Freedom Quotes

The most fought-for idea in human history, explored by those who won it, lost it, and fought to keep it.

28646 quotes

J
"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains."
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
J
"Freedom is the ability to do what you truly desire."
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
J
"Freedom is not the right to do whatever we wish but the strength to do what is right."
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
P
"Freedom is the birthright of all men."
Pierre Corneille
P
"Freedom demands responsibility."
Pierre Corneille
J
"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains."
Jean Racine
J
"Freedom demands responsibility."
Jean Racine
M
"Forced to eat what is set before you, but forced to admire what you prefer."
Molière
V
"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."
Voltaire
V
"It is forbidden to forbid."
Voltaire
V
"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it."
Voltaire
V
"Liberty is so sweet, one must defend it."
Voltaire
V
"Nothing is more important than freedom except wisdom."
Voltaire
V
"One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and imprisonment."
Voltaire
V
"It is forbidden to forbid thought and discourse."
Voltaire
S
"Freedom exists only in the imagination."
Stéphane Mallarmé
"I am my own master; I acknowledge no authority."
Charles Baudelaire
D
"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."
Denis Diderot
D
"True freedom comes from understanding necessity, not from imagining we are free."
Denis Diderot
D
"Every man is born with the right to think freely and speak truly."
Denis Diderot
D
"The most oppressive chains are those we forge in our own minds."
Denis Diderot
D
"The greatest luxury is the freedom to think and speak as one's conscience demands."
Denis Diderot
P
"The greatest chains are those we forge for ourselves through cowardice."
Pierre Corneille
P
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance and constant moral choice."
Pierre Corneille
J
"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains."
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
J
"I prefer liberty with danger to peace with slavery."
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
J
"To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man."
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
J
"To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects the freedom of others."
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
J
"All men naturally love freedom; yet few know how to use it well."
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
J
"True freedom is being master of oneself."
Jean-Jacques Rousseau