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Quotes About Freedom

I don't want to be told that it's the people with power over us who are guilty, that we're innocent slaves, that we're not guilty because we're not free. I am free! I'm building a Vernichtungslager; I have to answer to the people who'll be gassed here. I can say No. There's nothing can stop me—as long as I can find the strength to face my destruction.
~ Vasily Grossman
Man's innate yearning for freedom can be suppressed but never destroyed. Totalitarianism cannot renounce violence. If it does, it perishes. Eternal, ceaseless violence, overt or covert, is the basis of totalitarianism. Man does not renounce freedom voluntarily. This conclusion holds out hope for our time, hope for the future.
~ Vasily Grossman
Freedom is the direct opposite of necessity; freedom is necessity overcome.
~ Vasily Grossman
No one has the right to lead other people like sheep. That's something even Lenin failed to understand. The purpose of a revolution is to free people. But Lenin just said: "In the past you were led badly, I'm going to lead you well.
~ Vasily Grossman
Does human nature undergo a true change in the cauldron of totalitarian violence? Does man lose his innate yearning for freedom? The fate of both man and the totalitarian State depends on the answer to this question. If human nature does change, then the eternal and world-wide triumph of the dictatorial State is assured; if his yearning for freedom remains constant, then the totalitarian State is doomed.
~ Vasily Grossman
Fascism will perish for the very reason that it has applied to man the laws applicable to atoms and cobblestones!
~ Vasily Grossman
What Mostovskoy found most sinister of all was that National Socialism seemed so at home in the camp: rather than peering haughtily at the common people through a monocle, it talked and joked in their own language. It was down-to-earth and plebeian. And it had an excellent knowledge of the mind, language and soul of those it deprived of freedom.
~ Vasily Grossman
life can be defined as freedom. Life is freedom. Freedom is the fundamental principle of life. That is the boundary – between freedom and slavery, between inanimate matter and life.
~ Vasily Grossman
During the thousand years of her history Russia had seen many great things. During the Soviet period the country had seen global military victories, vast construction sites, whole new cities, dams across the Dnieper and the Volga, canals joining different seas. The country had seen mighty tractors and skyscrapers...There was only one thing Russia had not seen during this thousand years: freedom.
~ Vasily Grossman
The country had seen mighty tractors and skyscrapers...There was only one thing Russia had not seen during this thousand years: freedom.
~ Vasily Grossman
What constitutes the freedom, the soul of an individual life, is its uniqueness. The reflection of the universe in someone's consciousness is the foundation of his or her power, but life only becomes happiness, is only endowed with freedom and meaning when someone exists as a whole world that has never been repeated in all eternity. Only then can they experience the joy of freedom and kindness, finding in others what they have already found in themselves.
~ Vasily Grossman
Allí donde no hay libertad humana no puede haber libertad nacional, ya que la libertad nacional es sobre todo libertad del hombre.
~ Vasily Grossman
And there had even been room in his head for the rustling of leaves, the light of the moon, millet porridge with milk, the sound of flames in the stove, snatches of tunes, the barking of dogs, the Roman Senate, Soviet Information Bureau bulletins, a hatred of slavery, and a love of melon seeds.
~ Vasily Grossman
What constitutes the freedom, the soul of an individual life, is its uniqueness. The reflection of the universe in someone's consciousness is the foundation of his or her power, but life only becomes happiness, is only endowed with freedom and meaning when someone exists as a whole world that has never been repeated in all eternity. Only then can they experience the joy of freedom and kindness, finding in others what they have already found in themselves.
~ Vasily Grossman
Segundo o seu amigo Semion Lípkin, Grossman teria adotado como norma de vida, nesta época, a frase de Tchékhov segundo a qual «era tempo, para cada um de nós, de nos livrarmos do escravo que trazemos cá dentro». Tentou então publicar o seu Vida e Destino, e foi o que se viu.
~ Vasily Grossman
Does human nature undergo a true change in the cauldron of totalitarian violence? Does man lose his innate yearning for freedom? The fate of both man and the totalitarian State depends on the answer to this question.
~ Vasily Grossman
Denna styrka hos den statliga nationalismen och denna vettlösa nationalism hos de människor som berövats frihet och människovärde blev till den nya ordningens förnämsta drivkraft, dess kärnstridsspets, och blev bestämmande för 1900-talets hela ödeslopp.
~ Vasily Grossman
Uno Stato nazionalsocialista non poteva tollerare che la vita fluisse liberamente: essa andava guidata in ogni suo passo. Per indirizzare il respiro delle persone, il loro senso materno, un circolo di lettori, le fabbriche, il canto, l'esercito o le gite estive ci volevano dei capi, delle guide. La vita aveva perso il diritto di crescere come l'erba e di incresparsi come il mare.
~ Vasily Grossman
I believe in God, and I love my brother. But I don't want any religion that will demand I lose my individuality.
~ Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Me and my dad talk about important things. Things like truth and what it means to be free. Dad says books can help you. Not every book is true, he says, but the more you read, the easier it is to figure out for yourself what is true.
~ Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Si yo no hiciera al menos una locura por año, me volvería loco
~ Vicente Huidobro
The value of universal literacy is of course questionable in a society that practices the strictest form of censorship.
~ Victor Andres Triay
The United States, being a strong and wealthy society, and with unrivaled global influence, invites envy. The success of its restless culture of freedom, constitutional democracy, self-critique, secular rationalism, and open markets provokes the resentment of both weaker and less-secure theocracy and autocracy alike.
~ Victor Davis Hanson
And a free state that does not employ armies of unproductive snoops, spies, and politically correct commissars does not have its most daring and innovative minds crippled or its economy hobbled by costly hordes of unproductive trimmers.
~ Victor Davis Hanson