Quotes on Freedom

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Almost all our suffering is the product of our thoughts. We spend nearly every moment of our lives lost in thought, and hostage to the character of those thoughts. You can break this spell, but it takes training just like it takes training to defend yourself against a physical assault.
 
Among the perquisites of freedom is the freedom of people to screw up their own lives.
 
Poverty becomes a marvellously beautiful thing when the mind is free of society. One must become poor inwardly for then there is no seeking, no asking, no desire, no - nothing! It is only this inward poverty that can see the truth of a life in which there is no conflict at all.
 
The chains that bind us most closely are the ones we have broken.
 
Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you.
 
The only freedom is the freedom from the known.
 
A puppet is free as long as he loves his strings.
 
Tyranny destroys or strengthens the individual; freedom enervates him, until he becomes no more than a puppet. Man has more chances of saving himself by hell than by paradise.
 
Liberty is the possibility of doubting, the possibility of making a mistake, the possibility of searching and experimenting, the possibility of saying No to any authority - literary, artistic, philosophic, religious, social, and even political.
 
Human freedom is not an illusion; it is an objective phenomenon, distinct from all other biological conditions and found in only one species - us.
 
The only way to deal with an unfree world si to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
 
I am chained to the earth to pay for the freedom of my eyes.
 
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
 
I am free and that is why I am lost.
 
There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail.
 
People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.
 
What is the point of being educated, of learning to read and write, if you are just going to carry on like a machine? But that is what your parents want, and it is what the world wants. The world does not want you to think, it does not want you to be free to find out, because then you would be a dangerous citizen, you would not fit into the established pattern. A free human being can never feel that he belongs to any particular country, class, or type of thinking. Freedom means freedom at every level, right through, and to think only along a particular line is not freedom.
 
How can we be “free” as conscious agents if everything that we consciously intend is caused by events in our brain that we do not intend and of which we are entirely unaware? We can’t.
 
Those who give up liberty for the sake of security deserve neither liberty nor security.
 
Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.
 
When governments fear the people there is liberty. When the people fear the government there is tyranny. 
 
Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills.
 
Freedom is obedience to self-formulated rules.
 
Freedom is not free.
 
No people can be both ignorant and free.
 
Self-reliance brings a certain freedom in which you discover; and that freedom is denied to you when you are comparing.
 
A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that's unlocked and opens inwards; as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push.
 
The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
 
I feel I am free but I know I am not.
 
Too little liberty brings stagnation, and too much brings chaos.
 
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