β
Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.
β
β
Virginia Woolf (A Room of Oneβs Own)
β
War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
β
β
George Orwell (1984)
β
I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.
β
β
Charlotte BrontΓ« (Jane Eyre)
β
The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.
β
β
Joe Klaas (The Twelve Steps to Happiness: A Practical Handbook for Understanding and Working the Twelve Step Programs for Alcoholism, Codependency, Eating Disorders, and Other Addictions)
β
Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin.
β
β
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
β
With freedom, flowers, books, and the moon, who could not be perfectly happy?
β
β
Oscar Wilde (De Profundis)
β
Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.
β
β
Mahatma Gandhi
β
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedomsβto choose oneβs attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose oneβs own way.
β
β
Viktor E. Frankl (Manβs Search for Meaning)
β
But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.
β
β
Aldous Huxley (Brave New World)
β
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.
β
β
SΓΈren Kierkegaard
β
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
β
β
Abraham Lincoln
β
I've found that there is always some beauty left -- in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you.
β
β
Anne Frank (The Diary of a Young Girl)
β
The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.
β
β
Coco Chanel
β
Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!
β
β
J.R.R. Tolkien
β
Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.
β
β
Jim Morrison
β
Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.
β
β
SΓΈren Kierkegaard (The Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Orienting Deliberation on the Dogmatic Issue of Hereditary Sin)
β
Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.
β
β
Toni Morrison (Beloved)
β
Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.
β
β
Bob Marley
β
The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear
β
β
Aung San Suu Kyi
β
Freedom lies in being bold.
β
β
Robert Frost
β
The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on an individual level. It's got to happen inside first.
β
β
Jim Morrison
β
Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.
β
β
Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead)
β
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.
β
β
Frank Herbert (Chapterhouse: Dune (Dune #6))
β
There is freedom waiting for you,
On the breezes of the sky,
And you ask "What if I fall?"
Oh but my darling,
What if you fly?
β
β
Erin Hanson
β
For me, literacy means freedom. For the individual and for society.
β
β
LeVar Burton
β
Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves
β
β
Abraham Lincoln (Complete Works - Volume XII)
β
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.
β
β
Arthur Schopenhauer (Essays and Aphorisms)
β
When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.
β
β
Nelson Mandela
β
If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.
β
β
Noam Chomsky
β
When I discover who I am, Iβll be free.
β
β
Ralph Ellison (Invisible Man)
β
You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.
β
β
Toni Morrison (Song of Solomon)
β
I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us.
β
β
Kahlil Gibran (The Madman)
β
We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.
β
β
William Faulkner (Essays, Speeches & Public Letters)
β
The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.
β
β
Wole Soyinka
β
Time to leave now, get out of this room, go somewhere, anywhere; sharpen this feeling of happiness and freedom, stretch your limbs, fill your eyes, be awake, wider awake, vividly awake in every sense and every pore.
β
β
Stefan Zweig (The Post-Office Girl)
β
We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom.
We lived in the gaps between the stories.
β
β
Margaret Atwood (The Handmaidβs Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1))
β
Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.
β
β
Sigmund Freud (Civilization and Its Discontents)
β
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
β
β
Benjamin Franklin (Memoirs of the life & writings of Benjamin Franklin)
β
True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline.
β
β
Mortimer J. Adler (How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading)
β
The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.
β
β
David Foster Wallace (This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life)
β
Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.
β
β
Jean-Paul Sartre
β
In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is Freedom, in water there is bacteria.
β
β
Benjamin Franklin
β
No one loses anyone, because no one owns anyone. That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it
β
β
Paulo Coelho (Eleven Minutes)
β
A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself-and especially to feel, or not feel. Whatever you happen to be feeling at any moment is fine with them. That's what real love amounts to - letting a person be what he really is.
β
β
Jim Morrison
β
The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you.
β
β
David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest)
β
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
β
β
George Orwell (1984)
β
Reality doesn't impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls.
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β
AnaΓ―s Nin (Incest: From "A Journal of Love": The Unexpurgated Diary of AnaΓ―s Nin, 1932-1934)
β
I let go. Lost in oblivion. Dark and silent and complete. I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom.
β
β
Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club)
β
And I realizedβI realized how badly I'd been treated before, if my standards had become so low. If the freedom I'd been granted felt like a privilege and not an inherent right.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2))
β
The secret of happiness is freedom, the secret of freedom is courage.
β
β
Carrie Jones (Need (Need, #1))
β
Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything - anger, anxiety, or possessions - we cannot be free.
β
β
Thich Nhat Hanh (The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation)
β
You see, freedom has a way of destroying things.
