Quotes About Freedom

Unless someone truly has the power to say no, they never truly have the power to say yes

Once we see that our salvation has never depended on anything we do, we have nothing to fear and nothing to prove. God in Christ has already provided every proof we need to be acquitted of every charge against us.

I do have a political agenda. It's to have as few regulations as possible.

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change.

A free and truly independent press - fiercely independent when necessary - is the red beating heart of freedom and democracy.

Make no mistake: We are being tested. Without a vibrant, fearless free press, our great American experiment may fail.

We now understand that the great American story is not confined to history books or political speeches. It is sung, and danced, and dramatized, and turned into verse. It is painted, and sculpted, and written, and filmed. Artists may not swear an oath to serve in government or the military, but they swear an oath to freedom of expression that is no less worthy of recognition, especially in a democracy such as ours.

I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy . . . in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, [and] Musick.

How can you tell somebody whose is pursuing happiness that they're somehow not American when that was the very first promise that America made?

Straight couples don't have to be monogamous to be married or married to be monogamous. Monogamy no more defines marriage than the presence of children does. Monogamy isn't compulsory and its absence doesn't invalidate a marriage.

The truly revolutionary promise of our nation's founding document is the freedom to pursue happiness-with-a-capital-H.

How can you tell somebody who is pursuing happiness that they're somehow not American when that was the very first promise that America made?

even if gay marriage were legalized there would still be gay men who didn't want to marry, gay men no other gay men would want to marry, and gay men who didn't want to leave the priesthood in order to marry.

The proper response to religious opposition to choice or love or death can be reduced to a series of bumper stickers: Don't approve of abortion? Don't have one. Don't approve of gay marriage? Don't have one. Don't approve of physician-assisted suicide? For Christ's sake, don't have one. But don't tell me I can't have one - each and every one - because it offends your God.

Prison always has been a good place for writers, killing, as it does, the twin demons of mobility and diversion

We take so many of our freedoms for granted nowadays - I can travel where I like, I can have a baby when I like, I can do any job I want - but I do think chivalry has been lost a little bit.

None of us had any idea of how successful Downton was going to be. I thought I was signing up for another period drama that had a slightly modern feel. It had a freedom about it because it was coming out of the head of Julian Fellowes. Anything could happen and generally did.

autonomy without clarity is ultimately a disaster.

Perhaps you will learn from this that books are sacred to free men for very good reasons, and that wars have been fought against nations which hate books and burn them. If you are an American, you must allow all ideas to circulate freely in your community, not merely your own. . . .

Nature is freedom and sunshine. Nature is also bears, yellow jackets, rockfall and vertical exposure. Nature wins.

Gray sail against the sky, Gray butterfly! Have you a dream for going. Or are you the blind wind's blowing?

Part of what I love about traveling was the idea of vanishing from the radar for a while, even if it was just for an hour in the airport, the idea being that if I couldn't be found, then neither could my troubles find me.

He blinked. "Have you ever run naked through the woods?" "Certainly." She allowed a moment to enjoy the way his eyes flared. "Why? His voice roughened, deepened, back to that just-awakened grizzly-bear tone. "To be one with nature, without barriers. To feel the wind and the moonlight on my skin." Several seconds passed before he responded. "You can't feel moonlight." She smiled…

Suicide by Alaska.