What does freedom mean to you? Being free or living free, what does it mean for you? From freedom of expression to collective freedom, the very principle of freedom is so vast and so essential that it has been a topic of debate for centuries. In this article, I am offering 208 quotes about freedom that you should read right away in order to sharpen your mind as a free thinker!
While most people agree about a certain number of fundamental freedoms, definitions of freedom by thinkers of today and yesterday – philosophers, essayists, political figures, leaders, spiritual teachers, artists and citizens – remain broad and disparate. Opinions diverge and conflicting ideas emerge when it comes to freedom because it touches on human subjectivity.
We can all agree on one point: all human beings aspire to live freely. Passionate combats for freedom, led by men and women from every corner of the world, bear witness to this. Freedom is demanded in slogans, songs and poetry. The world continues to research and change the contours and limits in a society that is in constant evolution. This freedom is taken, claimed and sometime lost only to be born again in a different way. It remains a burning topic on the lips of the people who debate about its meaning.
The 208 quotes in this article talk about individual freedom, collective freedom, freedom of expression and opinion, financial freedom and inner freedom. They lead us to think about how we can earn our freedom and experience it in society. In any case, these quotes are an expression of a call to freedom, this human need we all feel to live freely.
1. Quotes to define what freedom means
Being free is…
- “Being free is knowing how to say no.” Jean-Paul Sartre
- “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
- “Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” Jean-Paul Sartre
- “Being free is not just about not possessing anything, it is about being possessed by nothing.” Julien Green
- “Being free is mastering oneself and the movements of one’s soul.” Christophe André
- “Being free is releasing you from any attachment, whether material or psychological.” Talal Ghosn
- “To be free is to be master of oneself. It means taking life into one’s own hand, instead of abandoning it to tendencies forged by habit and mental confusion.” Matthieu Ricard
- “Since freedom is no more than a sensation, what difference is there between being free and believing ourselves free?” Emil Cioran
- “The way towards ‘wisdom’ or towards ‘freedom’ is the way towards your inner being.” Mircea Eliade
- “Being free is firstly being freed from the need to understand.” Daniel Pennac
- “Being free is listening to your heart without causing harm to others.” Laurence Maron
- “To be free is to be in possession of oneself.” Henri Lacordaire
- “Being free is not doing whatever you want, but what you consider to be the best and most appropriate.” Joseph Joubert
- “Being free and alone means forgetting the present moment. It is finding a separate universe inside yourself that belongs to you alone and that you have not handed over to anyone.” Alice Parizeau
Freedom is…
- “Freedom is the ability to choose your constraints.” Jean-Louis Barrault
- “Freedom is independence of thought.” Epictetus
- “Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose – and commit myself to – what is best for me.” Paulo Coelho
- “Freedom is knowing how to dance with chains.” Friedrich Nietzsche
- “Liberty is the possibility of being and not the obligation to be.” René Magritte
- “Freedom is the power to choose who you want to be a slave to.” Jeanne Moreau
- “Freedom is ownership of oneself.” Nicolas Massias
- “Liberty is not the freedom to do whatever you want; it is the refusal to do what causes harm.” Alexandre Minkowski
- “Freedom is finding your own path and following it.” Xavier Brébion
- “Freedom is to stand alone, unattached and unafraid, free in the understanding of desire which breeds illusion.” Jiddu Krishnamurti
- “Liberty is the right of doing whatever the laws permit.” Montesquieu
- “Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.” Jean-Paul Sartre
- “Freedom is not a utopia, but an art of living.” Marie-France Ochsenbein
- “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
- “Liberty is the power that we have over ourselves.” Grotius
- “Liberty is not laziness, it is free use of time, it is the choice of work and exercise; being free, in a word, is not doing nothing, it is being the sole arbiter of what you do or don’t do.” Jean de La Bruyère
- “Freedom is not the possibility to carry out your every whim; it is the possibility to contribute to defining the constraints that are imposed on everyone.” Albert Jacquard
And true freedom is…
- “True freedom is to have power over oneself for everything.” Montaigne
- “True freedom is having nothing to lose: neither object, nor reputation, not affection.” Adelaïde de Clermont-Tonnerre
