For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

Mandela’s heroism is the heroism of a man who suffered so badly for what he thought of as freedom. And yet when he had the upper hand he has this incredible self-control and these incredible leadership qualities.

The gift of loneliness is sometimes a radical vision of society or one’s people that has not previously been taken into account.

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

The place of justice is a hallowed place.

I think what you’re seeing is a profound recognition on the part of the American people that gays and lesbians and transgender persons are our brothers, our sisters, our children, our cousins, our friends, our co-workers, and that they’ve got to be treated like every other American. And I think that principle will win out.

To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves.

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.

Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everyone in good society holds exactly the same opinion.

There is but one stage for the peasant and the actor.

The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages.

It is clearly better that property should be private, but the use of it common; and the special business of the legislator is to create in men this benevolent disposition.

How do leaders serve their people? They may pay good wages and treat employees with respect.

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.

‚Fahrenheit 451‘ postulates a lot of things I didn’t want to have happen.

If we are not free, no one will respect us.

In the final choice a soldier’s pack is not so heavy as a prisoner’s chains.

High-quality early-childhood programs and health coverage have expanded, and the number of mentoring relationships for at-risk youth has risen dramatically. That progress is encouraging, but it’s not evenly distributed.

The clearest way to show what the rule of law means to us in everyday life is to recall what has happened when there is no rule of law.

We all have wings, but they have not been of any avail to us and if we could tear them off, we would do so.

The country has come a long way in race relations, but the pendulum swings so far back. Everyone wants to be so sensitive.

What constitutes a real, live human being is more of a mystery than ever these days, and men each one of whom is a valuable, unique experiment on the part of nature are shot down wholesale.

Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.

The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.

If you are living out of a sense of obligation you are slave.

The worst evil of disregard for some law is that it destroys respect for all law.

He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.

Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.

I find myself hoping a total end of all the unhappy divisions of mankind by party-spirit, which at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.

The best road to progress is freedom’s road.

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.

America is just downright mean.

When I don’t feel free and can’t do what I want I just react. I go against it.

I feel like in my music I can be a rebel. I can say things I wouldn’t say in real life.

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.

I wish I could say to all those people who consider themselves anarchists or radicals: Please join the nonviolent movement. This is how Gandhi freed India. If Gandhi freed India, we can certainly free the United States from our racism, misogyny, and bigotry.

I should tie myself to no particular system of society other than of socialism.

Everybody should have a fair deal; everybody should have the chance to life in this world. If we were evolved as human beings, we would hopefully be able to alleviate suffering in the world.

The internet could be a very positive step towards education, organisation and participation in a meaningful society.

If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists – to protect them and to promote their common welfare – all else is lost.

Men and women aren’t the same. And they won’t be the same. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be treated fairly.

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 speak to the black experience, but I am always talking about the human condition.

I love the women’s movement, and I never thought of it as belonging to any particular segment of the population.

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.

Humanity I love you because when you’re hard up you pawn your intelligence to buy a drink.

Modesty forbids what the law does not.

At the end of the day, the TV show is the best job in the world. I get to go anywhere I want, eat and drink whatever I want. As long as I just babble at the camera, other people will pay for it. It’s a gift.

Every tyrant who has lived has believed in freedom for himself.

I don’t join the New Atheists. So, for example, I wouldn’t have the arrogance to lecture some mother who hopes to see her dying child in Heaven – that’s none of my business, ultimately. I won’t lecture her on the philosophy of science.

When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect toward others.

If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.

Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel.

I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man.

Let’s not burn the universities yet. After all, the damage they do might be worse.

Learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty.

Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle.

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.

Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.

Blacks, especially in America, have been raised with a slave mentality – they don’t feel that they have the right to speak as loud as possible.

A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally.