Among individuals, as among nations, true freedom is always a conquest, never a gift.
~ William Chandler Bagley, in Journal of the National Education Association 30, no. 7 (October 1941).
The ripest message of genius and intellect to the world to-day is that a high and worthy civilization can be achieved only through complete freedom of the individual.
~ William Bailie, Josiah Warren: The First American Anarchist (1906). The Anarchist Spirit
The state is or can be master of money, but in a free society it is master of very little else.
~ William Henry (W.H.) Beveridge, Voluntary Action: A Report on the Methods of Social Advance (1948).
[D]ependence being very little else, but an obligation to conform to the will or law of that superior person or state, upon which the inferior depends.
~ William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-69). Introduction, Section 4: Of the Countries Subject to the Laws of England
In all tyrannical governments the supreme magistracy, or the right both of making and of enforcing the laws, is vested in one and the same man, or one and the same body of men; and wherever these two powers are united together, there can be no public liberty.
~ William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-69). Book I, Chapter II: Of the Parliament
The cistern contains: The fountain overflows.
~ William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93). Proverbs of Hell
You cannot have Liberty in this world without what you call Moral Virtue, & you cannot have Moral Virtue without the slavery of that half of the human race who hate what you call Moral Virtue.
~ William Blake, from A Vision of the Last Judgment (c. 1810).
No more fatuous chimera ever infested the brain of man than that you can control opinions by law or direct belief by statute, and no more pernicious sentiment ever tormented the human heart than the barbarous desire to do so. The field of inquiry should remain open, and the right of debate must be regarded as a sacred right.
~ William Edgar Borah, in the Congressional Record, vol. 55 (19 April 1917).
Without an unfettered press, without liberty of speech, all the outward forms and structures of free institutions are a sham, a pretense -- the sheerest mockery. If the press is not free; if speech is not independent and untrammelled; if the mind is shackled or made impotent through fear, it makes no difference under what form of government you live, you are a subject and not a citizen.
~ William Edgar Borah, in the Congressional Record, vol. 55 (19 April 1917).
We may extend our dominion over the whole continent, our navies may ride triumphant on every sea, our name may be the terror of Kings, our decrees the destinies of nations, but be assured it will be at the price of our free institutions. I know not how it may be with others, but for my own part, I would not pay this price for all the power and all the glory that ever clustered around all the banners and all the eagles emblazoned in the pantheon of history.
~ William Waters Boyce, Speech delivered in the House of Representatives (15 January 1855). The Annexation of Cuba
[T]he Constitution will endure as a vital charter of human liberty as long as there are those with the courage to defend it, the vision to interpret it, and the fidelity to live by it.
~ William Joseph Brennan, Jr., The Forty-Second Annual Benjamin N. Cardozo Lecture, New York (17 September 1987). Reason, Passion, and the Progress of the Law
We do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so we dilute the freedom that this cherished emblem represents.
~ William Joseph Brennan, Jr. (majority opinion), Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989).
Stalin's concentration camps were the only place in Russia where people could really criticize the state. Freedom came only in captivity.
~ William J. Broad, Star Warriors: A Penetrating Look into the Lives of the Young Scientists Behind Our Space Age Weaponry (1985). Fourth Day. Warrior Blue
The unsubmissive mind has freedom to be
nothing, worldless -- not to exist at all.
~ William Bronk, The World, the Worldless (1964). Blue Spruces in Pairs, a Bird Bath Between
All I demand for the black man is, that the white people shall take their heels off his neck, and let him have a chance to rise by his own efforts.
~ William Wells Brown, Speech to the American Anti-Slavery Society, New York (6 May 1862).
I would have the Constitution torn in shreds and scattered to the four winds of heaven. Let us destroy the Constitution and build on its ruins the temple of liberty. I have brothers in slavery. I have seen chains placed on their limbs and beheld them captive.
~ William Wells Brown
Here the free spirit of mankind, at length,
Throws its last fetters off; and who shall place
A limit to the giant's unchained strength,
Or curb his swiftness in the forward race?
~ William Cullen Bryant, from Poems (1821). The Ages
[N]or yet, O Freedom! close thy lids
In slumber; for thine enemy never sleeps,
And thou must watch and combat till the day
Of the new earth and heaven.
~ William Cullen Bryant, from The Fountain, and Other Poems (1842). The Antiquity of Freedom
The right to discuss freely and openly, by speech, by the pen, by the press, all political questions, and to examine the animadvert upon all political institutions, is a right so clear and certain, so interwoven with our other liberties, so necessary, in fact, to their existence, that without it we must fall into despotism and anarchy.
~ William Cullen Bryant, Editorial in the New York Evening Post (18 November 1837). The Death of Lovejoy
Chains may subdue the feeble spirit, but thee,
Tell, of the iron heart! they could not tame;
For thou wert of the mountains: they proclaim
The everlasting creed of Liberty.
~ William Cullen Bryant, from Poems (1832 edition). Sonnet -- William Tell
Thou, while thy prison-walls were dark around,
Didst meditate the lesson Nature taught,
And to thy brief captivity was brought
A vision of thy Switzerland unbound.
The bitter cup they mingled, strengthened thee
For the great work to set thy country free.
~ William Cullen Bryant, from Poems (1832 edition). Sonnet -- William Tell
Their hearts and sentiments were free, their appetites were hearty.
~ Robert Williams Buchanan, City of the Saints
We are so concerned to flatter the majority that we lose sight of how every so often it is necessary in order to preserve freedom for the minority, let alone for the individual, to face that majority down.
~ William F. Buckley, Jr., The Jeweler's Eye (1968).
The best things in life are free. And the cheesiest things in life are free with a paid subscription to Sports Illustrated.
~ "Johnny" William Carson
Freedom so often means that one isn't needed anywhere.
~ Willa Sibert Cather, O Pioneers! (1913). Part II. Neighboring Fields. Chapter IV
I call that mind free which is not passively framed by outward circumstances, which is not swept away by the torrent of events, which is not the creature of accidental impulse, but which bends events to its own improvement, and acts from an inward spring, from immutable principles which it has deliberately espoused.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), Discourse Preached at the Annual Election (26 May 1830). Spiritual Freedom
I call that mind free which jealously guards its intellectual rights and powers, which calls no man master, which does not content itself with a passive or hereditary faith, which opens itself to light whencesoever it may come, [and] which receives new truth as an angel from Heaven.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), Discourse Preached at the Annual Election (26 May 1830). Spiritual Freedom
In war, then, as in peace, assert the freedom of speech and of the press. Cling to this as the bulwark of all our rights and privileges.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), Extracts from Sermons preached, on Days of Humiliation and Prayer, appointed in consequence of the Declaration of War against Great Britain (c. 1812). Duties of the Citizen in Times of Trial or Danger
Our great error as a people is, that we put an idolatrous trust in our free institutions; as if these, by some magic power, must secure our rights, however we enslave ourselves to evil passions. We need to learn that the forms of liberty are not its essence; that whilst the letter of a free constitution is preserved its spirit may be lost; that even its wisest provisions and most guarded powers may be weapons of tyranny.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), Discourse Preached at the Annual Election (26 May 1830). Spiritual Freedom
The highest aim of all authority is to confer liberty.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), from Discourses, Reviews, and Miscellanies (1830). Remarks on the Life and Character of Napoleon Bonaparte (1827-8)
To extinguish the free will is to strike the conscience with death, for both have but one and the same life.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), from The Works of William E. Channing, D.D., Volume I (1841). Introductory Remarks (April 18th, 1841)
The cry has been, that war is declared, and all opposition should therefore be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country can hardly be propagated.
~ William Ellery Channing, Extracts from Sermons preached, on Days of Humiliation and Prayer, appointed in consequence of the Declaration of War against Great Britain (c. 1812). Duties of the Citizen in Times of Trial or Danger
The only freedom worth possessing, is that which gives enlargement to a people's energy, intellect, and virtues.
~ William Ellery Channing, Annual Oration Delivered Before The American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia PA (18 October 1823). The Importance and Means of A National Literature
Know this that every soul is free, To choose his life and what he'll be.
~ William C. Clegg
There is one thing in the world more wicked than the desire to command, and that is the will to obey.
~ William Kingdon (W.K.) Clifford, in Lectures and Essays, Vol. 1 (1879). Introduction. I. Biographical
It is not the greatness of a man's means that makes him independent so much as the smallness of his wants.
~ William Cobbett, in the Political Register (9 May 1829). Clergy of the Established Church
To be poor and independent is very nearly an impossibility.
~ William Cobbett, Advice to Young Men: And (Incidentally) to Young Women in the Middle and Higher Ranks of Life (1829). Letter II: To A Young Man
[W]hen men adore power and riches, without any regard to the conduct or character of the possessor, real freedom cannot exist.
~ William Cobbett
The woman most in need of liberation is the woman in every man and the man in every woman.
~ Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., Address at Trinity Institute, San Francisco, CA (7 February 1981).
With heaviest sound, a giant-statue fell.
~ William Collins, from Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegoric Subjects (1746). Ode to Liberty
My dear liberty, shall I leave thee? My faithful solitude, my darling contemplation, must I bid you then adieu? Ay-h, adieu. My morning thoughts, agreeable wakings, indolent slumbers, all ye douceurs, ye sommeils du matin, adieu.
~ William Congreve, The Way of the World (1700). Act IV, scene v
Freedom has a thousand charms to show,
That slaves, howe'er contented, never know.
~ William Cowper, from Poems by William Cowper of the Inner Temple, Esq. (1782). Table Talk (written in 1781)
[H]e who values Liberty confines
His zeal for her predominance within
No narrow bounds; her cause engages him
Wherever pleaded. 'Tis the cause of man.
~ William Cowper, The Task (1785). Book V. The Winter Morning Walk
Receive our air, that moment they are free!
They touch our country, and their shackles fall.
~ William Cowper, The Task (1785). Book II. The Time-Piece
[T]hey that fight for freedom, undertake
The noblest cause mankind can have at stake.
