"If there breathe on earth a slave, Are ye truly free and brave? If ye do not feel the chain, When it works a brother's pain, Are ye not base slaves indeed, Slaves unworthy to be freed?"

"I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. And I am not free as long as one person of Color remains chained. Nor is any one of you."

"This is a world of compensation; and he would be no slave must consent to have no slaves. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it."

"Men of good will are inclined to take freedom for granted. They believe that freedom, like the sun, will rise every morning. History has proved it can be blacked out for decades."

"While the State exists, there can be no freedom. When there is freedom there will be no State."

"Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in the ancient Greek republics: freedom for the slave-owners."

"“Freedom” is a grand word, but under the banner of freedom for industry the most predatory wars were waged, under the banner of freedom of labour, the working people were robbed. The modern use of the term “freedom of criticism” contains the same inherent falsehood. Those who are really convinced that they have made progress in science would not demand freedom for the new views to continue side by side with the old, but the substitution of the new views for the old. The cry heard today, “Long live freedom of criticism”, is too strongly reminiscent of the fable of the empty barrel."

"If a man lives under the delusion that he can do anything that he likes, and that the effect of his actions will never recoil upon himself, he will most certainly find that some of these actions eventually involve him in unhappiness and suffering."

"At times we see and struggle with our chain, And dream that somewhat we are freed, in vain; The mighty fetters close on us again."

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose Nothing ain't worth nothing but it's free"

"What universities are saying by these codes, special protections, and double standards — to women, to blacks, to Hispanics, to gay and lesbian students — is, "You are too weak to live with freedom. You are too weak to live with the First Amendment." If someone tells you you are too weak to live with freedom, they have turned you into a child."

"I wanted to be free. I wanted to express desires on my own, to shape my own little life."

"There are two freedoms — the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where a man is free to do what he ought."

"Freedom is never really won. You earn it and win it in every generation. That is what we have not taught young people, or older ones for that matter. You finally win a state of freedom that is protected forever. It doesn't work that way."

"I say to you that our goal is freedom, and I believe we are going to get there because however much she strays away from it, the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be as a people, our destiny is tied up in the destiny of America."

"The absence of freedom is the presence of death. Any nation or government that deprives an individual of freedom is in that moment committing an act of moral and spiritual murder. Any individual who is not concerned about his freedom commits an act of moral and spiritual suicide."

"Freedom only comes through persistent revolt, through persistent agitation, through persistently rising up against the system of evil."

"Ghana has something to say to us. It says to us first, that the oppressor never voluntarily gives freedom to the oppressed. You have to work for it. ... Freedom is never given to anybody. For the oppressor has you in domination because he plans to keep you there, and he never voluntarily gives it up. And that is where the strong resistance comes. Privileged classes never give up their privileges without strong resistance."

"Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free."

"This Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free."

"Only an educated and informed people will be a free people."

"While we shall never weary in the defense of freedom, neither shall we ever abandon the pursuit of peace."

"Our goal is not victory of might but the vindication of right — not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom, here in this hemisphere and, we hope, around the world. God willing, that goal will be achieved."

"While we shall negotiate freely, we shall not negotiate freedom."

"For to save mankind's future freedom, we must face up to any risk that is necessary."

"The basis of self-government and freedom requires the development of character and self-restraint and perseverance and the long view. And these are qualities which require many years of training and education."

"Conformity is the jailor of freedom."

"The great revolution in the history of man, past, present and future, is the revolution of those determined to be free."

"The gentlest and most insidious way we are dominated by the body politic is by the official versions of the good life that are implicit in advertising and propaganda. Happiness is a new car, a color TV—fill in the gap with your own “freely chosen” artificially stimulated desire."

"How does the light of a star set out and plunge into black eternity in its immortal course? The star dies, but the light never dies; such also is the cry of freedom."

"Free, yes, but freedom well understood."

"Freedom is the alone unoriginated birthright of man, and belongs to him by force of his humanity; and is independence on the will and co-action of every other in so far as this consists with every other person’s freedom."

"No one can flatter himself that he is immune to the spirit of his own epoch, or even that he possesses a full understanding of it. Irrespective of our conscious convictions, each one of us, without exception, being a particle of the general mass, is somewhere attached to, colored by, or even undermined by the spirit which goes through the mass. Freedom stretches only as far as the limits of our consciousness."

"One cannot restrain a dancing cow."

"Once the truth is denied to human beings, it is pure illusion to try to set them free. Truth and freedom either go together hand in hand or together they perish in misery."

"I think that freedom means being able to do what you want without harming others... Freedom isn't something given by the government. I think it is a God-given right, and you are born with this right as a human being... I only had a vague understanding of what freedom meant when I was back in North Korea... When I thought about freedom or rights, I thought it was a concept that was given under the great leader. Everything was subordinate to the great leader of North Korea."

"If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then ye will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

"Sometimes, the path to freedom is best understood from the ground up."

"The most effective way of gaining our freedom is not through violence."

"Come all you true friends of the nation, attend to humanity's call! Oh aid of the slaves' liberation and roll on the liberty ball. We'll finish the temple of freedom, and make it capacious within. That all who seek shelter may find it, whatever the hue of their skin. Success to the old fashioned doctrine, that men are created all free, and down with the power of the despot, wherever his stronghold may be. They'll find what, by felling and mauling, our rail-maker statesman can do. For the people are everywhere calling, for Lincoln and Liberty too."

"Freedom cannot be bestowed — it must be achieved."

"The ‘normal’ woman knows that, given freedom and equality before the law, she can be trusted to safeguard her own interests as wife, mother, daughter, or what you will."

"Those who lack the capacity to achieve much in an atmosphere of freedom will clamor for power."

"Freedom gives us a chance to realize our human and individual uniqueness."

"The significant point is that people unfit for freedom — who cannot do much with it — are hungry for power. The desire for freedom is an attribute of a "have" type of self. It says: leave me alone and I shall grow, learn, and realize my capacities."

"You cannot make freedom into a dogma. Freedoms conflict. You have to decide which freedoms you wish to protect against other freedoms."

"Freedom is not a natural disposition, but God's precious gift to man. Those in whom viciousness becomes second-nature, those in whom brutality is linked with haughtiness, forfeit their ability and therefore their right to receive that gift. Hardening of the heart is the suspension of freedom."

"The opposite of freedom is not determinism, but hardness of heart. Freedom presupposes openness of heart, of mind, of eye and ear."

"I am free! I have burst through my heavy chain, The life of young eagles is mine again! I may cleave with my bark the glad sounding sea, I may rove where the wind roves—my path is free! . . . . . . . . Free!—thou art bound, till thy race is run, By the might of all on the soul of one! On thy heart, on thy lip, must the fetter be— Dreamer, fond dreamer! oh! who is free?"

"You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once."