy as sad and deep and dark as can be woven of the warp and woof of mystery and death. This brave and tender man in every storm of life was oak and rock; but in the sunshine he was vine and flower. He was the friend of all heroic souls. He climbed the heights, and left all superstitions far below, while on his forehead fell the golden dawning, of the grander day. He loved the beautiful, and was with color, form, and music touched to tears. He sided with the weak, the poor, and wronged, and lovingly gave alms. With loyal heart and with the purest hands he faithfully discharged all public trusts. He was a worshipper of liberty, a friend of the oppressed. A thousand times I have heard him quote these words: 'For Justice all place a temple, and all season, summer! ' He believed that happiness was the only good, reason the only torch, justice the only worship, humanity the only religion, and love the only priest. He added to the sum of human joy; and were every one to whom he did some loving service to bring a blossom to his grave, he would sleep to-night beneath a wilderness of flowers. Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud, and the only answer is the echo of our wailing cry. From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word; but in the night of death hope sees a star and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing. He who sleeps here, when dying, mistaking the approach of death for the return of health, whispered with his latest breath, 'I am better now.' Let us believe, in spite of doubts and dogmas, of fears and tears, that these dear words are true of all the countless dead. And now, to you, who have been chosen, from among the many men he loved, to do the last sad office for the dead, we give his sacred dust. Speech cannot contain our love. There was, there is, no gentler, stronger, manlier man. Robert G. Ingersoll
Love is a light of liberty.
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Love is a light of liberty. Lailah Gifty Akita
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You are free; you are free to go to your temples. You are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste or creed–that has nothing to do with the business of the state. Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Politics: the art of using euphemisms, lies, emotionalism and fear-mongering...
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Politics: the art of using euphemisms, lies, emotionalism and fear-mongering to dupe average people into accepting--or even demanding--their own enslavement. Larken Rose
Liberty a word without which all other words are vain.
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Liberty a word without which all other words are vain. Robert G. Ingersoll
I’m an atheist, and a militant atheist when religion starts...
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I’m an atheist, and a militant atheist when religion starts impacting on legislation. Daniel Radcliffe
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The religionists are the enemies of liberty, and the friends of liberty attack religion; the high-minded and the noble advocate bondage, and the meanest and most servile preach independence; honest and enlightened citizens are opposed to all progress, whilst men without patriotism and without principle put themselves forward as the apostles of civilization and intelligence. Has such been the fate of the centuries which have preceded our own? and has man always inhabited a world like the present, where all things are out of their natural connections, where virtue is without genius, and genius without honor; where the love of order is confounded with a taste for oppression, and the holy rites of freedom with a contempt of law; where the light thrown by conscience on human actions is dim, and where nothing seems to be any longer forbidden or allowed, honorable or shameful, false or true? . Alexis De Tocqueville
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It can certainly be misleading to take the attributes of a movement, or the anxieties and contradictions of a moment, and to personalize or 'objectify' them in the figure of one individual. Yet ordinary discourse would be unfeasible without the use of portmanteau terms–like 'Stalinism, ' say–just as the most scrupulous insistence on historical forces will often have to concede to the sheer personality of a Napoleon or a Hitler. I thought then, and I think now, that Osama bin Laden was a near-flawless personification of the mentality of a real force: the force of Islamic jihad. And I also thought, and think now, that this force absolutely deserves to be called evil, and that the recent decapitation of its most notorious demagogue and organizer is to be welcomed without reserve. Osama bin Laden's writings and actions constitute a direct negation of human liberty, and vent an undisguised hatred and contempt for life itself. Christopher Hitchens
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The theory of the relations between states and churches is bound up with the theory of Toleratio, and on that suject the eighteenth century scarcely rose above an intermittend, embarrassed, and unscientific view. For religious liberty is composed of the properties both of religion and of liberty, and one of its factors never became an object of disinterested observation among actual leaders of opinion. They preferred the argument of doubt to the argument of certitude, and sought to defeat intolerance by casting out revelation as they had defeated the persecution of witches by casting out the devil. There remained a flaw in their liberalism, for liberty apart from belief is liberty with a good deal of the substance taken out of it. The problem is less complicated and the solution less radical and less profound. Unknown
The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian...
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The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty. James Madison
A nation which expects to be ignorant and free, in...
