In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued – they may be essential to survival.

It is not my nature, when I see a people borne down by the weight of their shackles – the oppression of tyranny – to make their life more bitter by heaping upon them greater burdens; but rather would I do all in my power to raise the yoke than to add anything that would tend to crush them.

The magistrates are the ministers for the laws, the judges their interpreters, the rest of us are servants of the law, that we all may be free.

Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.

In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.

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

Statistics show that of those who contract the habit of eating, very few survive.

We have the best government that money can buy.

I am the freest author in the world.

I can relax with bums because I am a bum. I don’t like laws, morals, religions, rules. I don’t like to be shaped by society.

Our public life withers when only the most extreme voices get attention. Most of all, democracy breaks down when the average person feels their voice doesn’t matter; that the system is rigged in favor of the rich or the powerful or some narrow interest.

I have heard of Texas pioneers living without bread or anything made from the cereals for months without suffering, using the breast-meat of wild turkeys for bread. Of this kind, they had plenty in the good old days when life, though considered less safe, was fussed over the less.

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.

Democratic societies are unfit for the publication of such thunderous revelations as I am in the habit of making.

Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

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.

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.

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.

It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.

Many people say that this is not an easy issue, we cannot just say that this is how it is, it’s not black and white. But I say that this is black and white. Either we stop the emissions or we don’t. There are no gray areas when it comes to survival.

I’m not one icon. I’m every icon. I’m an icon that is made out of all the colors on the palette at every time. I have no restrictions. No restrictions.

The best road to progress is freedom’s road.

He does not seem to me to be a free man who does not sometimes do nothing.

Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom – and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.

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.

Free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don’t attack each other. Free nations don’t develop weapons of mass destruction.

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‚within the limits of the law‘ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.

What’s real freedom? Real freedom is being able to not have my way and still be just as happy as if I did.

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

A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

It is not easy to see how the more extreme forms of nationalism can long survive when men have seen the Earth in its true perspective as a single small globe against the stars.

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

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.

I don’t think generally politician come from democratic country. I think not that thinking. But sometimes little bit short-sighted. They are mainly looking for their next vote.

Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.

Any unarmed people are slaves, or are subject to slavery at any given moment.

Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

We know what works. Freedom Works. We know what’s right. Freedom is right.

Freedom lies in being bold.

By any accepted standard, I have had more than nine lives. I counted them up once, and there were 13 times I almost and maybe should have died.

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

In South Africa, we could not have achieved our freedom and just peace without the help of people around the world, who through the use of non-violent means, such as boycotts and divestment, encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the Apartheid regime.

All the blood is drained out of democracy – it dies – when only half the population votes.

What the devil is the point of surviving, going on living, when it’s a drag? But you see, that’s what people do.

Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.

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.

No man is free who is not master of himself.

No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms.

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

I’ve been through natural disasters. I lived down in Miami and was down there for Hurricane Andrew which was a Category 5. There were members of my family that thought they were going to die. Everyone was in the bathtub.

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

While democracy in the long run is the most stable form of government, in the short run, it is among the most fragile.

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

Fifty years of isolating Cuba had failed to promote democracy, setting us back in Latin America. That’s why we restored diplomatic relations, opened the door to travel and commerce, and positioned ourselves to improve the lives of the Cuban people.

When you go to war as a boy, you have a great illusion of immortality. Other people get killed, not you… Then, when you are badly wounded the first time, you lose that illusion, and you know it can happen to you.

Fiction is such a world of freedom, it’s wonderful. If you want someone to fly, they can fly.