Poverty is the worst form of violence.
Mahatma GandhiTimid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
Thomas JeffersonNothing is more precious than independence and liberty.
Ho Chi MinhThe spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support.
Franz KafkaThose who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination.
Harry S. TrumanIf 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.
Michelle ObamaThe highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.
Baruch SpinozaNone are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheFreedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.
Mahatma GandhiDespotism can only exist in darkness, and there are too many lights now in the political firmament to permit it to remain anywhere, as it has heretofore done, almost everywhere.
James MadisonMy own feeling is that one should refuse to participate in any activity that implements American aggression – thus tax refusal, draft refusal, avoidance of work that can be used by the agencies of militarism and repression, all seem to me essential.
Noam ChomskyI’m opposed to any policy that would deny in our country any human being from access to public safety, public education, or public health, period.
Kamala HarrisWe can no longer save the world by playing by the rules.
Greta ThunbergIsrael is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people, both inside Israel and also in the Occupied Territories.
Alice WalkerI’m not for gay marriage, but I’m not for discriminating against people.
Joel OsteenNever, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.
Nelson MandelaSome of the most moving experiences I’ve had are just in black churches in the South, during the Civil Rights Movement, where people were getting beaten, killed, really struggling for the most elementary rights.
Noam ChomskyA black person grows up in this country – and in many places – knowing that racism will be as familiar as salt to the tongue. Also, it can be as dangerous as too much salt. I think that you must struggle for betterment for yourself and for everyone.
Maya AngelouPeople tell me that they are so hopeful when they see me and other children ‚school-striking,‘ and they say, ‚Oh the children are going to save us.‘ But no, we aren’t. We are too young to be able to do that. We don’t have time to wait for us to grow up and fix this in the future.
Greta ThunbergAmong a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist.
Edmund BurkeI grew up hearing stories about my grandmother – my mother’s mother – who used to go to villages in India in her little VW bug. My grandmother would take a bullhorn and make sure women in these villages knew how to access birth control.
Kamala HarrisIf you are living out of a sense of obligation you are slave.
Wayne DyerThe 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.
Marcus Tullius CiceroWhat’s real freedom? Real freedom is being able to not have my way and still be just as happy as if I did.
Joyce MeyerSurrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.
Salvador DaliI 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.
Anthony HopkinsIn matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.
Albert EinsteinI was not an activist.
Joe BidenOur single most important challenge is therefore to help establish a social order in which the freedom of the individual will truly mean the freedom of the individual.
Nelson MandelaI’ve never understood why people consider youth a time of freedom and joy. It’s probably because they have forgotten their own.
Margaret AtwoodFreedom is a possession of inestimable value.
Marcus Tullius CiceroTrayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.
Barack ObamaDACA recipients risk a lot to come out of the shadows & sign up, but many will tell you the risk is worth being able to live and work in the only country they’ve ever known as home. DACA recipients serve in our military, work in Fortune 100 companies, and conduct important medical research.
Kamala HarrisI learned to fly a few years ago in England. It’s the only place I’m completely alone – up in the air, detached from everything.
Angelina JolieIf you care about other people, you might try to organize to undermine power and authority. That’s not going to happen if you care only about yourself.
Noam ChomskyWhen you think of the sort of things that happen when a genocide happens, it’s again not people who are intrinsically evil.
Desmond TutuThe distinguishing sign of slavery is to have a price, and to be bought for it.
John RuskinWhen the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government – that is despotism.
Abraham LincolnAll human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory; they have no power over the substance of original justice.
Edmund BurkeEvery tyrant who has lived has believed in freedom for himself.
Elbert HubbardI feel like in my music I can be a rebel. I can say things I wouldn’t say in real life.
Taylor SwiftEverybody is a political person, whether you say something or you are silent. A political attitude is not whether you go to parliament; it’s how you deal with your life, with your surroundings.
Paulo CoelhoAnd every human being is precious.
Desmond TutuWithout culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.
Albert CamusIt was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence.
Abraham LincolnIn February 2004, the two traditional torturers of Haiti – France and the United States – combined to back a military coup and send President Aristide off to Africa. The U.S. denies him permission to return to the entire region.
Noam ChomskyThere is no such thing as part freedom.
Nelson MandelaThe right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time.
Jackie RobinsonOur greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.
Thomas JeffersonWe find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the history of former times tells us.
Abraham LincolnThe truth is I love being alive. And I love feeling free. So if I can’t have those things then I feel like a caged animal and I’d rather not be in a cage. I’d rather be dead. And it’s real simple. And I think it’s not that uncommon.
Angelina JolieI am worrying about my country. I feel I have a responsibility as a novelist to do something.
Haruki MurakamiIt is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.
Bertrand RussellThe people who tend to raise antiwar slogans will do so generally when it’s American or British interests involved.
Christopher HitchensTo deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.
Nelson MandelaI 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.
Michelle ObamaSlave to no sect, who takes no private road, But looks through Nature up to Nature’s God.
Alexander PopeI think that slavery is wrong, morally, socially and politically. I desire that it should be no further spread in these United States, and I should not object if it should gradually terminate in the whole Union.
Abraham LincolnAnd we have done more in the two and a half years that I’ve been in here than the previous 43 Presidents to uphold that principle, whether it’s ending ‚don’t ask, don’t tell,‘ making sure that gay and lesbian partners can visit each other in hospitals, making sure that federal benefits can be provided to same-sex couples.
Barack ObamaI 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.
Michelle Obama