Freedom Consists Not in Doing What We Like, but in Having the Right to Do What We Ought

Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.

--Pope John Paul II

Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.

-Albert Camus

There is no such thing as a little freedom. Either you are all free, or you are not free.

-Walter Cronkite

Freedom is the last, best hope of earth.

-Abraham Lincoln

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free.

-Pearl S. Buck

The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom is courage

-Thucydides

Freedom is a lot like air. When it is around, you hardly notice it.
Once taken from you, you notice it instantly.

- Unknown

The natural state of mankind and I know that this is a controversial idea is freedom.
And the proof is the lengths to which a man, woman, or child will go to regain it once lost.
He will break loose his chains. He will decimate his enemies. He will try and try and try again,
against all odds, against all prejudices.

-John Quincy Adams

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

- Ronald Reagan

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill, of things unknown, but longed for still,
and his tune is heard on the distant hill, for the caged bird sings of freedom.

-Maya Angelou

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

- Marianne Williamson

Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.

-Moshe Dayan

Freedom is not something that anybody can be given; Freedom is something that people take and people are as free as they want to be.

-James Baldwin

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.

-Mahatma Gandhi

Freedom is not what a man does, nor what he is permitted to do. Freedom is part of what a man is.

-Robert Lessing

I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal.

-Abraham Lincoln

Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.

-Dalai Lama

If you are tired, keep going; if you are scared, keep going; if you are hungry; keep going; if you want to taste freedom, keep going.

-Harriet Tubman

Well, I’ve got a hammer

And I’ve got a bell

And I’ve got a song to sing all over this land.

It’s the hammer of justice

It’s the bell of freedom

It’s a song about love between

My brothers and my sisters

All over this land

-Pete Seeger, “If I Had a Hammer”

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose; nothing don't mean nothing if it ain't free.

-Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster, "Me and Bobby McGee"