Quotes About Freedom

You can live as free men, but if you choose not to, your society will surely die.

I saw a fellow in a Don't Tread on Me T-shirt the other day. He was at LaGuardia and he was being trod all over, by the obergropinfuhrers of the TSA, who had decided to subject him to one of their enhanced pat-downs. There are few sights more dismal than that of a law-abiding citizen having his genitalia pawed by state commissars, but having them pawed while wearing a Don't Tread on Me T-shirt is certainly one of them.

The free world is shuffling into a psychological bondage whose chains are mostly of our own making.

The right to evaluate risk for oneself is part of what it means to be a functioning human being.

regard appeals to authority as somewhat unAmerican

disregard other

I have never learned to fight for my freedom. I was only good at enjoying it.

America did not teach men the idea of freedom; she taught them how to practice it.

Of all God's creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the leash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat.

Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it.

It is by the goodness of god that in our country we have those 3 unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

Why didn't someone hand those newly sighted people paints and brushes from the start, when they still didn't know what anything was? Then maybe we all could see color-patches too, the world unraveled from reason, Eden before Adam gave names. The scales would drop from my eyes; I'd see trees like men walking; I'd run down the road against all orders, allowing and leaping.

I crossed Homewood and ran up the block. The joy multiplied as I ran--I ran never actually quite leaving the ground--and multiplied still as I felt my stride begin to fumble and my knees begin to quiver and stall. The joy multiplied even as I slowed bumping to a walk. I was all but splitting, all but shooting sparks. Blood coursed freely inside my lungs and bones, a light-shot stream like air. I couldn't feel the pavement at all.

They have not been persecuted, and show no fear of man. You pass among them as though you were wind, spindrift, sunlight, leaves.

I WALKED. My mother had given me the freedom of the streets as soon as I could say our telephone number. I walked and memorized the neighborhood. I made a mental map and located myself upon it. At night in bed I rehearsed the small world's scheme and set challenges: Find the store using backyards only. Imagine a route from the school to my friend's house. I mastered chunks of town in one direction only; I ignored the other direction

Freedom is the world's water and weather, the world's nourishment freely given, its soil and sap: and the creator loves pizzazz.

She teaches me that the world is made to be pounced on and enjoyed, and that there is absolutely no reason at all to hold back.

Freedom consists of being insulated from the envy and ignorance of the unimportant people who temporarily surround her.

The best of liberalism is too good to be left to the liberals

Dialogue does a remarkable thing in restoring mind, that is, to rescue it from authority-systems and rigid beliefs.

There is no Final Resting Place of the Mind.

Like I said before, your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.

Be a fool. For love. For yourself. What you think MIGHT possibly make you happy—even for a little while—whatever the cost or good sense might dictate.

Fine-looking women, smoking and drinking and gambling and doing whatever they like? Sounds good!