Quotes About Freedom

I never did think that my own conundrum was a matter either of science or of social convention. I thought it was a matter of the spirit, a kind of divine allegory, and that explanations of it were not very important anyway. What was important was the liberty of us all to live as we wished to live, to love however we wanted to love, and to know ourselves, however peculiar, disconcerting or unclassifiable, at one with the gods and angels.

One of the prizes of old age is its release from competition.

The idea that the Natives must all be removed and confined in their own kraals is in my opinion the greatest nonsense I have ever heard.

Alice likes to swing as high as she can. At the schoolyard on the big swings there, I think maybe she's going to go all the way over the top. I can read her mind when she swings. I know she's thinking about jumping out and flying away when she swings that high. Flying to California. She doesn't say anything about it.

It was more like a form of claustrophobia -- a dread of exchanging the freedom of her own self-imposed routine for the inescapable burden of somebody else's.

Freedom Now heaven be thanked, I am out of love again! I have been long a slave, and now am free; I have been tortured, and am eased of pain; I have been blind, and now my eyes can see; I have been lost, and now the way lies plain; I have been caged, and now I hold the key; I have been mad, and now at last am sane; I am wholly I, that was but a half of me. So, a free man, my dull proud path I plod, Who, tortured, blind, mad, caged, was once a God.

Art is free," he said, "and is not to be diminished by any chains of craftsmanship.

ONE CRITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT WAS THAT ART escaped from religion and into the larger world.

You're implying that Gertie is too old to be having fun, and that's wrong. If Gertie wants to dress like a hooker and ride an alligator float down the bayou when she's a hundred and two, she should do it.

As much as choice could sometimes be a burden, not having one was far worse.

choice increases the likelihood of compliance. It's not the choice itself that's important, it's the feeling that the person has a choice that makes a difference in behavior.

If you are in search of happiness, make sure that your journey is free from things that get you caught up in the past. If your path is blocked by stuff that makes you remember things that do not help you move on, then it is about time to let go.

Seasoning one's claims with self-irony and modesty, cultivating a tolerance for moral ambiguity, periodically practicing normative reticence, building up a resistance to the pleasure of purity, minding your own business, doing what you can to forget to wreak vengeance, defending negative freedom even if there is no such thing, and playing around are the best you can do. But that's quite a lot.

But short films are not inferior, just different. I think the short gives a freedom to film-makers. What's appealing is that you don't have as much responsibility for storytelling and plot. They can be more like a portrait, or a poem.

If you have been a slave all your life, used to being ordered about and abused from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep, it's impossible to adjust to normal life overnight. I had never been free to make my own decisions before and had no idea how to do it. I was like a bird that has been bred in captivity suddenly being released into the wild: I fell apart.

I feel like my honesty gives people the freedom to talk about things they wouldn't otherwise.

Cultural speciation had been crippling to human moral and spiritual growth. It had hindered freedom of thought, limited our thinking, imprisoned us in the cultures into which we had been born. . . . These cultural mind prisons. . . . Cultural speciation was clearly a barrier to world peace. So long as we continued to attach more importance to our own narrow group membership than to the 'global village' we would propagate prejudice and ignorance.

I can tell just by looking at her that she needs to know she can push me and that when she does, I won't crumple. I know the look by now. Submissive women who crave dominance need this from time to time, and Diana's no exception. I've likened it to a blind man finding his way in an unfamiliar room; once he knows where the walls are, his boundaries, he can move more freely.

No matter how difficult the subject, while writing, a poet is unchained from sadness, and free —Jane Hirshfield

Enlightenment is the total sense of freedom that comes from letting go of the concept of being an individual "self".

Enlightenment is the total sense of freedom that comes from letting go of the concept of being an individual "self". It is a long journey towards being able to trust that such freedom is possible.

No one is more vulnerable to fear than a man who keeps another in bondage. He will do anything to prevent justice from rearing its head — for he knows well what he deserves at the hands of those he subjugates.

Fear has trapped me, rendered me immobile and powerless. I'd forgotten I even had wings, let alone how to use them.

I divested myself of despair and fear when I came here. Now there is no more catching one's own eye in the mirror, there are no bad books, no plastic, no insurance premiums, and of course no illness. Contrition does not exist, nor gnashing of teeth. No one howls as the first clod of earth hits the casket. The poor we no longer have with us. Our calm hearts strike only the hour, and God, as promised, proves to be mercy clothed in light.