Quotes About Freedom

Long before I'd read a word of Virginia Woolf, I knew that, for me, a room of one's own was the ultimate prize. That a lock on the door was the power to think for oneself.

An introvert with a Texan's affability, I was well intentioned but weak on follow-through; not without reason did an old friend refer to me as the gregarious hermit. I wanted the warmth of spontaneous connection and the freedom to be left alone.

Hush Hattie!" I said, intoxicated with my success. "I don't want to go to my room. Everyone must know I shan't marry the prince." I ran to the door to our street, opened it, and called out into the night, "I shan't marry the prince." I turned back into the hall and ran to Char and threw my arms about his neck. "I shan't marry you." I kissed his cheek. He was safe from me.

No, I won't marry you. I won't do it. No one can force me.

A real man has no need of governments, of laws, of moral or ethical codes, to say nothing of battleships, police clubs, high-powered bombers and such things."76

Nor is it automatic that once a person becomes acclaimed or powerful, the voice of the inner tyrant will be stilled. The work of individuation is internal. We all have to do it unless we prefer to remain very old children. Even when we do finally claim the authority formerly wielded by that inner custodian, we are not only freed but also bereft. We have lost the inner companion who for so many years also made us feel watched over and safe.

Creativity could be described as letting go of certainties.

And even as one part of us seeks the freedom to be an individual, another part is always searching for someone or something to surrender our freedom to.

And who can doubt that it will lead to the worst disorders when minds created free by God are compelled to submit slavishly to an outside will? When we are told to deny our senses and subject them to the whim of others? When people devoid of whatsoever competence are made judgesover experts and are granted authority to treat them as they please?These are the novelties which are apt to bring about the ruin ofcommonwealths and the subversion of the state.

And who can doubt that it will lead to the worst disorders when minds created free by God are compelled to submit slavishly to an outside will? When we are told to deny our senses and subject them to the will of others?

We cannot learn to fly by following the tracks left by birds in the sand. We must find our own wings and soar.

Need nothing and then see what happens.

Even in the running away from hurting, there is hurting. In opening unprotected to the experience that is enslaving you with its torment, there is the willingness to be free. Are you willing? Or do yo just want to wait until the world finally gets it and does it your way?

When you desire freedom, then you have to be willing to face what you have been running from in your search for it.

They feel separate because they appear to be separate, and we are trained to accept our perceptions as reality. There is deep conditioning that you are a particular body. Then for an instant you glimpse the freedom of no body present. This glimpse is the cut in the knot of misidentification.

I decided that I did not want to follow any of these ideologies or trends, because these also exerted a kind of pressure, and obstructed absolute creative freedom.

Since it was announced that I had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has condemned my works and criticized them harshly. All of my works are now banned from getting into China or being published in China. What author would want to return to a country that banned his or her books?

Soul Mountain, the story of one man's quest for inner peace and freedom.

La libertad no es un derecho del hombre que concede el cielo, y la libertad de soñar tampoco se adquiere desde el nacimiento: es una capacidad que hay que preservar, una conciencia, sobre todo porque las pesadillas no paran de perturbarla.

For a while I believe I am flying, not falling.

Girls who kiss boys, girls who date them, girls who call them on the phone... that's all they do. There are other things I want to do.

Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.

Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.

See, the 'On the Road' that came out in 1957 was censored. A lot of the honesty of it, the bitter honesty, is in the original scroll version that came out in 2007 on the 50-year anniversary. Back then, there was so much post-Second World War fear that was imposed on everybody - 'You must live life this way' - and these guys were bored.