~ William Cowper, from Poems by William Cowper of the Inner Temple, Esq. (1782). Table Talk (written in 1781)
'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower
Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume;
And we are weeds without it.
~ William Cowper, The Task (1785). Book V. The Winter Morning Walk
If I cannot be free
To do such work as pleases me,
Near woodland pools and under trees,
You'll get no work at all, for I
Would rather live this life and die
A beggar or a thief, than be
A working slave with no days free.
~ William Henry (W.H.) Davies, from Farewell to Poesy (1910). No Master
What, free!
When masters, who hate Liberty,
Can in their height of power and greed
Force weaker men to serve their need?
~ William Henry (W.H.) Davies, Nature Poems (1908). Tyrants
Free to all, and ever shining
In all times alike, and places.
~ William Denovan, in Perfect Jewels: A Collection Of The Choicest Things In The Literature Of Life, Love And Religion (1884). Perfect Jewels
[A] function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when in it invites a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger.
~ William Orville Douglas (concurring opinion), Terminiello v. City of Chicago, 337 U.S. 1 (1949).
A people who extend civil liberties only to preferred groups start down the path either to dictatorship of the right or the left.
~ William Orville Douglas, in the New York Times (20 January 1980).
Absolute discretion is a ruthless master. It is more destructive of freedom than any of man's other inventions.
~ William Orville Douglas (dissenting opinion), United States v. Wunderlich, 342 U.S. 98 (1951)
Any test that turns on what is offensive to the community's standards is too loose, too capricious, too destructive of freedom of expression to be squared with the First Amendment. Under that test, juries can censor, suppress, and punish what they don't like, provided the matter relates to "sexual impurity" or has a tendency "to excite lustful thoughts." This is community censorship in one of its worst forms.
~ William Orville Douglas (dissenting opinion), Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476 (1957).
Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience (in this case the judge or the jury) that hissed yesterday may applaud today, even for the same performance
~ William Orville Douglas (dissenting opinion), Kingsley Books, Inc. v. Brown, 354 U.S. 436 (1957)
It is our attitude toward free thought and free expression that will determine our fate. There must be no limit on the range of temperate discussion, no limits on thought. No subject must be taboo.
~ William Orville Douglas, in Nieman Reports, vol. 7, no. 1 (Jan. 1953; from a speech to the Authors Guild Council in New York, December 3, 1952). The One Un-American Act
No interest of society justifies overriding the guarantees of free speech and press and establishing a regime of censorship.
~ William Orville Douglas (concurring opinion), Memoirs v. Massachusetts, 383 U.S. 413 (1966).
One aspect of modern life which has gone far to stifle men is the rapid growth of tremendous corporations. Enormous spiritual sacrifices are made in the transformation of shopkeepers into employees. ... The disappearance of free enterprise has led to a submergence of the individual in the impersonal corporation in much the same manner as he has been submerged in the state in other lands.
~ William Orville Douglas, Speech at Fordham University Alumni Association, New York, NY (9 February 1939).
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.
~ William Orville Douglas, in Nieman Reports, vol. 7, no. 1 (Jan. 1953; from a speech to the Authors Guild Council in New York, December 3, 1952). The One Un-American Act
The Free Exercise Clause protects the individual from any coercive measure that encourages him toward one faith or creed, discourages him from another, or makes it prudent or desirable for him to select one and embrace it.
~ William Orville Douglas, The Bible and the Schools (1966).
The liberties of none are safe unless the liberties of all are protected.
~ William Orville Douglas, A Living Bill of Rights (1961).
The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.
~ William Orville Douglas (dissenting opinion), Public Utilities Comm'n v. Pollak, 343 U.S. 451 (1952)
There are no precedents to construe; no principles previously expounded to apply. We write on a clean slate.
~ William Orville Douglas (dissenting opinion), Public Utilities Comm'n v. Pollak, 343 U.S. 451 (1952)
We can reach the moon and top all secrets of the universe and yet not survive if we do not serve the soul of man.
~ William Orville Douglas, Go East, Young Man, the Early Years: The Autobiography of William O. Douglas (1974).
When man knows how to live dangerously, he is not afraid to die. When he is not afraid to die, he is, strangely, free to live. When he is free to live, he can become bold, courageous, reliant.
~ William Orville Douglas, Of Men and Mountains (1950).
I believe in Liberty for all men: the space to stretch their arms and their souls; the right to breathe and the right to vote, the freedom to choose their friends, enjoy the sunshine, and ride on the railroads, uncursed by color; thinking, dreaming, working as they will in a kingdom of beauty and love.
~ William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois
The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.
~ William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois, John Brown (1909).
In my youth, I stressed freedom, and in my old age I stress order. I have made the great discovery that liberty is a product of order.
~ William James "Will" Durant, in Time Magazine (13 August 1965). The Essence of the Centuries
Limitation is the essence of liberty, for as soon as liberty is complete, it dies in anarchy.
