Freedom is something that can apply to many things in life. Work, family, school, you name it, each of these can influence your everyday life in some way. That’s exactly how many of the famous freedom quotes came to life. Be it directly, or from external factors, one can often feel chained down in place, with seemingly no way to break free. And that’s where the hope for the wind of change takes birth.
These inspiring and powerful quotes speak about the fundamental core of freedom, how it is not something that can be given but only taken away, and how it’s the sole thing in our lives that makes life worth living
Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela share their wisdom, as well as more creative-sided people like Bob Marley and George Orwell emit a creative insight into how they view freedom too. People might express their thoughts in different words; however, the core remains the same, as you will see in these famous quotes about freedom.
If you have ever wondered what the top freedom quotes might be, this list will give you a very clear idea. Dive into this collection, vote for your favorites, and absorb the wisdom from some of the most celebrated people in the world.
#1
“Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” – George Orwell
#2
“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves.” ― Abraham Lincoln
#3
“Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.” ― Sigmund Freud, ‘Civilization and Its Discontents’
#4
“There’s no freedom quite like the freedom of being constantly underestimated.” ― Scott Lynch
#5
“Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.” – Kahlil Gibran
#6
“Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.” ― Bob Marley
#7
“Freedom cannot be given… It can only be taken away.” ― David Allan Coe
#8
“Freedom is… the right to write the wrong words.” ― Patti Smith
#9
“Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be.” ― James Baldwin
#10
“Freedom is something that dies unless it’s used.” ― Hunter S. Thompson
#11
“The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.” ― Maximilien Robespierre
#12
“The enemies of freedom do not argue; they shout and they shoot.” ― William Inge
#13
“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” – Nelson Mandela
#14
“May we think of freedom, not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right.” – Peter Marshall
#15
“A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.” ― Milton Friedman
#16
“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.” – Winston Churchill
#17
“The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.” – Aung San Suu
#18
“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” ― Joe Klaas
#19
“You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” – Malcolm X
#20
“Some birds are not meant to be caged, that’s all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them, they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.” – Stephen King
#21
“I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.” ― Nikos Kazantzakis
#22
“Freedom is control in your own life.” ― Willie Nelson
#23
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.” – Charlotte Bronte
#24
“Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.” – Ayn Rand
#25
“I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us.” ― Kahlil Gibran
#26
“No one loses anyone, because no one owns anyone. That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it.” ― Paulo Coelho, ‘Eleven Minutes’
#27
“Freedom is the oxygen without which science cannot breathe.” ― David Sarnoff
#28
“Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.” – Epictetus
#29
“Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be.” – Daniel J. Boorstin
#30
“Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.” – Albert Einstein
#31
“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” ― George Orwell, ‘1984’
#32
“When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.” ― Nelson Mandela
#33
“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” ― Noam Chomsky
#34
“The secret of happiness is freedom, the secret of freedom is courage.” ― Carrie Jones
#35
“If you want to rebel, rebel from inside the system.That’s much more powerful than rebelling outside the system.” ― Marie Lu, ‘Legend’
#36
“I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.” ― Jean-Jacques Rousseau
#37
“Freedom cannot be bestowed. It must be achieved.” – Elbert Hubbard
#38
“No one outside ourselves can rule us inwardly. When we know this, we become free.” – Buddha
#39
“When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free.” – Charles Evans Hughes
#40
“To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves.” ― Virginia Woolf
#41
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” ― John Philpot Curran
#42
“Freedom is fragile and must be protected. To sacrifice it, even as a temporary measure, is to betray it.” ― Germaine Greer
#43
“I’ve never understood why people consider youth a time of freedom and joy. It’s probably because they have forgotten their own.” ― Margaret Atwood
#44
“We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.” – William Faulkner
#45
“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” ― Virginia Woolf
#46
“Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin.” ― John Green, ‘The Fault in Our Stars’
#47
“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.” ― Søren Kierkegaard
#48
“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.” ― Jim Morrison
#49
“Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre
#50
“You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don’t ever count on having both at once.” ― Robert A. Heinlein
#51
“Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” – Pope John Paul II
#52
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” – Thomas Paine
#53
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” – Albert Camus
#54
“Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.” – Moshe Dayan
#55
“Just living is not enough… one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” ― Hans Christian Andersen
#56
“Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.” – Albert Camus
#57
“Equality and freedom are not luxuries to lightly cast aside. Without them, order cannot long endure before approaching depths beyond imagining.” ― Alan Moore, ‘V for Vendetta’
#58
“I think about freedom as not only as the absence of oppression but also the presence of justice and joy.” ― DeRay Mckesson
#59
“May we think of freedom not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right.” – Peter Marshall
#60
“Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity.” – Herbert Hoover
#61
“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” ― Coco Chanel
#62
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” ― Benjamin Franklin
#63
“Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.” ― Toni Morrison, ‘Beloved’
#64
“The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you.” ― David Foster Wallace, ‘Infinite Jest’
#65
“A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.” ― Arthur Schopenhauer
#66
“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. It is up to you to give [life] a meaning.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre
#67
“The first duty of a man is to think for himself.” ― Jose Marti
#68
“He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.” ― Aristotle
#69
“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything – anger, anxiety, or possessions – we cannot be free.” ― Thich Nhat Hanh
#70
“Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?” ― Kurt Vonnegut
