The only certain freedom’s in departure.

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

I have seen how leaders rule by intimidation. Leaders who demonize and dehumanize entire groups of people often do so because they have nothing else to offer. And I have seen how places that stifle the voices and dismiss the potential of their citizens are diminished: how they are less vital, less hopeful, less free.

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.

Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.

If proud Americans can be who they are and boldly stand at the altar with who they love then surely, surely we can give everyone in this country a fair chance at that great American Dream.

Capitalism has worked very well. Anyone who wants to move to North Korea is welcome.

Fortunately we’re not a public company – we’re a private group of companies, and I can do what I want.

Where liberty is, there is my country.

I felt extremely uncomfortable as the focal point, in the spotlight. I really like the behind the scenes role, because all my freedom is there.

It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.

I want to do a certain thing in the world, and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies.

Fighting for one’s freedom, struggling towards being free, is like struggling to be a poet or a good Christian or a good Jew or a good Muslim or good Zen Buddhist. You work all day long and achieve some kind of level of success by nightfall, go to sleep and wake up the next morning with the job still to be done. So you start all over again.

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.

To me, ideology is corrupt; it’s a parasite on religious structures. To be an ideologue is to have all of the terrible things that are associated with religious certainty and none of the utility. If you’re an ideologue, you believe everything that you think. If you’re religious, there’s a mystery left there.

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.

Now I do whatever I want.

We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.

It is amazing how a new child can refocus one’s direction seconds after its birth.

While discipline and freedom seem like they sit on opposite sides of the spectrum, they are actually very connected.

Judge Afiuni has suffered enough. She has been subject to acts of violence and humiliations to undermine her human dignity. I am convinced that she must be set free.

A lot of times, people feel that if they forgive the person who hurt them, then they will continue to take advantage of them or not take responsibility for what they did wrong.

I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in.

If anything is certain, it is that I myself am not a Marxist.

Confronted with the impossibility of remaining faithful to one’s beliefs, and the equal impossibility of becoming free of them, one can be driven to the most inhuman excesses.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

It was very lucky for me as a writer that I studied the physical sciences rather than English. I wrote for my own amusement. There was no kindly English professor to tell me for my own good how awful my writing really was. And there was no professor with the power to order me what to read, either.

Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother, never by killing him.

The truth is of course is that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time.

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.

The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.

In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

Fear is present when we forget that we are a part of God’s divine design. Learning to experience authentic love means abandoning ego’s insistence that you have much to fear and that you are in an unfriendly world. You can make the decision to be free from fear and doubt and return to the brilliant light of love that is always with you.

There’s not an American in this country free until every one of us is free.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

For more than four decades, the Libyan people have been ruled by a tyrant – Moammar Gaddafi. He has denied his people freedom, exploited their wealth, murdered opponents at home and abroad, and terrorized innocent people around the world – including Americans who were killed by Libyan agents.

The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit.

If society fits you comfortably enough, you call it freedom.

I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

Your true traveller finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty – his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure.

Man, so long as he remains free, has no more constant and agonizing anxiety than find as quickly as possible someone to worship.

The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.

Fashion is an imposition, a reign on freedom.

There can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty.

The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.

The highly functional infrastructure that surrounds us, particularly in the West, is a gift from our ancestors: the comparatively uncorrupt political and economic systems, the technology, the wealth, the lifespan, the freedom, the luxury, and the opportunity.

Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal.

Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past.

For all who love freedom and peace, the world without Saddam Hussein’s regime is a better and safer place.

I always had a knack for improvisation. I can write down the notes I play, but never really had a proper academic musical background. I suppose I’m blessed and cursed by the fact I have that freedom.

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves.

Men are never really willing to die except for the sake of freedom: therefore they do not believe in dying completely.

Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.

I think we must get rid of slavery, or we must get rid of freedom.

The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.