~ William James "Will" Durant, The Story of Civilization, Volume X (1967). Rousseau and Revolution
Philosophy is harmonized knowledge making a harmonious life; it is the self-discipline that lifts as to serenity and freedom. Knowledge is power, but only wisdom is liberty.
~ William James "Will" Durant, The Mansions of Philosophy: A Survey Of Human Life And Destiny (1929). Invitation
When liberty becomes license, dictatorship is near.
~ William James "Will" Durant, The Story of Civilization, Volume II (1935). The Life of Greece
When liberty destroys order, the hunger for order will destroy liberty.
~ William James "Will" Durant, (1940)
Will is free only in so far as the life of which it is a form actively reshapes the world.
~ William James "Will" Durant, The Mansions of Philosophy: A Survey Of Human Life And Destiny (1929).
If free speech isn't what this country is all about, what the hell are we fighting for? Free speech ain't free. Oh wait a minute. Yeah, it is.
~ Will Durst, in AlterNet (1 October 2007). Absolute, 100 Percent, Unadulterated Free Speech
The most valuable freedom is one which has strength, because it is won against something solid, something rigid.
~ Bill Evans, Interview in Jazz Magazine (1965).
I'm beat to the square, and square to the beat, and that's my vocation.
~ William Everson (aka Brother Antoninus), in Time Magazine (25 May 1959). Religion: The Beat Friar
I gave my life for freedom -- this I know:
For those who bade me fight had told me so.
~ William Norman Ewer, Five Souls and Other Verses (1917). Five Souls
This is a free country. Folks have a right to send me letters, and I have a right not to read them.
~ William Faulkner (on discarding unopened mail), recalled on his death (6 July 1962).
We cannot choose freedom established on a hierarchy of degrees of freedom, on a caste system of equality like military rank. We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.
~ William Faulkner, in Harper's Magazine (June 1956). On Fear: The South in Labor
I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally.
~ W.C. Fields
Free as the air, free as the sea,
Let all things come, let all things be.
~ William Davis Gallagher, from Miami Woods, A Golden Wedding, and Other Poems (1881). V. Miscellaneous: All Things Free
If a free thought seek expression,
Speak it boldly, speak it all!
~ William Davis Gallagher, from Miami Woods, A Golden Wedding, and Other Poems (1881). V. Miscellaneous: Truth and Freedom
Enslave but a single human being, and the liberty of the world is put in peril.
~ William Lloyd Garrison, from Selections from the Writings and Speeches of William Lloyd Garrison (1852). Letter to Honorable Peleg Sprague (1835)
I am unspeakably happy to believe that the great mass of my countrymen are now heartily disposed to admit that I have not acted the part of a madman, fanatic, incediary or traitor.
~ William Lloyd Garrison, Speech honoring the passage of the 13th Amendment (1865).
I have need to be all on fire, for I have mountains of ice about me to melt.
~ William Lloyd Garrison
If any man has a right to fight for liberty, this right equally extends to all men subjected to bondage. In claiming this right for themselves, the American people necessarily concede it to all mankind.
~ William Lloyd Garrison, Address, Boston MA (4 July 1842). Lessons of Independence Day
Liberty for each, for all, and forever!
~ William Lloyd Garrison, Speech at Charleston, SC (14 April 1865).
Nothing can take precedence of the question of liberty. No interest is so momentous as that which involves "the life of the soul;" no object so glorious as the restoration of a man to himself.
~ William Lloyd Garrison, from Selections from the Writings and Speeches of William Lloyd Garrison, Volume III (1852). No Compromise with Slavery
There should be a sympathy with freedom, a desire to give it scope, founded not upon visionary ideas, but upon the long experience of many generations.
~ William Ewart Gladstone, Speech, West Calder, Scotland (27 November 1879).
We will no longer multiply our boasts
Of liberty, till all are truly free.
~ William Lloyd Garrison, from Sonnets And Other Poems (1843). Fourth of July
I am a lover of liberty; and that liberty which I value for myself, I value for every human being in proportion to his means and opportunities.
~ William Ewart Gladstone, Speech at Norwich (16 May 1890)
[A]s we wobble out on our own, the question of whether it is better to be or not to be arises with real relevance for the first time, since the burden of being is felt most fully by the self-determining self.
~ William H. Gass, from The World Within The Word (1978). The Doomed in Their Sinking
I am come among you unmuzzled.
~ William Ewart Gladstone, (17 July 1865)
Suffer me at least to call life and pursuits of life my own!
~ William Godwin, Things as They Are; or The Adventures of Caleb Williams, Volume 3 (1794). Chapter I
Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do and how you do it.
~ Rudolph William Giuliani, in New York Newsday (20 April 1998). Taking Liberties: Courts, critics fault Rudy on free speech, public access
The possibility of morality thus depends on the possibility of liberty; for if man be not a free agent, he is not the author of his actions, and has, therefore, no responsibility -- no moral personality at all.
~ Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet, in Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic (1858-60). Volume I. Metaphysics. Lecture II. Philosophy -- Its Absolute Utility, (B). Objective
The greatest Glory of a free-born People,
Is to transmit that Freedom to their Children.
