Human Freedom Quotes

• The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.

  H. L. Mencken

  Time, Freedom, Fighting

  "Shut Down Chick-fil-A Properly" by James Peron, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 25, 2012.

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• Every human has four endowments - self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom... The power to choose, to respond, to change.

  Stephen Covey

  Change, Encouragement, Freedom

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• Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Patriotic

  Letter to Henry L. Pierce and Others, 6 Apr. 1859

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• Human freedom involves our capacity to pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight.

  Rollo May

  Wish, Weight, Capacity

  Rollo May (1994). “The Courage to Create”, p.100, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Inspirational, Leadership, Being Happy

  Viktor E. Frankl (2015). “Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition”, p.55, Beacon Press

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• Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Sarcastic, Freedom

  'The Soul of Man under Socialism'

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• One can choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Freedom, Attitude, Positive Thinking

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• The last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Life, Motivational, Inspiring

  "Man's Search for Meaning: A Young Adult Edition".

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• Fulfill - you can far more than fulfill - the brightest anticipations of those who, in the name of human freedom, and in the face of threats that have ripened into terrible realities since, fought that battle which placed you where you now stand.

  Robert Dale Owen

  Reality, Names, Battle

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• Karma is the eternal assertion of human freedom. . . . Our thoughts, our words, and deeds are the threads of the net which we throw around ourselves.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Karma, Freedom, Our Words

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• America has never seen itself as a national state like all others, but rather as an experiment in human freedom and democracy.

  Brent Scowcroft

  America, Democracy, States

  "The more intelligence I read, the more conservative I become" by George Brandis, www.theguardian.com. April 18, 2014.

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• Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Mean, Rights, Supremacy

  State of the Union Address - The Four Freedoms Speech, January 6, 1941.

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• Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry is own weight, this is a frightening prospect.

  Eleanor Roosevelt

  Growing Up, Freedom, 4th Of July

  Eleanor Roosevelt (1960). “You Learn by Living”, p.152, Westminster John Knox Press

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• Naturally, the common people don't want war ... but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.

  Hermann Goring

  Country, Peace, Military

  Interview in Göring's jail cell, April 18, 1946. "Nuremberg Diary". Book by Gustave Gilbert, 1947.

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• Naturally the common people don't want war. . . but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along. . .

  Hermann Goring

  Country, War, Simple

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• Brute force, no matter how strongly applied, can never subdue the basic human desire for freedom.

  Dalai Lama

  Peace, Freedom, Desire

  Dalai Lama XIV, Rajiv Mehrotra (2010). “In My Own Words: An Introduction to My Teachings and Philosophy”, p.138, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Freedom, Patriotic, Libertarian Party

  "Strictly Personal" by W. Somerset Maugham, (ch. 31), 1941.

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• The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders...tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.

  Hermann Goring

  Country, Peace, Freedom

  Quoted in Gustave M. Gilbert, Nuremberg Diary (1947).

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• Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.

  Nelson Mandela

  Freedom, Achievement, Reign

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Hero-worship is strongest where there is least regard for human freedom.

  Herbert Spencer

  Hero, Political, Atheism

  Herbert Spencer (1873). “Social Statics; Or, The Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, & the First of Them Developed”, p.461

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• I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom.

  Simone de Beauvoir

  Inspirational, Freedom, 4th Of July

  "Le sang des autres (The Blood of Others)". Book by Simone de Beauvoir, 1945.

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• Human rights are universal and indivisible. Human freedom is also indivisible: if it is denied to anyone in the world, it is therefore denied, indirectly, to all people. This is why we cannot remain silent in the face of evil or violence; silence merely encourages them.

  Vaclav Havel

  Rights, People, Evil

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• If we don't believe in free expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

  Noam Chomsky

  Inspirational, Relationship, Freedom

  Interview with John Pilger on BBC's "The Late Show", November 25, 1992.

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• The truth of human freedom lies in the love that breaks down barriers.

  Jürgen Moltmann

  Love, Inspirational, Truth

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• Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.

  Frederick Douglass

  Freedom, Patriotic, Men

  Speech, Canandaigua, N.Y., 4 Aug. 1857

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