Quotes About Freedom

Bit by bit, at 124 and in the Clearing, along with the others, she had claimed herself. Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.

Everybody wants the life of a black man. White men want us dead or quiet—which is the same thing as dead. White women, same thing ... They won't even let you risk your own life, man, unless it's over them. You can't even die unless it's about them. What good is a man's life if he can't even choose what to die for?

Slave life; freed life--everyday was a test and a trial. Nothing could be counted on in a world where even you were a solution you were a problem

Love is never any better than the lover. Wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe. There

to eat, walk and sleep anywhere was life as good as it got.

Somewhere inside you is that free person I'm talking about. Locate her and let her do some good in the world

How loose the silk. How quick the jailed up flavor ran free.

L'amore non è mai migliore di chi ama. I malvagi amano con malvagità, i violenti con violenza, i deboli con debolezza e gli stupidi in modo stupido, ma l'amore di un uomo libero non è mai sicuro. on c'è dono per la persona amata. Solo chi ama possiede il suo dono d'amore. Chi è amato viene reciso, neutralizzato, congelato nello sguardo dell'occhio interiore di chi ama.

to get to a place where you could love anything you chose—not to need permission for desire—well now, that was freedom.

Well, feel this, why don't you? Feel how it feels to have a bed to sleep in and somebody there not worrying you to death about what you got to do each day to deserve it. Feel how that feels. And if that don't get it, feel how it feels to be a colouredwoman roaming the roads with anything God made liable to jump on you. Feel that.

Listening to the doves in Alfred, Georgia, and having neither the right nor the permission to enjoy it because in that place mist, doves, sunlight, copper dirt, moon—everything belonged to the men who had the guns

llegar a un lugar donde pudieses amar lo que se te antojara —donde no necesitaras permiso para desear— era la libertad.

Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.

And him. Eighteen seventy-four and whitefolks were still on the loose.

Too much tail. All that jewelry weighs it down. Like vanity. Can't nobody fly with all that shit. Wanna fly, you gotta give up the shit that weighs you down.

thank God I ain't never had one of them graveyard loves.

Here freedom was not entertainment, like a carnival or a hoedown that you can count on once a year. Nor was it the table droppings from the entitled. Here freedom was a test administered by the natural world that a man had to take for himself every day. And if he passed enough tests long enough, he was king.

the lesson she had learned from her sixty years a slave and ten years free: that there was no bad luck in the world but whitepeople. "They don't know when to stop," she said, and returned to her bed, pulled up the quilt and left them to hold that thought forever

Lay em down, Sethe. Sword and shield. Down. Down. Both of em down. Down by the riverside. Sword and shield. Don't study war no more. Lay all that mess down. Sword and shield.

How loose the silk. How fine and loose and free.

Probably best, he thought. If a Negro got legs he ought to use them. Sit down too long, somebody will figure out a way to tie them up. Still. . . if her boys were gone . . .

Let me tell you right now the one important thing you'll ever need to know: Own things. And let the things you own own other things. Then you'll own yourself and other people too.

El amor no es nunca mejor que el amante. La gente inicua ama inicuamente, los violentos aman violentamente, las personas débiles aman débilmente, las estúpidas aman estúpidamente, pero el amor de un hombre libre nunca es seguro. El ser amado nunca se ve recompensado. Sólo el amante posee su don de amor. El ser amado es arrancado de sus raíces, neutralizado, congelado en el brillo de la mirada que el amante tiene vuelta hacia su propio interior.

He didn't even care what I looked like. I could be anything, do anything- and it pleased him. Something about that made me mad.