~ William Havard, Regulus, a Tragedy (1744). Act IV, scene iv
Freedom is a fundamental phase of will, as weight is of bodies. ... that which is free is the will. Will without freedom is an empty word.
~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (G.W.F.) Hegel, The Philosophy of Right (1821). Section 4
Love and thought and fun are free.
~ William Ernest (W.E.) Henley, quoted in Ballades And Rondeaus, Chants Royal, Sestinas, Villanelles, etc. (1887). Rondels. Variations, IV
The missing element in every phase of American life, from education to culture to the thicket of identity politics, is what used to be called rugged individualism.
~ William A. Henry III, In Defense of Elitism (1994).
When we have reached the point of measuring the stature of our freedom by the height of the pile of our discarded inhibitions, is anyone minded to die for this eviscerated ghost of that modern liberty which once was sacred because it was important?
~ William Ernest (W.E.) Hocking, What Man Can Make of Man (1942).
Where men cannot freely convey their thoughts to one another, no other liberty is secure.
~ William Ernest (W.E.) Hocking, Freedom of the Press: A Framework of Principle (1947).
Coercion may prevent many transgressions; but it robs even actions which are legal of a part of their beauty. Freedom may lead to many transgressions, but it lends even to vices a less ignoble form.
~ Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Limits of State Action (1791). Chapter 8
Freedom is but the possibility of a various and indefinite activity; while government, or the exercise of dominion, is a single, yet real activity. The longing for freedom, therefore, is at first only too frequently suggested by the deep-felt consciousness of its absence.
~ Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Limits of State Action (1791). Introduction
The greater a man's freedom, the more does he become dependent on himself, and well-disposed towards others.
~ Wilhelm von Humboldt, in The Sphere And Duties Of Government (The Limits of State Action) (1854 edition). Chapter VII. Religion
The enemies of Freedom do not argue; they shout and they shoot.
~ William Ralph (Dean) Inge, The End of an Age; and Other Essays (1948). The Twilight Of Freedom
Free Will does not say that everything that is physically conceivable is also morally possible. It merely says that of alternatives that really tempt our will more than one is really possible.
~ William James, Unitarian Review (September 1884).
Freedom's first deed should be to affirm itself.
~ William James, The Principles of Psychology (1890). Vol. 2. Chapter XXVI: Will
In short, lives based on having are less free than lives based either on doing or on being.
~ William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). Lectures XI, XII, and XIII: Saintliness
[F]reedom is only necessity understood, and bondage to the highest is identical with true freedom.
~ William James, An Address to the Harvard Divinity Students (1884). The Dilemma of Determinism
[O]ur first act of freedom, if we are free, ought in all inward propriety to be to affirm that we are free.
~ William James, An Address to the Harvard Divinity Students (1884). The Dilemma of Determinism
Farewell, at present; and remember, that a free state is only a more numerous and more powerful club, and that he only is a free man who is a member of such a state.
~ Sir William Jones, Dialogue between a Farmer and Country Gentleman, on the Principles of Government (1778).
[R]oyalty at its best has always functioned in unison with a willing allegiance, and has been to that extent dependent on freedom.
~ G. Wilson Knight, The Sovereign Flower: on Shakespeare as the poet of Royalism (1958).
It is a totally different world. Moscow is right now an open city. It is just as open as Washington, DC
~ William Lord, The Washington Post (June 1988).
Freedom! Ho, shout it to the mountains forth!
Speak Freemen! though to speak were death,
Speak! or you shame the dead.
~ William Wilberforce (W.W.) Lord, from Poems (1845). Ode on the Present Crisis
Don't get so tolerant that you tolerate intolerance.
~ Bill Maher, in HBO-TV special, Bill Maher: Victory Begins at Home (July 2003; Live performance at the Hudson Theatre, New York).
Restrictions will set you free.
~ William Allaudin (W.A.) Mathieu, The Listening Book: Discovering Your Own Music (1991).
It may be that in some queer way he identifies himself with the kite flying so free and so high above him, and it's as it were an escape from the monotony of life. It may be that in some dim, confused way it represents an ideal of freedom and adventure, And you know, when a man once gets bitten with the virus of the ideal not all the King's doctors and not all the King's surgeons can rid him of it.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, Quartet (1948). The Kite
There are two good things in life -- freedom of thought and freedom of action.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage (1915). Chapter 23
What! give up my liberty!
I'm my own bird now: I'm free.
Now I ramble all the day;
All my business is to play.
~ William Maxwell, Poems By William Maxwell, Esq. (1816). The Humming Bird
God of justice, save the people
From the clash of race and creed,
From the strife of class and faction,
Make our nation free indeed.
~ William Pierson Merrill, in Inclusive Language Hymns (1909). Not Alone for Mighty Empire
Responsibility is the price of freedom. So is tolerance.
~ Peter McWilliams, Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do (1998). Part I: The Basic Premise. An Overview
Two words about the world we see,
And nought but Mine and Thine they be.
