It is those moral and spiritual qualities which rise alone in free men which will fulfill the meaning of the word American. And with them will come centuries of further greatness to our country.
Freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order.
Freedom is not the right to do what we want but what we ought. Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us; to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.
America is not a mere body of traders; it is a body of free men. Our greatness is built upon our freedom is moral not material. We have a great ardor for gain; but we have a deep passion for the rights of man.
When people talk of the freedom of writing speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more.
Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty.
If we can implant in our people the Christian virtues which we sum up in the word character and at the same time give them a knowledge of the line which should be drawn between voluntary action and governmental compulsion in a democracy and of what can be accomplished within the stern laws of economics we will enable them to retain their freedom and at the same time make them worthy to be free.
We are free when our actions emanate from our total personality when they express it when they resemble it in the indefinable way a work of art sometimes does the artist.
On the Fourth of July 1826 America celebrated its Jubilee the Fiftieth Anniversary of Independence. John Adams second President of the United States died that day aged ninety while from Maine to Georgia bells rang and cannon boomed. And on that sameday Thomas Jefferson died before sunset in Virginia. In their dying in that swift so aptly celebrated double departure is something which shakes an American to the heart. It was not their great fame their long lives or even the record of their work that made these two seem indestructible. It was their faith their bounding unquenchable faith in the future their sure immortal belief that mankind if it so desired could be free.
Freedom is no heritage. Preservation of freedom is a fresh challenge and a fresh conquest for each generation. It is based on the religious concept of the dignity of man. The discovery that man is free is the greatest discovery of the ages.
To be free one needs constant and unrelenting vigilance over ones weaknesses. A vigilance which requires a moral energy most of us are incapable of manufacturing. We relax back into the moulds of habit. They are secure they bind us and keep us contained at the expense of freedom. To break the moulds to be heedless of the seductions of security is an impossible struggle but one of the few that count. To be free is to learn to test yourself constantly to gamble.
They have exiled me now from their society and I am pleased because humanity does not exile except the one whose noble spirit rebels against despotism and oppression. He who does not prefer exile to slavery is not free by any measure of freedom truth and duty.
Security is the priceless product of freedom. Only the strong can be secure and only in freedom can men produce those material resources which can secure them from want at home and against aggression from abroad.
Freedom is indivisible and when one man is enslaved all are not free. When all are free then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe.
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negros great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: I agree with you in the goal you seek but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for someone elses freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a more convenient season.
We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life of love of relationships. We leap at the flow of time and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency on duration on continuity; when the only continuity possible in life as in love is in growth in fluidity in freedom.
If you make a living if you earn your own money youre free – however free one can be on this planet.
You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other mans freedom. You can only be free if I am free.
Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.
For what avail the plough or sail Or land or life if freedom fail?
This man is freed from servile bands of hope to rise or fear to fall; Lord of himself though not of lands and leaving nothing yet hath all.
The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.
It is those moral and spiritual qualities which rise alone in free men which will fulfill the meaning of the word American. And with them will come centuries of further greatness to our country.
Freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order.
Our liberty depends on freedom of the press And that cannot be limited without being lost.
All theory is against the freedom of the will All experience for it.
Freedom is not the right to do what we want but what we ought. Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us; to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.
There are two good things in life – freedom of thought and freedom of action.
Is any man free except the one who can pass his life as he pleases?
Free people remember this maxim: We may acquire liberty But it is never recovered if it is once lost.
Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature and is determined in its actions by itself Alone.
A free society is a place where its safe to be unpopular.
America is not a mere body of traders; it is a body of free men. Our greatness is built upon our freedom is moral not material. We have a great ardor for gain; but we have a deep passion for the rights of man.
The United States is a land of free speech. Nowhere is speech freer not even here where we sedulously cultivate it even in its most repulsive form.
When people talk of the freedom of writing speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more.
Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty.
If we can implant in our people the Christian virtues which we sum up in the word character and at the same time give them a knowledge of the line which should be drawn between voluntary action and governmental compulsion in a democracy and of what can be accomplished within the stern laws of economics we will enable them to retain their freedom and at the same time make them worthy to be free.
A man is either free or he is not. There cannot be any apprenticeship for freedom.
I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom.
We are free when our actions emanate from our total personality when they express it when they resemble it in the indefinable way a work of art sometimes does the artist.
RITUALISM n. A Dutch Garden of God where He may walk in rectilinear freedom keeping off the grass.
On the Fourth of July 1826 America celebrated its Jubilee the Fiftieth Anniversary of Independence. John Adams second President of the United States died that day aged ninety while from Maine to Georgia bells rang and cannon boomed. And on that sameday Thomas Jefferson died before sunset in Virginia. In their dying in that swift so aptly celebrated double departure is something which shakes an American to the heart. It was not their great fame their long lives or even the record of their work that made these two seem indestructible. It was their faith their bounding unquenchable faith in the future their sure immortal belief that mankind if it so desired could be free.
There is never a better measure of what a person is than what he does when hes absolutely free to choose.
Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?
Freedom of expression is the matrix the indispensable condition of nearly every other form of freedom.
We are slaves of the law so that we may be able to be free. Legum servi sumus ut liberi esse possimus
Freedom hath a thousand charms to show That slaves howeer contented never know.
Freedom is no heritage. Preservation of freedom is a fresh challenge and a fresh conquest for each generation. It is based on the religious concept of the dignity of man. The discovery that man is free is the greatest discovery of the ages.
To be free one needs constant and unrelenting vigilance over ones weaknesses. A vigilance which requires a moral energy most of us are incapable of manufacturing. We relax back into the moulds of habit. They are secure they bind us and keep us contained at the expense of freedom. To break the moulds to be heedless of the seductions of security is an impossible struggle but one of the few that count. To be free is to learn to test yourself constantly to gamble.
I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free. Mankind will surely not deny to Harold Skimpole what it concedes to the butterflies!
Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.
History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
A free life cannot acquire many possessions because this is not easy to do without servility to mobs or monarchs….
The last of the human freedoms is to choose ones attitudes.
Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech. Written when he was 16.
You have freedom when youre easy in your harness.
They have exiled me now from their society and I am pleased because humanity does not exile except the one whose noble spirit rebels against despotism and oppression. He who does not prefer exile to slavery is not free by any measure of freedom truth and duty.
Only law can give us freedom.
We must face the fact that the preservation of individual freedom is incompatible with a full satisfaction of our views of distributive justice.
Security is the priceless product of freedom. Only the strong can be secure and only in freedom can men produce those material resources which can secure them from want at home and against aggression from abroad.
A man should never put on his good trousers when he goes out to battle for freedom or truth.
Freedoms just another word for nothin left to loose. And nothin aint nothin honey if it aint free.
Freedom is indivisible and when one man is enslaved all are not free. When all are free then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe.
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negros great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: I agree with you in the goal you seek but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for someone elses freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a more convenient season.
There are two freedoms the false where a man is free to do what he likes; the true where a man is free to do what he ought.
We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life of love of relationships. We leap at the flow of time and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency on duration on continuity; when the only continuity possible in life as in love is in growth in fluidity in freedom.