- “True freedom is the power to push back the limits of freedom as far as they will go.” Nicole Garcia
- “True freedom is to owe nothing to anyone, and true wealth is not expecting anything from others.” Yasmina Khadra
- “True freedom in the end is nothing more than a genuine love for everything around you.” Gisèle Bujold
- “True freedom has to do with the human spirit — it is the freedom to be who we really are.” Don Miguel Ruiz
2. Quotes about freedom to be and to live
Quotes about freedom of expression and freedom of thought
- “Freedom of expression belongs to everyone, not to a few who outrage it.” Raoul Vaneigem
- “If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” Noam Chomsky
- “People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.” Sören Kierkegaard
- “If the freedom of expression is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” Georges Washington
- “The true test of one’s commitment to liberty and private property rights doesn’t come when we permit people to be free to do those voluntary things with which we agree. The true test comes when we permit people to be free to do those voluntary things with which we disagree.” Walter E. Williams
- “Freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity, and the mother of truth. To strangle freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, stifle humanity, and suppress truth.” Liu Xiaobo
- “Freedom of expression ends when censorship of your own thoughts begins.” Marie-France Ochsenbein
- “Censorship is the greatest attack against freedom.” Joseph Joubert
- “Laws and censorship compromise freedom of thought far less than fear does.” André Gide
- “Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom.” Benjamin Franklin
- “Freedom of expression can be the freedom to offend.” Fleur Pellerin
- “Freedom of thought is absolute or it is nothing.” Luc Ferry
- “There are no limits to humour that serves freedom of expression, because where humour stops, very often, it gives way to censorship or self-censorship.” Cabu
- “Where freedom of expression no longer exists, we throw freedom of thought in prison.” Pascal Mourot
Quotes about the freedom to act, to choose and to undertake
- “Only the freedom to act and to think is able to produce great things.” Jean le Rond d’Alembert
- “In most countries, the citizens have freedom of speech. But in a democracy, they still have freedom after they have spoken.” André Guillois
- “Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labour in freedom.” Albert Einstein
- “Freedom of the will therefore means nothing but the capacity to make decisions with knowledge of the subject.” Friedrich Engels
- “To choose is to be free.” Claude Mailly
- “History shows that freedom of spirit cannot grow anywhere without political freedom.” Fredik Cygnaeux
- “To act freely is to reclaim possession of oneself.” Henri Bergson
- “The freedom to love is no less sacred than the freedom to think” Victor Hugo
- “The only liberty of people is the freedom to change masters.” Jacques Deval
- “No people can be truly happy, though under the greatest enjoyments of civil liberties, if abridged of the Freedom of their Conscience.” William Penn
3. Quotes about the quest for freedom
Quotes that talk about the human struggle for freedom
- “We only have one freedom: the freedom to fight to conquer freedom.” Henri Jeanson
- “The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days.” Nelson Mandela
- “Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness.” Alejandro Jodorowski
- “Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.” Rosa Luxembourg
- “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
- “A freedom fighter learns the hard way that it is the oppressor who defines the nature of the struggle, and the oppressed is often left no recourse but to use methods that mirror those of the oppressor.” Nelson Mandela
- “The deep will of every man, every people, every community no matter where they may be is to be free, to feel their genius mark their location and take their place in the world.” Patrick Chamoiseau
- “The man born for freedom, when he feels that they seek to make him serve, often prefers to be a pirate than to become a slave.” Pierre-Augustin Caron Beaumarchais
- “Liberty isn’t a thing you are given as a present. You can be a free man under a dictatorship. It is sufficient if you struggle against it.” Ignazio Silone
- “The quest for freedom is the most ingenious form of madness. Its only destination is wisdom and emancipation.” Stéphane Théri
- “The man who claims freedom thinks of happiness.” Claude Aveline
- “Our essence is spontaneity and freedom. It is our vital force, the core of our being, the limitless source of our creativity. It knows the deep project that will make us happy.” Thierry Janssen
- “Freedom belongs to those who have conquered it.” André Malraux
Man is not free; he is a prisoner of his own chains