Ah! might we drive them forth and wide
With us should rest and peace abide.
~ William Morris, from Poems by the Way (1891). Mine and Thine
There is no more important struggle for American democracy than ensuring a diverse, independent and free media. Free Press is at the heart of that struggle.
~ Bill Moyers
If religion and churches are truly threats to our liberties, how did those liberties survive, and in such healthy condition, all those years of classroom prayer and Bible-reading?
~ William Murchison, Reclaiming Morality in America (1994).
Do you call yourself free? I want to hear your ruling idea, and not that you have escaped from a yoke. ... Free from what? Zarathustra does not care about that! But your eye should clearly tell me: free for what?
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (1885).
Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Natural liberty is the right of common upon a waste; civil liberty is the safe, exclusive, unmolested enjoyment of a cultivated enclosure.
~ William Paley, The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1785). Book VI. Chapter V: Of Civil Liberty
To do what we will, is natural liberty; to do what we will, consistently with the interest of the community to which we belong, is civil liberty; that is to say, the only liberty to be desired in a state of civil society.
~ William Paley, The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1785). Book VI. Chapter V: Of Civil Liberty
[F]or liberty without obedience is confusion, and obedience without liberty is slavery.
~ William Penn, Frame of Government of Pennsylvania (5 May 1682). The Preface
Men being born with a title to perfect freedom and uncontrolled enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of the law of nature ... no one can be put out of his estate and subjected to the political view of another, without his consent.
~ William Penn, First Frame of Government (25 April 1682).
There can be no friendship when there is no freedom. Friendship loves a free air, and will not be penned up in straight and narrow inclosures. It will speak freely, and act so too.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693). Part I. Friendship
Wear none of thine own chains; but keep free, whilst thou art free.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693). Part I. Promising
The love of liberty is inherent in human nature.
~ William Pinkney, in Some Account Of The Life, Writings, And Speeches Of William Pinkney (1826). Part I. Memoir, Private Correspondence, Etc.
There is one ambition, at least, which I ever will acknowledge, which I will not renounce but with my life. It is the ambition of delivering to my posterity those rights of freedom which I have received from my ancestors.
~ William Pitt (1st Earl of Chatham), Speech delivered in the House of Lords, Hansard (on the case of John Wilkes; 9 January 1770).
Liberty and eloquence are united in all ages.
~ William Campbell Preston, from the Eulogy of Hugh S. Legaré (1843).
The first condition of goodness is liberty.
~ William Brighty Rands (as Matthew Browne), Views and Opinions (1866). XXI. Art and Popular Amusement: II
Too much freedom undercuts freedom.
~ William Raspberry
The name of liberty is so alluring, that all those who fight for it are sure of obtaining our secret wishes in their favor. Their cause is that of the whole human race, and becomes our own.
~ Guillaume Thomas François Raynal (aka William Francis Raynal), in A philosophical and political history of the settlements and trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies, Volume 7 (1783 translation). Book XVIII
I am my own man. Nobody owns me.
~ William Henry ("Bill") Rentschler, Bring Back America, Land That We Love: Viewpoint from Mid-America (2004). Introduction
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, Response to FDA Complaint for Injunction (22 February 1954).
Only you yourself can be your liberator!
~ Wilhelm Reich, Listen, Little Man! (1946; published 1948).
The cry for freedom is a sign of suppression. It will not cease to ring as long as man feels himself captive.
~ Wilhelm Reich, The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1946 edition & translation; originally written in 1933). Chapter X. Work Democracy
Seize, then, the glad moment, and hail the decree
That bids millions rejoice, and a nation be free!
~ William Roscoe, in The Life of William Roscoe (1833). Vol. I. Chapter IV (song titled "Unfold, Father Time," written in 1790)
A country can get more real joy out of just hollering for their freedom than they can if they get it.
~ Will Rogers, in The Autobiography of Will Rogers (1949).
Liberty don't work as good in practice as it does in speech.
~ Will Rogers, in The Will Rogers Touch (1978).
There is no more independence in politics than there is in jail.
~ Will Rogers
When you feel that the people around you are taking too much care of your private business, why move to Nevada. It's freedom's last stand in America.
~ Will Rogers
What, exactly, a promise is, is not so easy to determine, but we are surely agreed that it constitutes a serious moral limitation to our freedom of action.
~ William David (W.D.) Ross, The Right and the Good (1930). II. What Makes Right Acts Right?
Three times in my life I have been captured: by the orphanage, by school, and by the Army. But I'm mistaken. The fact is I was captured only once, when I was born, only that capture is also setting free, which is what this is actually all about. The free prisoner.
~ William Saroyan, Here Comes There Goes You Know Who (1961).
One of the chief elements of the value of human life is freedom in the pursuit of happiness.
~ William Henry Seward, The Irrepressible Conflict. Speech given at Rochester, New York (25 October 1858).
A man is master of his liberty.
~ William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors. Act II, scene i
And liberty plucks justice by the nose.
~ William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure. Act I, scene iii
I must have liberty
Withal, as large a charter as the wind,
To blow on whom I please.
