Quotes about Freedom

I want to die, even though I don't have to.

Don't you want to be free of all that? [33] 'But how can I do it?' You've often heard how — you need to suspend desire completely, and train aversion only on things within your power. You should dissociate yourself from everything outside yourself — the body, possessions, reputation, books, applause, as well as office or lack of office. Because a preference for any of them immediately makes you a slave, a subordinate, and prone to disappointment.

Apropos of which, Diogenes says somewhere that one way to guarantee freedom is to be ready to die.

that you never be unfortunate or unhappy, but free, unrestricted and unrestrained; in sympathy with God's rule, which you submit to cheerfully; at odds with no one, no one's accuser; able in all sincerity to speak Cleanthes' line: 'Lead me, Zeus, lead me, Destiny.

And then we'll be emulating Socrates,* once we're able to write hymns of praise in prison.

Where are you going to find serenity and independence — in something free, or something enslaved?

Free is the person who lives as he wishes - And cannot be coerced, impeded, or compelled, whose impulses cannot be thwarted, who always gets what he desires, and never has to experience what he would rather avoid.

This is God's signal to you: if you want, you are free; if you want, you will blame no one, you will accuse no one - if you want, everything will happen according to plan, yours as well as God's.

If you wish to have peace and contentment, release your attachment to all things outside your control. This is the path of freedom and happiness. If you want not just peace and contentment, but power and wealth too, you may forfeit the former in seeking the latter, and will lose your freedom and happiness along the way.

It is less important whether we worship the holy spirit in the form of a tree, a woman, a man, or an animal than that we do worship and honor it. At the same time, we must accord each other the right to atheism or agnosticism - for religion becomes little more than fascism if it is compelled rather than self-motivated.

the stars seemed near enough to touch and never before have i seen so many. i always believed the lure of flying is the lure of beauty, but i was sure of it that night.

I never wanted to weigh more heavily on a man than a bird.