- “I do not believe we can have any freedom at all in the philosophical sense, for we act not only under external compulsion but also by inner necessity.” Albert Einstein
- “If you know you own limits and try to stay within these limits, you are free.” Swami Prâjnanpad
- “Whatever your trials, remind yourself that you are a spirit and are capable of changing your destiny.” Omraam Mikaël Aïvanhov
- “Do not permit the events of your daily lives to bind you, but never withdraw yourselves from them. Only by thus acting can you earn the title of ‘A Liberated One’”. Huang Po
- “True freedom means freeing oneself from the dictates of the ego and its accompanying emotions.” Matthieu Ricard
- “Nothing binds you except your thoughts; nothing limits you except your fear; and nothing controls you except your beliefs.” Marianne Williamson
- “We are inside a prison and a voice tells us to leave. We reply that it is impossible, that the door is locked. And the voice replies: yes, but it is locked from the inside.” Christiane Singer
- “You may chain my hands, you may shackle my feet; you may even throw me into a dark prison; but you shall not enslave my thinking, because it is free.” Khalil Gibran
- “We meet a lot of people who talk about freedom, but we see very few whose life has not been mostly devoted to forging their own chains.” Gustave le Bon
- “Freedom depends on the degree of evolution. Depending on the way he thinks, feels and acts, man can approach fatality or providence.” Omraam Mikaël Aïvanhov
- “If you are living out of a sense of obligation you are a slave.” Wayne Dyer
- “Men are free. Or they think themselves free. They are, in truth, kept so closely in a measly fragment of space and in their time from which it is forbidden to escape that their famous freedom, that they make such a big case about, is nothing but smoke and mirrors.” Jean d’Ormesson
- “To be enslaved to oneself is the heaviest of all servitudes.” Seneca
There is no freedom but through knowledge, consciousness and self-control
- “Freedom begins where ignorance ends.” Victor Hugo
- “Where they burn books, they will, in the end, burn human beings too.” Heinrich Heine
- “The secret of freedom is the bookshop.” Bernard Werber
- “There is no freedom for the ignorant.” Marquis de Condorcet
- “Freedom consists of choosing between two forms of slavery: egotism and conscience. He who chooses conscience is a free man.” Victor Hugo
- “Liberation does not concern the person, for liberation is freedom from the person.” There is no miracle recipe. Jean Klein
- “Men believe themselves to be free simply because they are conscious of their actions, and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined.” Baruch Spinoza
- “It is a law: the less we control our thoughts, our desires, and our whims, the more we become a slave.” Omraam Mikaël Aïvanhov
- “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
- “You are the master of your life, and whatever your prison, you hold the keys.” Dalai Lama
- “Freedom only exists where intelligence and courage succeed in taking a bite out of fatality.” Roger Caillois
- “When you lose your self-control, your lose your freedom.” Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach
- “Men are mistaken in thinking themselves free; their opinion is made up of consciousness of their own actions, and ignorance of the causes by which they are conditioned.” Baruch Spinoza
Quotes about inner freedom, above and beyond external conditions
- “The only freedom worth having is inner freedom: it will allow you to discover the essential truths you require in order to lead your life and be supported.” Omraam Mikaël Aïvanhov
- “Inner freedom is not guided by our efforts; it comes from seeing what is true.” Rabindranàth Tagore
- “The freedom inside us is stronger than the prisons we are inside.” Faraj Bayrakdar
- “No man [or woman] is free until he learns to do his own thinking and gains the courage to act on his own personal initiative.” Napoleon Hill
- “Inner freedom is when the opinions of others do not determine who we are.” Alexandre Jollien
- “Inner freedom allows you to enjoy the limpid simplicity of the present moment, free from the past and released from the future.” Matthieu Ricard
- “On the spiritual plain, human beings can achieve true freedom; that of the mind and the heart. Freed from their false beliefs, their doubts and fears, they can finally taste happiness, grace and serenity.” Patrick Giani
- “Life is an empty canvas; it becomes whatsoever you paint on it. You can paint misery, you can paint bliss. This freedom is your glory.” Osho
- “We tend to believe that freedom is the absence of constraints. This is false, life is made of constraints. We are free when we are what we are, when we succeed in welcoming our entire past, our entire experience in this instant.” Charles Pépin
- “The man who is most free is the one who can be free even in slavery.” Fénélon
4. Freedom and the world
Is freedom a natural principle of the human condition?