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A nation which expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, expects that which never was and never will be. Thomas Jefferson
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Did I know myself less, I might perhaps venture to handle something or other to the bottom, and to be deceived in my own inability; but sprinkling here one word and there another, patterns cut from severalpieces and scattered without design and without engaging myself too far, I am not responsible for them, or obliged to keep close to my subject, without varying at my own liberty and pleasure, and giving up myself to doubt and uncertainty, and to myown governing method, ignorance. Michel De Montaigne
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Liberty creates an environment where all living beings within a society have an equal opportunity to exercise freedom. An equal opportunity to exercise freedom would further infer that, in liberty, living beings have equal access to knowledge and experience. Knowledge and experience are both inseparable from freedom. Liberty is balanced societal freedom and may also be considered balanced knowledge and experience. With equal access to knowledge and experience, living beings have an equal opportunity to enhance their abilities. Liberty is perceived as true freedom because it maximizes the opportunities for most living beings within a society. C W Newman
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Experience cannot beat logic, and interpretations of observational evidence which are not in line with the laws of logical reasoning are no refutation of these but the sign of a muddled mind (or would one accept someone’s observational report that he had seen a bird that was red and non-red all over at the same time as a refutation of the law of contradiction rather than the pronouncement of an idiot?). HansHermann Hoppe
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What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don't expect freedom to survive very long. Thomas Sowell
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For the most part, people strenuously resist any redefinition of morality, because it shakes them to the very core of their being to think that in pursuing virtue they may have been feeding vice, or in fighting vice they may have in fact been fighting virtue. Stefan Molyneux
True liberty comes from education, knowledge, and wisdom.
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True liberty comes from education, knowledge, and wisdom. Debasish Mridha
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Comfort and security are all well and good, but not at the cost of liberty, love and lustiness. The Bohemian knows that money, property and status have little to do with the content of one’s character, and that professional success and widespread celebration have little to do with talent. Of value to the Bohemian is spiritual integrity and creative freedom. The Bohemian would sooner live in poverty than submit to an undesirable job. . Robert Wringham
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A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country? George Washington
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I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves ; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power. Thomas Jefferson
My education was the liberty I had to read indiscriminately...
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My education was the liberty I had to read indiscriminately and all the time, with my eyes hanging out. Dylan Thomas
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Any child who can spend an hour or two a day, or more if he wants, with adults that he likes, who are interested in the world and like to talk about it, will on most days learn far more from their talk than he would learn in a week of school. John Holt
A tax-supported, compulsory educational system is the complete model of...
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A tax-supported, compulsory educational system is the complete model of the totalitarian state. Isabel Paterson
By denying the youth an education you murder the future...
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By denying the youth an education you murder the future RjS Rassool Jibraeel Snyman
Emancipation of mind is the greatest liberty.
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Emancipation of mind is the greatest liberty. Lailah Gifty Akita
To educate man is to give him a liberty for...
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To educate man is to give him a liberty for life. Lailah Gifty Akita
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Education is the key to liberty. Lailah Gifty Akita
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I feel ashamed that so many of us cannot imagine a better way to do things than locking children up all day in cells instead of letting them grow up knowing their families, mingling with the world, assuming real obligations, striving to be independent and self-reliant and free. John Taylor Gatto
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It isn't a coincidence that governments everywhere want to educate children. Government education, in turn, is supposed to be evidence of the state's goodness and its concern for our well-being. The real explanation is less flattering. If the government's propaganda can take root as children grow up, those kids will be no threat to the state apparatus. They'll fasten the chains to their own ankles. Unknown
Enlightenment is the key to empowerment.
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Enlightenment is the key to empowerment. Lailah Gifty Akita
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The problems on campus life today are not about free speech. They are about how the students have absolutely nothing to do with their lives but sit and listen to lectures, find the best parties to attend, and otherwise discover first-world problems to stew about and protest. That's the root of the problem. This is not a commercial environment where people are incentivized to find value in each other. Campuses have become completely artificial 4-year holding tanks for infantilized kids with zero experience in actual life in which people find ways to get along. These students are not serving each other in a market exchange, and very few have worked at day in their lives, so their default is to find some offense and protest. It's all they've been taught to do and all they know how to do. Idle hands and parents' money = trouble. Jeffrey Tucker
I wish not to tell you how I feel, I...
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I wish not to tell you how I feel, I choose silence so that you leave, Kiss me goodbye and set me free... Sanhita Baruah
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The “Warrior Ethos” emphasizes placing the mission first, not accepting defeat, and being disciplined physically and mentally. Why? Because an American Soldier is a “guardian of freedom and the American way of life. Dan Smee
Joblessness gives you liberty
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Joblessness gives you liberty Sunday Adelaja
The product of scientific achievements should be for sale. The...