~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It. Act II, scene vii
[I]f I had my liberty, I would do my liking: in the meantime let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.
~ William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing. Act I, scene iii
Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.
~ William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar. Act III, scene ii
Thought is free.
~ William Shakespeare, The Tempest. Act III, scene ii
You pay a great deal too dear for what's given freely.
~ William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale. Act I, scene i
When the mind's free,
The body's delicate.
~ William Shakespeare, King Lear. Act III, scene iv
To thee, fair Freedom! I retire
From flattery, cards, and dice, and din:
Nor art thou found in mansions higher
Than the low cot, or humble inn.
~ William Shenstone, in Works in Verse and Prose, Vol. I (1764). III. Levities; or, Pieces of Humour. Written at an Inn at Henley (1753)
Freedom of speech and freedom of the press, precious relics of former history, must not be construed too largely.
~ William Tecumseh Sherman, in The War Of The Rebellion, Volume XXXI (1890). Letter to the Memphis Bulletin (27 October 1863).
Democracy is not levelling -- it is, properly defined, the harmony of the moral world. It insists upon inequalities, as its law declares, that all men should hold the place to which they are properly entitled. The definition of true libery, is the undisturbed possession of that place in society to which our moral and intellectual merits entitle us.
~ William Gilmore Simms, Slavery in America, Being a Brief Review of Miss Martineau on That Subject (1838).
[F]reedom is difficult to understand because it isn't a presence but an absence -- an absence of governmental constraint.
~ William E. Simon, A Time For Truth (1978).
Personal liberty without economic liberty is an absolute contradiction; the one cannot exist without the other.
~ William E. Simon, in The Wall Street Journal (21 August 1979).
Let free-born Souls disdain
To wear a Tyrant's Chain,
And act a nobler Part.
~ William Somervile, from Occasional Poems, Translations, Fables, Tales, Etc. (1727). Fable XI. Liberty and Love; or, the Two Sparrows
Writing itself is one of the great, free human activities. There is scope for individuality, and elation, and discovery. ... Working back and forth between experience and thought, writers have more than space and time can offer. They have the whole unexplored realm of human vision.
~ William Stafford, from Writing the Australian Crawl (1978). A Way of Writing
Bondage is ... subjection to external influences and internal negative thoughts and attitudes.
~ William (W.) Clement Stone
Here we are, then, once more back at the old doctrine -- Laissez faire. Let us translate it into blunt English, and it will read, Mind your own business. It is nothing but the doctrine of liberty. Let every man be happy in his own way.
~ William Graham Sumner, What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883). Chapter VIII. On the Value, As a Sociological Principle, of the Rule to Mind One's Own Business
If I want to be free from any other man's dictation, I must understand that I can have no other man under my control.
~ William Graham Sumner, in The Forgotten Man and Other Essays (1918). The Forgotten Man (1883 article)
What the Forgotten Man really wants is true liberty.
~ William Graham Sumner, in The Forgotten Man and Other Essays (1918). The Forgotten Man (1883 article)
Resist much. Obey little. Think for yourself.
~ William Thomas, All Fall Down: The Politics of Terror and Mass Persuasion (2002).
[S]hould not all be free; and how can those be called free who are the slaves of hunger, of cold, of ignorance, of chance? Have not all the right to lead an easy rational life -- to improve their position, to exercise and develop all their faculties? But what avails the right without the power?
~ William Thomas Thornton, On Labour, its Wrongful Claims and Rightful Dues, its Actual Present and Possible Future (1869). Book II. Chapter II. The Claims of Labour, And Its Rights
Nothing cramps the freedom of the soul in a greater degree than the fear of what others will think and say ... and the first thing to be done after taking the narrow way is to shut the world out of consideration.
~ W. (William) Bernard Ullathorne, The Groundwork of the Christian Virtues (1882). Lecture III. On the Difficulties of Virtue
Freedom's enemies are waste, lethargy, indifference, immorality, and the insidious attitude of something for nothing.
~ William Arthur Ward
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.
He may avoid suffering and sorrow,
But he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live.
Chained by his servitude he is a slave who has forfeited all freedom.
Only a person who risks is free.
~ William Arthur Ward, To Risk
At last, I feel completely free.
~ Essie Mae Washington-Williams, Press conference at the Adam's Mark hotel, Columbia, SC (17 December 2003).
Inside the dragon's stomach, in the stinking dark, the boy felt along the soft, wet walls for the long vulnerable veins that carried the blood from the heart, and slowly, with a knife dulled by childhood games, he began to kill the dragon the only way any tyranny can be killed, from the inside out.
~ William John Watkins, The Only Way A Dragon Can Be Killed
And free they are who think that they are free.
~ William Watson, from Epigrams of Art, Life and Nature (1884). LI. A Marginal Note on 'The Tempest'
Liberty if it shall cement man into political unity, must be something more than a man's conception of his rights, much more than his desire to fight for his own rights. True liberty is founded upon a lively sense of the rights of others and a fighting conviction that the rights of others must be maintained.
