Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.

Some books leave us free and some books make us free.

Dogmas are collective conceptual prisons. And the strange thing is that people love their prison cells because they give them a sense of security and a false sense of ‚I know.‘ Nothing has inflicted more suffering on humanity than its dogmas.

We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

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

It’s like the Wild West, the Internet. There are no rules.

Right now, when we’re hearing so much disturbing and hateful rhetoric, it is so important to remember that our diversity has been – and will always be – our greatest source of strength and pride here in the United States.

We will not waver; we will not tire; we will not falter, and we will not fail. Peace and Freedom will prevail.

Liberty consists in the power of doing that which is permitted by the law.

There’s something about death that is comforting. The thought that you could die tomorrow frees you to appreciate your life now.

I could have spent eight years doing anything, and at some level, it would have been fine. I could have focused on flowers. I could have focused on decor. I could have focused on entertainment. Because any First Lady, rightfully, gets to define her role. There’s no legislative authority; you’re not elected. And that’s a wonderful gift of freedom.

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.

Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.

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

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.

To be free is to have achieved your life.

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

I sometimes think that the price of liberty is not so much eternal vigilance as eternal dirt.

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 momentum of freedom in our world is unmistakable – and it is not carried forward by our power alone. We can trust in that greater power Who guides the unfolding of the years. And in all that is to come, we can know that His purposes are just and true.

In the literal sense, there has been no relevant evolution since the trek from Africa. But there has been substantial progress towards higher standards of rights, justice and freedom – along with all too many illustrations of how remote is the goal of a decent society.

Facts are not liberals‘ strong suit. Rhetoric is.

He only earns his freedom and his life Who takes them every day by storm.

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

Men freely believe that which they desire.

It is with your aid, as the people, that I think we shall be able to preserve – not the country, for the country will preserve itself, but the institutions of the country – those institutions which have made us free, intelligent and happy – the most free, the most intelligent, and the happiest people on the globe.

Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery.

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.

Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organize a belief.

Without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself, and dies of all others.

The next time someone tells you we can trim the budget by cutting aid, I hope you will ask whether it will come at the cost of more people dying.

I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

There is no more independence in politics than there is in jail.

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

The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom.

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.

Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?

You have to give others the opportunity to love who you love. If they don’t accept it, it’s their loss.

Only the educated are free.

The duty of rhetoric is to deal with such matters as we deliberate upon without arts or systems to guide us, in the hearing of persons who cannot take in at a glance a complicated argument or follow a long chain of reasoning.

You don’t have to turn on the TV set. You don’t have to work on the Internet. It’s up to you.

If you’re a surfer, you just want to surf. You don’t know if anyone’s going to see you, and you don’t really care if they see you. You just live for that feeling.

Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.

Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.

What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don’t like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don’t expect freedom to survive very long.

I will not leave South Africa, nor will I surrender. Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be won. The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days.

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

Nobody can tell me where I can and can’t go.

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.

One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.

Fidelity and allegiance sworn to the King is only such a fidelity and obedience as is due to him by the law of the land; for were that faith and allegiance more than what the law requires, we would swear ourselves slaves and the King absolute; whereas, by the law, we are free men, notwithstanding those oaths.

Excess of liberty, whether it lies in state or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery.

We do not need the empire to give us anything.

Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?

The men and women of Afghanistan are building a nation that is free, and proud, and fighting terror – and America is honored to be their friend.

Now I do whatever I want.

The best road to progress is freedom’s road.

Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.

All of us are in the same place, each with our own rooms, and we were allowed to do whatever we wanted. Which is totally different than college, where they manage your schedule for you. In the NBA, you’re on your own.

White people just don’t want their slaves to be free. That’s the whole thing.