β
β
Scott Westerfeld (Extras (Uglies, #4))
β
Now that she had nothing to lose, she was free.
β
β
Paulo Coelho (Eleven Minutes)
β
I do not think, sir, you have any right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.
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β
Charlotte BrontΓ« (Jane Eyre)
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A concept is a brick. It can be used to build a courthouse of reason. Or it can be thrown through the window.
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β
Gilles Deleuze (A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia)
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The unhappiest people in this world, are those who care the most about what other people think.
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β
C. JoyBell C.
β
The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better.
β
β
George Orwell (1984)
β
And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about.
β
β
John Steinbeck (East of Eden)
β
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
β
β
George Orwell
β
Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.
β
β
Stephen King (Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption)
β
Religion is like a pair of shoes.....Find one that fits for you, but don't make me wear your shoes.
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β
George Carlin
β
I'm single because I was born that way.
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β
Mae West
β
Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won't have as much censorship because we won't have as much fear.
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β
Judy Blume
β
Jane, be still; don't struggle so like a wild, frantic bird, that is rending its own plumage in its desperation."
"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being, with an independent will; which I now exert to leave you.
β
β
Charlotte BrontΓ« (Jane Eyre)
β
The world says: "You have needs -- satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty. Don't hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more." This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder.
β
β
Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Brothers Karamazov)
β
The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it.
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β
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (The Sorrows of Young Werther)
β
I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
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β
Thomas Jefferson
β
Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.
It is up to you to give [life] a meaning.
β
β
Jean-Paul Sartre
β
No matter what happens," she said quietly, "I want to thank you."
Chaol tilted his head to the side. "For what?"
Her eyes stung but she blamed it on the fierce wind and blinked away the dampness. "For making my freedom mean something.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1))
β
I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
β
β
Robert A. Heinlein
β
But the Hebrew word, the word timshelββThou mayestββ that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if βThou mayestββit is also true that βThou mayest not.
β
β
John Steinbeck (East of Eden)
β
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
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β
S.G. Tallentyre (The Friends of Voltaire)
β
The first duty of a man is to think for himself
β
β
JosΓ© MartΓ
β
I am not an angel,' I asserted; 'and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself. Mr. Rochester, you must neither expect nor exact anything celestial of me - for you will not get it, any more than I shall get it of you: which I do not at all anticipate.
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β
Charlotte BrontΓ« (Jane Eyre)
β
The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.
β
β
Ayn Rand
β
Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.
β
β
Albert Einstein
β
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
β
β
Abraham Lincoln
β
Life is too short to waste any amount of time on wondering what other people think about you. In the first place, if they had better things going on in their lives, they wouldn't have the time to sit around and talk about you. What's important to me is not others' opinions of me, but what's important to me is my opinion of myself.
β
β
C. JoyBell C.
β
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery.
None but ourselves can free our minds.
β
β
Bob Marley
β
Better to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees.
β
β
Jean-Paul Sartre
β
I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions.
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β
George Carlin
β
I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an ass of yourself.
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β
Oscar Wilde
β
I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.
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β
Mary Wollstonecraft (A Vindication of the Rights of Woman)
β
Pain is a pesky part of being human, I've learned it feels like a stab wound to the heart, something I wish we could all do without, in our lives here. Pain is a sudden hurt that can't be escaped. But then I have also learned that because of pain, I can feel the beauty, tenderness, and freedom of healing. Pain feels like a fast stab wound to the heart. But then healing feels like the wind against your face when you are spreading your wings and flying through the air! We may not have wings growing out of our backs, but healing is the closest thing that will give us that wind against our faces.
β
β
C. JoyBell C.
β
Keep your best wishes, close to your heart and watch what happens
β
β
Tony DeLiso (Legacy: The Power Within: The Power Within)
β
Marriage is a fine institution, but I'm not ready for an institution.
β
β
Mae West (The 2,548 Best Things Anybody Ever Said)
β
If you truly want to be respected by people you love, you must prove to them that you can survive without them.
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β
Michael Bassey Johnson (The Infinity Sign)
β
If you want to rebel, rebel from inside the system.That's much more powerful than rebelling outside the system.
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β
Marie Lu (Legend (Legend, #1))
β
He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.
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β
Aristotle
β
Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.
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β
Henry David Thoreau
β
I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
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β
Audre Lorde
β
No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
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β
Nelson Mandela (Long Walk to Freedom)
β
Itβs probably not just by chance that Iβm alone. It would be very hard for a man to live with me, unless heβs terribly strong. And if heβs stronger than I, Iβm the one who canβt live with him. β¦ Iβm neither smart nor stupid, but I donβt think Iβm a run-of-the-mill person. Iβve been in business without being a businesswoman, Iβve loved without being a woman made only for love. The two men Iβve loved, I think, will remember me, on earth or in heaven, because men always remember a woman who caused them concern and uneasiness. Iβve done my best, in regard to people and to life, without precepts, but with a taste for justice.
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β
Coco Chanel
β
The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side-by-side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky.
β
β
Rainer Maria Rilke (Letters to a Young Poet)
β
I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.
β
β
Nelson Mandela (Long Walk to Freedom: Autobiography of Nelson Mandela)
β
They say a good love is one that sits you down, gives you a drink of water, and pats you on top of the head. But I say a good love is one that casts you into the wind, sets you ablaze, makes you burn through the skies and ignite the night like a phoenix; the kind that cuts you loose like a wildfire and you can't stop running simply because you keep on burning everything that you touch! I say that's a good love; one that burns and flies, and you run with it!
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β
C. JoyBell C.
β
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
β
β
C.S. Lewis
β
Love is . . . Being happy for the other person when they are happy, Being sad for the person when they are sad, Being together in good times, And being together in bad times.
LOVE IS THE SOURCE OF STRENGTH.
Love is . . . Being honest with yourself at all times, Being honest with the other person at all times, Telling, listening, respecting the truth, And never pretending.
LOVE IS THE SOURCE OF REALITY.
Love is . . . An understanding so complete that you feel as if you are a part of the other person, Accepting the other person just the way they are, And not trying to change them to be something else.
LOVE IS THE SOURCE OF UNITY.
Love is . . . The freedom to pursue your own desires while sharing your experiences with the other person, The growth of one individual alongside of and together with the growth of another individual.
LOVE IS THE SOURCE OF SUCCESS.
Love is . . . The excitement of planning things together, The excitement of doing things together.
LOVE IS THE SOURCE OF THE FUTURE.
Love is . . . The fury of the storm, The calm in the rainbow.
LOVE IS THE SOURCE OF PASSION.
Love is . . . Giving and taking in a daily situation, Being patient with each other's needs and desires.
LOVE IS THE SOURCE OF SHARING.
Love is . . . Knowing that the other person will always be with you regardless of what happens, Missing the other person when they are away but remaining near in heart at all times.
LOVE IS THE SOURCE OF SECURITY.
LOVE IS . . . THE SOURCE OF LIFE!
β
β
Susan Polis Schutz
β
Equality is not a concept. It's not something we should be striving for. It's a necessity. Equality is like gravity. We need it to stand on this earth as men and women, and the misogyny that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition. It is life out of balance, and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman who's confronted with it. We need equality. Kinda now.
β
β
Joss Whedon
β
Don't exist.
Live.
Get out, explore.
Thrive.
Challenge authority. Challenge yourself.
Evolve.
Change forever.
Become who you say you always will. Keep moving. Don't stop. Start the revolution. Become a freedom fighter. Become a superhero. Just because everyone doesn't know your name doesn't mean you dont matter.
Are you happy? Have you ever been happy? What have you done today to matter? Did you exist or did you live? How did you thrive?
Become a chameleon-fit in anywhere. Be a rockstar-stand out everywhere. Do nothing, do everything. Forget everything, remember everyone. Care, don't just pretend to. Listen to everyone. Love everyone and nothing at the same time. Its impossible to be everything,but you can't stop trying to do it all.
All I know is that I have no idea where I am right now. I feel like I am in training for something, making progress with every step I take. I fear standing still. It is my greatest weakness.
I talk big, but often don't follow through. That's my biggest problem. I don't even know what to think right now. It's about time I start to take a jump. Fuck starting to take. Just jump-over everything. Leap.
It's time to be aggressive. You've started to speak your mind, now keep going with it, but not with the intention of sparking controversy or picking a germane fight. Get your gloves on, it's time for rebirth. There IS no room for the nice guys in the history books.
THIS IS THE START OF A REVOLUTION. THE REVOLUTION IS YOUR LIFE. THE GOAL IS IMMORTALITY. LET'S LIVE, BABY. LET'S FEEL ALIVE AT ALL TIMES. TAKE NO PRISONERS. HOLD NO SOUL UNACCOUNTABLE, ESPECIALLY NOT YOUR OWN. IF SOMETHING DOESN'T HAPPEN, IT'S YOUR FAULT.
Make this moment your reckoning. Your head has been held under water for too long and now it is time to rise up and take your first true breath.
Do everything with exact calculation, nothing without meaning. Do not make careful your words, but make no excuses for what you say. Fuck em' all. Set a goal for everyday and never be tired.
β
β
Brian Krans (A Constant Suicide)