~ William Allen White, Commencement Address at Northwestern University. Evanston IL (June 1936).
Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others.
~ William Allen White
Whenever a free man is in chains we are threatened also. Whoever is fighting for liberty is defending America.
~ William Allen White
Athletics was my flight from freedom. Freedom from prejudice. Freedom from illiteracy. Freedom from bias. It was my acceptance in the world.
~ Willye B. White, in Runner's World (June 1993). Ahead of their Time
And, sir, when we think of eternity, and of the future consequences of all human conduct, what is there in this life that should make any man contradict the dictates of his conscience, the principles of justice, the laws of religion, and of God?
~ William Wilberforce (on the abolition of slavery), Speech, House of Commons (12 May 1789).
Therefore I do protest against the boast
Of independence in this mighty land.
Call no chain strong, which holds one rusted link.
Call no land free, that holds one fettered slave.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Poems of Problems (1914). Protest
The liberties of England and the Protestant religion I will maintain.
~ William III, Prince of Orange (aka King Billy; November 1688)
A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, Stairs to the Roof (1941).
Caged birds accept each other but flight is what they long for.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, Camino Real (1953).
To be free is to have achieved your life.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, from Tennessee Williams Memoirs (1975).
We Americans face an awesome challenge and responsibility because if liberty dies here, it's probably dead for all places and all times.
~ Walter E. Williams, Restoring Liberty in America (17 May 2006).
[F]reedom is not nurtured by nations preparing for war.
~ William Appleman Williams, from History as a Way of Learning (1973).
You sullen pig of a man
you force me into the mud
with your stinking ash-cart!
~ William Carlos Williams, from Al Que Quiere! A Book of Poems (1917). Libertad! Igualdad! Fraternidad!
It is true that a man cannot be free unless he has a job and a decent income. But this job and this income are not the sources of his freedom. They only implement it. Freedom is of the mind.
~ Wendell Lewis Willkie, Speech at Duke University, Durham NC (14 January 1943). Freedom and the Liberal Arts
[W]henever we take away the liberties of those we hate, we are opening the way to loss of liberty for those we love.
~ Wendell Lewis Willkie, One World (1943).
Natural freedoms are but just:
There's something generous in mere lust.
~ John Wilmot, 2nd Earl Of Rochester, A Ramble in St James' Park (1680)
All men are by nature, equal and free. No one has a right to any authority over another without his consent. ... The consequence is, that the happiness of the society is the first law of every government.
~ James Wilson, Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament (1774 pamphlet).
Civil liberty is natural liberty itself, divested only of that part, which, placed in the government, produces more good and happiness to the community than if it had remained in the individual. Hence it follows, that civil liberty, while it resigns a part of natural liberty, retains the free and generous exercise of all the human faculties, so far as it is compatible with the public welfare.
~ James Wilson, Debate before the Pennsylvania Convention on the Adoption of the Constitution (26 November 1787).
Without Liberty, Law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without Law, Liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness.
~ James Wilson, Lectures on Law, Delivered in the College of Philadelphia (1790-91). Of the Study of the Law in the United States
On a planet that increasingly resembles one huge Maximum Security prison, the only intelligent choice is to plan a jail break.
~ Robert Anton Wilson, Cosmic Trigger, Volume II. Down to Earth (1991).
[T]he more internal freedom you achieve, the more you want: it is more fun to be happy than sad, more enjoyable to choose your own emotions than to have them inflicted on you by mechanical glandular processes, more pleasurable to solve your problems than to be stuck with them forever.
~ Robert Anton Wilson, The Illuminati Papers (1980). The Abolition of Stupidity
And let the misty mountain-winds be free
To blow against thee.
~ William Wordsworth, from Lyrical Ballads (1798). Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey
In truth the prison, unto which we doom
Ourselves, no prison is.
~ William Wordsworth, from Miscellaneous Sonnets, Part I (1827). I. Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent's Narrow Room (1807)
Liberty,
I worshipped thee, and found thee but a shade.
~ William Wordsworth, The Excursion (1814). Book II: The Solitary
Man free, man working for himself, with choice
Of time, place, and object.
~ William Wordsworth, The Prelude (1805). Book VIII: Retrospect. -- Love of Nature Leading to Love of Man
The Hero comes to liberate, not defy;
And, while he marches on with stedfast hope,
Conqueror beloved! expected anxiously!
~ William Wordsworth, from Ecclesiastical Sonnets. In Series (1821-22). Part III. IX. William The Third
We must be free or die, who speak the tongue
That Shakespeare spake; the faith and morals hold
Which Milton held.
~ William Wordsworth, in The Morning Post (16 April 1803). It Is Not To Be Thought Of
I have heard people eat most heartily of another man's meat, that is, what they do not pay for.
~ William Wycherley, The Country Wife (1673). Act V, scene iv
Wine gives you liberty, love takes it away.
~ William Wycherley, The Country Wife (1673). Act I, scene i
© 1999-2012 all things William. All Rights Reserved.
A Collection of Quotes Based on the Name William