Quotes About Freedom

The forces of tyranny expand inexorably to fill the space made available for their existence.

The escape from tyranny is often followed not by Paradise, but by a sojourn in the desert, aimless, confused and deprived.

Without free speech there is no true thought.

The idea that human life can be free of moral concerns is a fantasy.

the 1960s, a decade whose excesses led to a general denigration of adulthood, an unthinking disbelief in the existence of competent power, and the inability to distinguish between the chaos of immaturity and responsible freedom.

Jordan B. Peterson

A long period of unfreedom—adherence to a singular interpretive structure—is necessary for the development of a free mind.

A menudo, la huida de la tiranía no conduce al paraíso, sino a una estancia en el desierto, sin rumbo, en la confusión y la privación.

It is for this reason that we voluntarily and happily place limitations on ourselves. Every time we play a game, for example, we accept a set of arbitrary restrictions. We narrow and limit ourselves, and explore the possibilities thereby revealed. That is what makes the game.

Rules? More rules? Really? Isn't life complicated enough, restricting enough, without abstract rules that don't take our unique, individual situations into account?

If they fine me, I won't pay it. If they put me in jail, I'll go on a hunger strike. I'm not doing this. That's that. I am not using the words other people require me to use especially if they are made up by radical left-wing ideologues.

That means we are supporting tyranny, and allowing ourselves to be treated like slaves. It is not virtuous to be victimized by a bully, even if that bully is oneself.

For Nietzsche and Dostoevsky alike, freedom—even the ability to act—requires constraint. For this reason, they both recognized the vital necessity of the dogma of the Church. The individual must be constrained, moulded—even brought close to destruction—by a restrictive, coherent disciplinary structure, before he or she can act freely and competently.

It looks to me like the so-called oppression of the patriarchy was instead an imperfect collective attempt by men and women, stretching over millennia, to free each other from privation, disease, and drudgery...

Was it really a good thing, for example, to so dramatically liberalize the divorce laws in the 1960s? It's not clear to me that the children whose lives were destabilized by the hypothetical freedom this attempt at liberation introduced would say so. Horror and terror lurk behind the walls provided so wisely by our ancestors. We tear them down at our peril. We skate, unconsciously, on thin ice, with deep, cold waters below, where unimaginable monsters lurk.

Un largo periodo de falta de libertad —de adhesión a una estructura interpretativa particular— es necesario para que se desarrolle una mente libre.

If you say no, early in the cycle of oppression, and you mean what you say (which means you state your refusal in no uncertain terms and stand behind it), then the scope for oppression on the part of the oppressor will remain properly bounded and limited. The forces of tyranny expand inexorably to fill the space made available for their existence.

Without rules we quickly become slaves to our passions - and there's nothing freeing about that.

You need to consider the future and think, "What might my life look like if I were caring for myself properly? What career would challenge me and render me productive and helpful, so that I could shoulder my share of the load, and enjoy the consequences? What should I be doing, when I have some freedom, to improve my health, expand my knowledge, and strengthen my body?

the story of the golden calf also reminds us that without rules we quickly become slaves to our passions—and there's nothing freeing about that.

my first reaction to a command might just be that nobody, not even God, tells me what to do, even if it's good for me. But the story of the golden calf also reminds us that without rules we quickly become slaves to our passions—and there's nothing freeing about that.

People sacrificed immensely to bring about what we have now. In many cases, they literally died for it—and we should act with some respect for that fact.

Jordan B. Peterson

load, and enjoy the consequences? What should I be doing, when I have some freedom, to improve my health, expand my knowledge, and strengthen my body?