Man is free at the instant he wants to be.
But in the loneliest desert the second metamorphosis occurs: the spirit here becomes a lion; it wants to capture freedom and be lord in its own desert.
Background photo by Roger Le Guen on flickr
World history is the progress of the consciousness of freedom.
Man is condemned to be free.
Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.
Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.
The first sigh of childhood is for liberty.
When you have time you have freedom.
Freedom has been wholly interpreted as a right, as a thing which people are entitled to claim, whereas what it really is above all is an obligation and a duty.
No contingency anywhere in the universe; no indifference; no liberty. While we act, we are, at the same time, acted upon.
I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.
This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined.
Within the given world, it is up to man to make the reign of freedom prevail; to carry off this supreme victory, men and women must, among other things and above and beyond their natural differentiations, affirm their brotherhood unequivocally.
Peace is liberty in tranquillity.
Truth is mysterious, elusive, always to be conquered. Liberty is dangerous, as hard to live with as it is elating. We must march toward these two goals, painfully but resolutely, certain in advance of our failings on so long a road.
Anything that increases freedom increases responsibility.
Poetry is the universal art of the spirit which has become free in itself and which is not tied down for its realization to external sensuous material; instead, it launches out exclusively in the inner space and the inner time of ideas and feelings.
Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free. True peace with oneself and with the world around us can only be achieved through the development of mental peace.
My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will.
It is through gainful employment that the woman has traversed most of the distance that separated her from the male; and nothing else can guarantee her liberty in practice.
At the root of our civilization, there is the freedom of each person of thought, of belief, of opinion, of work, of leisure.
The meaning of politics is freedom.
Our thoughts are free.
It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.
The sum of behaviour is to retain a man's dignity without intruding upon the liberty of others.
I am a lover of liberty. I will not and I cannot serve a party.
There is no such thing as slow freedom. Freedom is like a birth. Till we are fully free we are slaves.
Reason and freedom are incompatible with weakness.
It is in anguish that man becomes conscious of his freedom.
While poverty persists, there is no true freedom.
Background photo by Roger Le Guen on flickr