- “Nature creates nothing but free creatures; society makes nothing but tyrants and slaves.” Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
- “Freedom has become so natural to us that we no longer appreciate it, and we forget that millions of people in the world do not have access to it yet.” Adrien Verschaere
- “Man is a rebel, untamed, unbowed, insurgent and insurrectionist. Only freedom satisfies his nature.” Mazouz Hacène
- “The ideal changes, the nature remains; and the best use that man can make of his freedom is none whatsoever.” Jean Grenier
- “If there was just one free creature in the universe, there would be no God.” Ferdinando Galiani
- “I belong to nobody; when thought wants to be free, the body must be free too.” Alfred de Musset
- “What light is to the eyes-what air is to the lungs-what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.” R.G. Ingersoll
- “To renounce freedom is to renounce one’s position as a man, the rights of humanity, even one’s duties.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Quotes about the principle of freedom in the midst of other people
- “As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. […]while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs” Elie Wiesel
- “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
- “Wanting to be free also means wanting others to be free.” Simone de Beauvoir
- “If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” Booker T. Washington
- “The goal of freedom is to create it for others.” Bernard Malamud
- “I can take my freedom as a goal only if I take the freedom of others as a goal as well.” Jean-Paul Sartre
- “My freedom only has value if I accept that of others. Is our freedom not also that of our adversaries?” François Mitterrand
- “Freedom is less about your own will than it is about not being subjected to that of another.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- “If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.” Spinoza
- “A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness.” Nelson Mandela
- “A free man does not seek to dominate anyone.” Nicolas Berdiaev
- “It is only by giving a little freedom to children that we teach them not to abuse freedom.” Gustave Le Bon
- “My responsibility towards others precludes my freedom.” Jacques de Coulon
- “One person’s freedom of expression finds its reward in the freedom of another to interpret it.” Albert Brie
- “Our ancestors imagined freedom as the right to contribute to the public place. Modern man redefines it as the right to not contribute, to stay warm at home, within their intimate circle, without getting involved in public affairs.” Charles Pépin
5. Earning your freedom
For some, freedom is achieved through money…
- “The only effective guarantee of freedom is still and will always be financial independence.” Jean-Claude Clari
- “Oh! Money that I so despised, you have your merit after all: source of freedom, you arrange a thousand things in our lives and everything is difficult without you… When you have no money, you are entirely dependent on everything and everyone in the world.” François René de Chateaubriand
- “Financial freedom is available to those who learn about it and work for it.” Robert Kiyosaki
- “Liberty, daughter of labour, is developed through saving.” Émile de Girardin
For others, it is through poverty and minimalism that we become free…
- “He who is not capable of enduring poverty is not capable of being free.” Victor Hugo
- “Money is a new form of slavery, and distinguishable from the old simply by the fact that it is impersonal – that there is no human relation between master and slave.” Leon Tolstoy
- “If you can do without anything you do not require and release yourself from all that is useless, you will achieve freedom.” Arnaud Desjardins
- “He who restricts his needs will feel so much freer.” French proverb
- “And now that I don’t want to own anything anymore and am free, now I suddenly own everything, now my inner riches are immeasurable.” Etty Hillesum
Quotes that are more neutral and nuanced about the link between money and freedom
- “The money you have gives you freedom; the money you pursue enslaves you.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- “Money is a good servant but a bad master.” Alexandre Dumas
- “Having millions of dollars can give you a certain sense of meaningful freedom. But, beyond that, it’s the same hamburger people like returning to.” Bill Gates
6. Quotes about freedom from great thinkers and artists
Quotes from politicians about freedom
- “The first human right is that of individual freedom, freedom to own, freedom to think, freedom to work.” Jean Jaurès
- “Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Benjamin Franklin
- “Education and freedom are the basis for all human prosperity.” Mirabeau
- “The realm of freedom actually begins only where labour which is determined by necessity and mundane considerations ceases.” Karl Marx
- “A nation may lose its liberties in a day and not miss them in a century.” Montesquieu
- “Freedom does not mean being free from something, but being free to do something.” Angela Merkel
- “To be happy means to be free and to be free means to be brave.” Pericles
- “There can be no real and effective ‘freedom’ in a society based on the power of money, in a society in which the masses of working people live in poverty and the handful of rich live like parasites.” Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
- “Let us have justice, and then we shall have enough liberty!” Joseph Joubert
- “While the State exists, there can be no freedom. When there is freedom there will be no State.” Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
- “Submission to the State law is the price a citizen pays for his personal liberty. Submission, therefore, to a State law wholly or largely unjust is an immoral barter for liberty…One perfect civil resister is enough to win the battle of right against wrong.” Mahatma Gandhi
- “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Benjamin Franklin
