Quotes About Freedom

If only we could escape from always having to play ourselves!

if sex and creativity are often seen by dictators as subversive activities, it's because they lead to the knowledge that you own your own body - and with it your own voice - and that's the most revolutionary insight of all

Io ti ho dato tutta la libertà che volevi.» «Questa è una contraddizione in termini. Una persona non è mai libera se la libertà le deve essere 'data'. Chi sei tu per 'darmi' la libertà?»

The truth is: nobody bothers to kill poets in America. It's enough to buy them in universities. Undead.

Le cÅ"ur de l'homme est comme un oiseau enfermé dans la cage du corps.» Quand tu danses, le cÅ"ur, il chante comme un oiseau qui aspire à se fondre en Dieu.

Vous jouez à ravir parce que vous vous abandonnez. Vous consentez à la musique, ainsi que vous consentez à l'amour. Vous voilà capable d'épouser chaque instant, chaque note, chaque inflexion. Vous cessez de vous raidir, vous ne filtrez plus.

Chi è deluso da Dio è deluso dagli uomini. Chi reclama un Dio onnipotente sogna uomini senza libertà.

Bense bundan bile daha az?yd?m. Ginza'daki fareden ya da Åžincuku'daki kargadan bile daha az?. Her ÅŸeyimi kaybetmiÅŸtim - ev, statü, iÅŸ, onur, haysiyet - özgürlüÄŸümden baÅŸka her ÅŸeyi. Zaten neyin özgürlüÄŸü? Çabuk bir ölüm ya da g?d?m g?d?m felaket aras?ndaki seçim özgürlüÄŸü.

Che gli uomini ci credano o meno, sfuggono a Dio perché rimangono liberi. Sta a loro mettere a frutto quella libertà, che esisterà solo se la utilizzano. Che il cielo sia pieno o vuoto, non c'è dubbio che tocchi agli uomini farsi carico degli uomini. Anzi, farsi carico di Dio. Soltanto loro possono travestirlo o comprenderlo, ascoltarlo o rimanere sordi, leggerlo bene o leggerlo male, esercitare il proprio spirito critico.

Freedom is not a constant attribute which we either have or have not. In fact, there is no such thing as freedom except as a word and an abstract concept. There is only one reality: the act of freeing ourselves in the process of making choices. In this process the degree of our capacity to make choices varies with each act, with our practice of life.

We forget that, although freedom of speech constitutes an important victory in the battle against old restraints, modern man is in a position where much of what he thinks and says are the things that everybody else thinks and says; that he has not acquired the ability to think originally - that is, for himself - which alone gives meaning to his claim that nobody can interfere with the expression of his thoughts.

The frightened individual seeks for somebody or something to tie his self to; he cannot bear to be his own individual self any longer, and he tries frantically to get rid of it and to feel security again by the elimination of this burden: the self.

Thus, the ultimate choice for a man, inasmuch as he is driven to transcend himself, is to create or to destroy, to love or to hate.

We forget that, although each of the liberties which have been won must be defended with utmost vigour, the problem of freedom is not only a quantitative one, but a qualitative one; that we not only have to preserve and increase the traditional freedom, but that we have to gain a new kind of freedom, one which enables us to realize our own individual self; to have faith in this self and in life.

The pleasure in complete domination over another person (or other animate creature) is the very essence of the sadistic drive. Another way of formulating the same thought is to say that the aim of sadism is to transform man into a thing, something animate into something inanimate, since by complete and absolute control the living loses one essential quality of life - freedom.

Escape from Freedom attempts to show, modern man still is anxious and tempted to surrender his freedom to dictators of all kinds, or to lose it by transforming himself into a small cog in the machine, well fed, and well clothed, yet not a free man but an automaton.

The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots.

Freedom to creat and construct, to wonder and to venture. Such freedom requires that the individual be active and responsible, not a slave or a well-fed cog in the machine . . . It is not enough that men are not slaves; if social conditions further the existence of automatons, the result will not be love of life, but love of death.

The ultimate choice for a man, in as much as he is given to transcend himself, is to create or destroy, to love or to hate.

We owe nobody an explanation or an accounting, as long as our acts do not hurt or infringe on them.

We have been compelled to recognize that millions in Germany were as eager to surrender their freedom as their fathers were to fight for it; that instead of wanting freedom, they sought for ways of escape from it; that other millions were indifferent and did not believe the defense of freedom to be worth fighting and dying for.

The right to express our thoughts, however, means something only if we are able to have thoughts of our own; freedom from external authority is a lasting gain only if the inner psychological conditions are such that we are able to establish our own individuality.

Let your deeds be judged, and from your deeds your real intentions, but know that a free person owes an explanation only to himself—to his reason and his conscience—and to the few who may have a justified claim for explanation.

They were more free, but they were more alone.