Free Man Quotes - Page 8

• Of all forms of government and society, those of free men and women are in many respects the most brittle. They give the fullest freedom for activities of private persons and groups who often identify their own interests, essentially selfish, with the general welfare.

  Dorothy Thompson

  Selfish, Men, Giving

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• It is not every man who can be a Christian, even in a very moderate sense, whatever education you give him. It is a matter of constitution and temperament, after all. He may have to be born again many times. I have known many a man who pretended to be a Christian, in whom it was ridiculous, for he had no genius for it. It is not every man who can be a free man, even.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Christian, Freedom, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Selected Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.152, Simon and Schuster

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• Treat all men alike.... give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who is born a free man should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. We only ask an even chance to live as other men live. We ask to be recognized as men. Let me be a free man...free to travel... free to stop...free to work...free to choose my own teachers...free to follow the religion of my Fathers...free to think and talk and act for myself.

  Dee Brown

  Running, Teacher, Father

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• Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which is not perfect.

  Eric Hoffer

  Fighting, Men, Perfect

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• African rights and liberty is a subject that ought to fire the breast of every free man of color in these United States, and excite in his bosom a lively, deep, decided and heart-felt interest.

  Maria W. Stewart

  Heart, Men, Fire

  Maria W. Stewart, Marilyn Richardson (1987). “Maria W. Stewart, America's First Black Woman Political Writer: Essays and Speeches”, p.56, Indiana University Press

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• Very few of our race can be said to be yet finished men. We still carry sticking to us some remains of the preceding inferior quadruped organization. We call these millions men; but they are not yet men. Half-engaged in the soil, pawing to get free, man needs all the music that can be brought to disengage him.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Race, Organization

  Ralph Waldo, Emerson, (2013). “Nature - Conduct of Life”, p.213, Read Books Ltd

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• Republicans define freedom as an absence of restraints imposed by government. Democrats define freedom as an absence of necessity, which government exists to reduce. America has not moved as far as it thinks it has beyond the argument about the New Deal, when FDR insisted, "Necessitous men are not free men."

  George Will

  Party, Men, Thinking

  "Monica And Other GOP Calamities" by George Will, www.sfgate.com. February 1, 1999.

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• If the choice is given to us of liberty or security, we must scorn the latter with the proper contempt of free man and the sound judgment of wise men who know that liberty and security are not incompatible in the lives of honest men.

  James Farley

  Wise, Men, Choices

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• The triumph of the philosophy of Atheism is to free man from the nightmare of gods; it means the dissolution of the phantoms of the beyond.

  Emma Goldman

  Philosophy, Mean, Men

  Emma Goldman (1915). “Mother Earth Bulletin”

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• Those who would be called tyrants cannot be called free men.

  Nathan Huggins

  Men, Tyrants, Would Be

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• Throughout my entire public career I have followed the personal philosophy that I am a free man, an American, a public servant, and a member of my party, in that order always and only.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  Philosophy, Party, Men

  On Vietnam and Not Seeking Reelection, delivered 31 March 1968

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• That mind which understands itself is the mind of a free man.

  L. Ron Hubbard

  Men, Mind

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• Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which is not perfect. They know that basic human problems can have no final solutions, that our freedom, justice, equality, etc. are far from absolute, and that the good life is compounded of half measures, compromises, lesser evils, and gropings toward the perfect. The rejection of approximations and the insistence on absolutes are the manifestation of a nihilism that loathes freedom, tolerance, and equity.

  Eric Hoffer

  Good Life, Fighting, Men

  "The Temper of Our Time". Book by Eric Hoffer, 1967.

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• What freedom am I being offered while the organization of the people remains banned? Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.

  Nelson Mandela

  Men, Organization, People

  Nelson Mandela, African National Congress (1986*). “Mandela speaks: statements from Nelson Mandela to the people of South Africa”

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• All the youth now in England of free men, who are rich enough to be able to devote themselves to it, be set to learn as long as they are not fit for any other occupation, until they are able to read English writing well.

  Alfred the Great

  Education, Writing, Men

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• There is no power in the world that can stop the forward march of free men and women when they are joined in the solidarity of human brotherhood.

  Walter Reuther

  Freedom, Power, Men

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• A free man is he that, in those things which by his strength and wit he is able to do, is not hindered to do what he has a will to.

  Thomas Hobbes

  Men, Liberty, Able

  1651 Leviathan, pt.2, ch.21.

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• Nac Mac Feegle! The Wee Free Men! Nae king! Nae quin! Nae laird! Nae master! We willna' be fooled again!

  Terry Pratchett

  Kings, Men, Masters

  Terry Pratchett, Jacqueline Simpson (2008). “The Folklore of Discworld”, Doubleday UK

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• The mere fact of leaving ultimate social control in the hands of the people has not guaranteed that men will be able to conduct their lives as free men. Those societies where men know they are free are often democracies, but sometimes they have strong chiefs and kings.they have, however, one common characteristic: they are all alike in making certain freedoms common to all citizens, and inalienable.

  Ruth Benedict

  Strong, Kings, Freedom

  Ruth Benedict (2011). “An Anthropologist at Work”, p.392, Transaction Publishers

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• They can only set free men free...
  And there is no need of that:
  Free men set themselves free.

  James Oppenheim

  Freedom, Men, Needs

  James Oppenheim (1914). “Songs for the New Age”

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• To the free man, the country is the collection of individuals who compose it, not something over and above them.

  Milton Friedman

  Country, Men, Individual

  Milton Friedman (2009). “Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition”, p.1, University of Chicago Press

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• Have you ever been up in your plane at night, alone, somewhere, 20,000 feet above the ocean?... Did you ever hear music up there?... It's the music a man's spirit sings to his heart, when the earth's far away and there isn't any more fear. It's the high, fine, beautiful sound of an earth-bound creature who grew wings and flew up high and looked straight into the face of the future. And caught, just for an instant, the unbelievable vision of a free man in a free world.

  Dalton Trumbo

  Beautiful, Freedom, Ocean

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• Freedom of mind is the real freedom. A person whose mind is not free though he may not be in chains, is a slave, not a free man. One whose mind is not free, though he may not be in prison, is a prisoner and not a free man. One whose mind is not free though alive, is no better than dead. Freedom of mind is the proof of one's existence.

  B. R. Ambedkar

  Real, Men, Mind

  "Political Science for Civil Services Main Examination". Book by N.D. Arora, 2010.

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• Our whole evolution has reached a stage where nearly every man is either ruler or ruled; sometimes he is both. By this the attitude of dependence has been greatly strengthened, for a truly free man does not like to play the part of either the ruler or the ruled. He is, above all, concerned with making his inner values and personal powers effective in a way as to permit him to use his own judgment in all affairs and to be independent in action.

  Rudolf Rocker

  Attitude, Independent, Men

  "Nationalism and Culture" by Rudolf Rocker, translated by Ray E. Chase, Book I, (Ch. 15), 1952.

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• The philosophers of antiquity taught contempt for work, that degradation of the free man, the poets sang of idleness, that gift from the Gods.

  Paul Lafargue

  Work, Men, Degradation

  Paul Lafargue (2016). “The Right to be Lazy and Other Studies”, p.4, Library of Alexandria

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