#71
“Tame birds sing of freedom. Wild birds fly.” – John Lennon
#72
“Independence is a heady draft, and if you drink it in your youth, it can have the same effect on the brain as young wine does. It does not matter that its taste is not always appealing. It is addictive, and with each drink, you want more.” – Maya Angelou
#73
“I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom.” – Bob Dylan
#74
“I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
#75
“For what avail the plow or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail?” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
#76
“No man is good enough to be another’s master.” ― William Morris
#77
“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.” ― John Stuart Mill
#78
“Freedom is contagious. That’s why despots fear it so much.” ― Bill Owens
#79
“Freedom rings where opinions clash.” ― Adlai Stevenson I
#80
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” ― Audre Lorde
#81
“She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom!” ― Nathaniel Hawthorne, ‘The Scarlet Letter’
#82
“The great revolution in the history of man, past, present and future, is the revolution of those determined to be free.” – John F. Kennedy
#83
“I’d like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free and wanted other people to be also free.” – Rosa Parks
#84
“Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose – and commit myself to – what is best for me.” ― Paulo Coelho, ‘The Zahir’
#85
“Forgetfulness is a form of freedom.” ― Kahlil Gibran
#86
“Liberty without learning is always in peril and Learning without liberty is always in vain.” ― John F. Kennedy
#87
“Man’s right to know, to learn, to inquire, to make bona fide errors, to investigate human emotions must, by all means, be safe, if the word “freedom” should ever be more than an empty political slogan.” ― Wilhelm Reich
#88
“Most modern freedom is at root fear. It is not so much that we are too bold to endure rules; it is rather that we are too timid to endure responsibilities.” ― G.K. Chesterton, ‘What’s Wrong with the World’
#89
“The rewards of freedom are always sweet, but its demands are stern, for at its heart is the paradox that the greatest enemy of freedom is freedom.” ― Os Guinness
#90
“Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.” ― Martin Luther King, Jr.
#91
“Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.” – Mahatma Gandhi
#92
“From every mountainside, let freedom ring.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
#93
“Those who won our independence… valued liberty as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.” – Louis D. Brandeis
#94
“When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.” ― Ralph Ellison, ‘Invisible Man’
#95
“Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won’t have as much censorship because we won’t have as much fear.” ― Judy Blume
#96
“True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline.” ― Mortimer J. Adler
#97
“The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, ‘The Sorrows of Young Werther’
#98
“Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.” ― Rosa Luxemburg
#99
“There was beauty in the idea of freedom, but it was an illusion. Every human heart was chained by love.” ― Cassandra Clare, ‘Lady Midnight’
#100
“A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself.” ― Jim Morrison
#101
“Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
#102
“The secret to happiness is freedom, and the secret to freedom is courage.” – Thucydides
#103
“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” – Viktor Frankl
#104
“What do you suppose will satisfy the soul, except to walk free, and own no superior?” – Walt Whitman
#105
This is my doctrine: Give every other human being every right you claim for yourself.” ― Robert G. Ingersoll
#106
“Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.” ― Marie Rutkoski, ‘The Winner’s Curse’
#107
“Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.” ― Albert Einstein
#108
“I am writing because they told me to never start a sentence with because. But I wasn’t trying to make a sentence—I was trying to break free. Because freedom, I am told, is nothing but the distance between the hunter and its prey.”
― Ocean Vuong, ‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’
#109
“We feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom.”
― Slavoj Žižek
#110
“Freedom is the recognition of necessity.” ― Friedrich Engels
#111
“Free speech carries with it some freedom to listen.” ― Warren E. Burger
#112
“I want freedom for the full expression of my personality.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
#113
“You only are free when you realize you belong no place — you belong every place — no place at all.” ― Maya Angelou
#114
“People have the right to call themselves whatever they like. That doesn’t bother me. It’s other people doing the calling that bothers me.” ― Octavia E. Butler
#115
“Human dignity is based upon freedom, and freedom upon human dignity. The one presupposes the other.” ― Rollo May
#116
“There’s fear or faith. If you’re living by fear, then you’re always looking for security. If you’re living by faith, then you’re always looking for freedom.” ― William Hurt
#117
“The pillars of truth and the pillars of freedom – they are the pillars of society.” ― Henrik Ibsen
#118
“This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
#119
“In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
#120
“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can’t be any large-scale revolution until there’s a personal revolution, on an individual level. It’s got to happen inside first.” ― Jim Morrison
#121
“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.” ― Robert A. Heinlein
#122
“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.”
― David Foster Wallace
#123
“There is more than one kind of freedom,” said Aunt Lydia. “Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it.” ― Margaret Atwood, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
#124
“Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. I don’t believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others.” – Coretta Scott King
#125
“There are two freedoms—the false, where a man is free to do what he likes, the true, where he is free to do what he ought.” – Charles Kingsley
#126
“Our responsibility as citizens is to address the inequalities and injustices that linger, and we must secure our birthright freedoms for all people.” – Barack Obama
#127
“You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man’s freedom.” ― Clarence Darrow
#128
“Nothing speaks so strongly of freedom as the fact that the descendants of those who went through great agony — which, thank Heaven, has passed away — have now full opportunities and can help celebrate my fifty years’ work for liberty.” ― Susan B. Anthony
#129
“In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued – they may be essential to survival.” ― Noam Chomsky
#130
“Freedom is sloppy. But since tyranny’s the only guaranteed byproduct of those who insist on a perfect world, freedom will have to do.” ― Bill Willingham, ‘Fables – Werewolves of the Heartland’
#131
“I think it only makes sense to seek out and identify structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination in every aspect of life, and to challenge them; unless a justification for them can be given, they are illegitimate, and should be dismantled, to increase the scope of human freedom.” ― Noam Chomsky
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