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.

I don’t mind how much my Ministers talk, so long as they do what I say.

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

We are not actually equal – humanity – if we are not allowed to freely love one another.

Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.

Where liberty is, there is my country.

With fools, there is no companionship. Rather than to live with men who are selfish, vain, quarrelsome, and obstinate, let a man walk alone.

Satisfaction consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of life.

What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.

My parents pretty much realized that I would do whatever I wanted, and that was it, really.

We are proud of the history of our country; we learned it in school and have grown up hearing of freedom, justice and human rights.

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

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.

Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist.

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They came through you but not from you and though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

We do not need the empire to give us anything.

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

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

In 1979, Iranians carried out an illegitimate act: They overthrew a tyrant that the United States had imposed and supported, and moved on an independent path, not following U.S. orders.

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

A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.

Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

I’m old enough and cranky enough now that if someone tried to tell me what to do, I’d tell them where to put it.

No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish.

I believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free.

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

Everyone now knows how to find the meaning of life within himself. But mankind wasn’t always so lucky. Less than a century ago, men and women did not have easy access to the puzzle boxes within them.

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.

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.

I am the freest author in the world.

I’m not looking for sympathy at all.

Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.

My desire to devolve authority has nothing to do with a wish to shirk responsibility.

America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.

Hermits have no peer pressure.

Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.

The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.

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.

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.

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

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.

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.

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.

The truth is, if we don’t learn to submit to authority, we won’t ever learn to submit to God.

I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment.

Colonies do not cease to be colonies because they are independent.

Nothing is more precious than independence and liberty.

I have always liked running, so it wasn’t particularly difficult to make it a habit. All you need is a pair of running shoes and you can do it anywhere. It does not require anybody to do it with, and so I found the sport perfectly fits me as a person who tends to be independent and individualistic.

Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.

I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Most people who ask for advice from others have already resolved to act as it pleases them.

To bear means to support the weight of that which is held. It is a sacred trust to bear the priesthood, which is the mighty power and authority of God.

Even as a child, Muhammad Ali got perverse pleasure out of being different. He liked the attention it got him, but most of all he just liked being himself: odd and independent.

Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.

Freedom is absolutely necessary for the progress in science and the liberal arts.

For the sake of peace and justice, let us move toward a world in which all people are at last free to determine their own destiny.

I got my own back.

Control is the source of strategic power.

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

Liberty doesn’t work as well in practice as it does in speeches.