- “…freedom knows no borders, a fiery voice of liberty in one country can raise the spirits of another far away.” Kofi Annan
Quotes from famous philosophers about freedom
- “Through discipline comes freedom.” Aristotle
- “Freedom is the alone unoriginated birthright of man, and belongs to him by force of his humanity.” Emmanuel Kant
- “No one is free who has not obtained the empire of himself. No man is free who cannot command himself.” Pythagoras
- “Freedom is the negation of the principle of sufficient reason, that wants everything to exist for a reason.” Arthur Schopenhauer
- “People want equality in liberty, and if they cannot obtain it, they want it even more in slavery.” Alexis de Tocqueville
- “The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.” John Locke
- “A person who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave. He is above, or at any rate, beyond the reach of, all political powers.” Seneca
- “Any action is right if it can coexist with everyone’s freedom in accordance with a universal law, or if on its maxim the freedom of choice of each can coexist with everyone’s freedom in accordance with a universal law.” Emmanuel Kant
- “The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good.” Stuart Mill
- “Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are within our control, and some things are not.” Epictetus
- “The limitation of liberty is justified only when it is necessary for liberty itself, to prevent an invasion of freedom that would be still worse.” John Rawls
- “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- “The most basic thing we can say about humans is that they are radically free, to be anything except to not be free.” Jean-Paul Sartre
- “Man is condemned to be free.” Jean-Paul Sartre
- “Freedom is the French expression of the unity of the human being, the generic conscience and the social and human relationship a man has with another man.” Karl Marx
Quotes about freedom in literature
- “He or she who lives in fear will ever be a slave.” Horace
- “Freedom in art, freedom in society, this is the double goal towards which all consistent and logical minds must strive.” Victor Hugo
- “Unbridled freedom is always married to unhappiness.” William Shakespeare
- “To be entirely free, and at the same time entirely dominated by law, is the eternal paradox of human life.” Oscar Wilde
- “The people have a right to freedom, but no rights over freedom.” Victor Hugo
- “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
- “There is but one freedom, to put oneself right with death. After that everything is possible.” Albert Camus
- “I hope nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.” Nikos Kazantzakis
- “To learn is to be free.” And being free is accepting that things happen the way they happen.” Guillaume Musso
- “You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way.” Character of Jonathan in Livingston Seagull – A Story by Richard Bach
- “Once you are free at least from the death that comes pursuing you, you can relax and enjoy life as you go along.” Abe Kobo
- “The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it – basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.” Charles Bukowski
- “Freedom is finally being given over to ourselves.” Amélie Nothomb
- “My brothers! cried Jonathan, Who is more responsible than a gull who finds and follows a meaning, a higher purpose for life? For a thousand years we have scrabbled after fish heads, but now we have a reason to live — to learn, to discover, to be free!” Character of Jonathan in Livingston Seagull – A Story by Richard Bach
- “Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” George Bernard Shaw
Quotes from contemporary poets and musicians who sang about freedom
- “There is nothing more precious than freedom.” Renaud Séchan
- “I’ll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear. I mean really, no fear!” Nina Simone
- “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds.” Bob Marley
- “If you have never allowed yourself to be chained, you will never know what freedom means.” Serge Gainsbourg
- “Tame birds sing of freedom. Wild birds fly.” John Lennon
- “I’ve always been attracted to ideas that were about revolt against authority. I like ideas about the breaking away or overthrowing of established order. I am interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos—especially activity that seems to have no meaning. It seems to me to be the road toward freedom. Rather than starting inside, I start outside—reach the mental through the physical.” Jim Morrison
- “Living free often means living alone, it might hurt your stomach, but it’s good for the mug.” Renaud Séchan
- “My freedom
- I have long kept you
- Like a rare pearl
- My freedom
- It’s you who helped me
- Shed my anchors
- To go anywhere
- To go to the end
- Of the paths of fortune
- To dreamily pick
- A rose of the winds
- On a moonbeam
- My freedom
- To your desires
- My soul was submissive
- My freedom
I gave you everything - The shirt on my back
- And how I suffered
- To satisfy
- Your every demand
- I changed countries,
- I lost my friends
- To win your trust” Georges Moustaki
- “I earned my freedom through work and that work literally imprisoned me.” Charles Aznavour
- “Freedom is something that is terribly sexy.” Anggun
- “When truth is not free, freedom is not true.” Jacques Prévert
- “I was born to know you / And name you / Liberty.” Paul Eluard
- “Freedom is the best aphrodisiac.” Björk
7. Proverbs and sayings on the subject of freedom
- “You are confined only by the walls you build yourself.” Zen proverb
- “Better to be a free bird that a captive king.” Scandinavian proverb
- “Catch two birds together and they cannot fly. And yet they have twice as many wings.” Sufi proverb
- “All birds prefer freedom to a gilded cage.” Russian proverb
- “The only freedom is that achieved after a long struggle, not that which is granted.” Libyan proverb
- “Better to have no crown than to be deprived of freedom.” Latin proverb
- “The sweetest liberty is a clear conscience.” Danish proverb
What about you, do you have any quotes about freedom? Feel free to share them in the comments!