Quotes About Freedom

If we do not believe in freedom of speech for people we despise, we do not believe in it at all.

The cruelest prison of all is the prison of the mind.

Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.

Excess of liberty, whether it lies in state or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery.

Because a freeman ought not to be a slave in the acquisition of knowledge of any kind. Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.

From all these, then, they will be finally free, and they will live a happier life than that men count most happy, the life of victors at Olympia.

Old age has a great sense of calm and freedom when the passions relax their hold, then, as Sophocles says, we are free from the grasp, not of one mad master only, but of many.

It is only those who practice philosophy in the right way, we say, who always most want to free the soul; and this release and separation of the soul from the body is the preoccupation of the philosophers? So it appears. Therefore, as I said at the beginning, it would be ridiculous for a man to train himself in life to live in a state as close to death as possible, and then to resent it when it comes? Ridiculous, of course.

In the first days of his time in office," I said, "doesn't he smile at and greet whomever he meets, and not only deny he's a tyrant but promise much in private and public, and grant freedom from debts and distribute land to the people and those around himself, and pretend to be gracious and gentle to all?

Because a freeman ought not to be a slave in the acquisition of knowledge of any kind. Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind. Very true. Then

The excess of liberty, whether in States or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery.

Too much freedom seems to change into nothing but too much slavery, both for private man and city.

For instance, I remember someone asking Sophocles, the poet, whether he was still capable of enjoying a woman. 'Don't talk in that way,' he answered; 'I am only too glad to be free of all that; it is like escaping from bondage to a raging madman.

La peor prisión es un corazón cerrado

What do you mean? he asked. Beginning with the State, I replied, would you say that a city which is governed by a tyrant is free or enslaved? No city, he said, can be more completely enslaved. And

Es razonable, entonces, que la tiranía no se establezca a partir de otro régimen político que la democracia, y que sea a partir de la libertad extrema que surja la mayor y más salvaje esclavitud

Isn't there still one other possibility ... ," I said, "our persuading you that you must let us go?

They are always either the masters or servants and never the friends of anybody; the tyrant never tastes of true freedom or friendship.

There is the explanation that is put in the language of the mysteries, that we men are in a kind of prison, and that one must not free oneself or run away. That seems to me an impressive doctrine and one not easy to understand fully. However, Cebes, this seems to me well expressed, that the gods are our guardians and that men are one of their possessions. Or do you not think so? I do, said Cebes.

Sólo de libre voluntad se somete uno al Amor

que es dueño de sí mismo es también esclavo, y el que es esclavo, dueño; ya que en todos estos dichos se habla de una misma persona.

So in the first place, such things show clearly that the philosopher more than other men frees the soul from association with the body as much as possible?

L'uomo libero ha sempre tempo a sua disposizione per conversare in pace a suo agio. Egli passerà come faremo noi nel nostro dialogo, da un argomento all'altro; come noi egli lascerà quello vecchio per uno nuovo che lo attiri di più; e non si preoccupa affatto se la discussione andrà per le lunghe, ma solo di conseguire la verità.

How brave a thing is freedom of speech, which has made the Athenians so far exceed every other state of Hellas in greatness!