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The product of scientific achievements should be for sale. The scientist should not. A.E. Samaan
Politicized science is like a prostitute with an STD. You...
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Politicized science is like a prostitute with an STD. You know she has been fucked by a dirty politician. A.E. Samaan
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If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all–except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our li . John F. Kennedy
Global betterment is a mental process, not one that requires...
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Global betterment is a mental process, not one that requires huge sums of money or a high level of authority. Change has to be psychological. Suzy Kassem
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You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police .. yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home -- all the more powerful because forbidden -- terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic. . Winston S. Churchill
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Dissident Natan Sharansky writes that there are two kinds of states -- "fear societies" and "free societies, " two kinds of consciousness. The consciousness derived of oppression is despairing, fatalistic, and fearful of inquiry. It is mistrustful of the self and forced to trust external authority. It is premised on a dearth of self-respect. It is cramped. In contrast, the consciousness of freedom is one of expansiveness, trust of the self, and hope. It is a consciousness of limitless inquiry. It builds up in a citizen a wealth of self-respect. Naomi Wolf
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We cannot play ostrich. Democracy just cannot flourish amid fear. Liberty cannot bloom amid hate. Justice cannot take root amid rage. America must get to work. In the chill climate in which we live, we must go against the prevailing wind. We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust. We must dissent from a nation that has buried its head in the sand, waiting in vain for the needs of its poor, its elderly, and its sick to disappear and just blow away. We must dissent from a government that has left its young without jobs, education or hope. We must dissent from the poverty of vision and the absence of moral leadership. We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better. . Thurgood Marshall
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Our freedoms are vanishing. If you do not get active to take a stand now against all that is wrong while we still can, then maybe one of your children may elect to do so in the future, when it will be far more riskier – and much, much harder. Suzy Kassem
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Machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines, you are not cattle, you are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate: only the unloved hate, the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers, don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty! You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You the people have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure! Then, in the name of democracy, let us use that power. Let us all unite! Let us fight for a new world, a decent world . . Charlie Chaplin
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Our forefathers were heroes. But why were they heroes? Because they fought for democracy. They fought for the life and liberty of the Filipino people. They fought for our independence, our freedom. They fought against tyranny, totalitarianism, and dictatorship. They fought for us and that is something we must be grateful for. Yanan Melo
Any government that places profit before people is pure evil.
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Any government that places profit before people is pure evil. Suzy Kassem
What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans...
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What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy? Mahatma Gandhi
97
A cop's JOB is to violently enforce upon the rest of us whatever arbitrary bullshit the political parasites declare to be "law." It is, therefore, impossible to be a "law enforcer" and behave morally, for the same reason one can't be a moral car-jacker. Larken Rose
98
Think what it implies when you say that a country needs leaders. In your day-to-day life, you interact with all sorts of other individuals. And that's all society is: the collective name for lots of INDIVIDUALS. But for some inexplicable reason, we're taught to believe that one huge, arbitrarily chosen assortment of individuals (the "citizens" of one human livestock farm-- I mean, "country") need some control freaks acting as intermediaries in order to interact with a different arbitrarily chosen assortment of individuals (the "citizens" of some other human livestock farm-- I mean, "country"). Because gee, how could I and some random person in the middle of China possibly leave each other alone if we didn't each have a gang of narcissistic sociopaths claiming to "represent" us? Oh, wait a minute. That's exactly how and why pretty much ALL wars happen: because different gangs of power-happy psychos pit their pawns against each other in violent conflict, while claiming to "represent" subsets of humanity. One more example of how "government" is a problem posing as its own solution. . Larken Rose
99
For twenty-five years I've been speaking and writing in defense of your right to happiness in this world, condemning your inability to take what is your due, to secure what you won in bloody battles on the barricades of Paris and Vienna, in the American Civil War, in the Russian Revolution. Your Paris ended with Petain and Laval, your Vienna with Hitler, your Russia with Stalin, and your America may well end in the rule of the Ku Klux Klan! You've been more successful in winning your freedom than in securing it for yourself and others. This I knew long ago. What I did not understand was why time and again, after fighting your way out of a swamp, you sank into a worse one. Then groping and cautiously looking about me, I gradually found out what has enslaved you: YOUR SLAVE DRIVER IS YOU YOURSELF. No one is to blame for your slavery but you yourself. No one else, I say!. Wilhelm Reich
100
The worship of the state is the worship of force. There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men. The worst evils which mankind ever had to endure were inï¬â€šicted by bad governments. The state can be and has often been in the course of history the main source of mischief and disaster. Ludwig Von Mises