Freedom Quotes

"Social roles become prisons when we forget they are merely constructed performances."

"Surveillance creates self-surveillance, which in turn creates self-control through internalized oppression."

"The loss of personal identity within institutional settings is not accidental but structural."

"The loss of individual identity is accelerated by anonymity and diffusion of responsibility."

"Institutional life strips away individuality through incremental surrenders of autonomy."

"The psychology of imprisonment shows us that freedom is fragile and easily surrendered."

"Consistency is the prison we build from our past decisions."

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that very existence of such a world is an affront."

"If I were a horse, I'd rather be a spirited horse who bucks and kicks than a well-behaved horse who obeys without question."

"When I am not prematurely evaluating, judging, or being protective, then I find the person is free to explore his own inner experiences."

"I experience so many times that my true thoughts and feelings are much better and clearer when I have released them."

"To be fully human one must be free to make choices, even if those choices lead to sorrow."

"The greatest prison is the one we construct in our own minds through acceptance of injustice."

"The individual who is forced to act against his conscience is a being deprived of inner freedom."

"Authority bypasses our sense of personal agency in troubling ways."

"Moral autonomy is perpetually under siege from social pressures."

"The person who administers harm under authority is not acting freely."

"Moral autonomy is harder to maintain than we typically acknowledge."

"Authority derives its power from our willingness to delegate moral responsibility."

"When we surrender our judgment to the group, we surrender something essential to our humanity."

"The mind under social pressure is not a free mind, though it may believe itself to be free."

"We are all susceptible to suggestion, but awareness of our susceptibility is a form of freedom."

"The group voice becomes tyrannical only when individual voices are forbidden."

"We are not determined by our heredity and environment; we make ourselves."

"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

"Every individual acts and is acted upon; is at once a doer and something done to."

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe."

"Freedom requires constant vigilance against those who would abuse power."

"The line between prison and freedom is often just a locked door."

"What men are prisoners of habit become masters of destiny."