Individual Freedom Quotes

“Human beings are born with different capacities. If they are free, they are not equal. And if they are equal, they are not free.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“The truth is, one who seeks to achieve freedom by petitioning those in power to give it to him has already failed, regardless of the response.
To beg for the blessing of “authority” is to accept that the choice is the master’s alone to make, which means that the person is already, by definition, a slave.”
― Larken Rose

“Perhaps, there is no such person who can be called truly free, but only those who can be deemed so by comparison.”
― Ashim Shanker, Sinew of the Social Species

“-The very absence of the freedom to criticise against your own or any other government is all the more a reason to loudly shout-out for democracy! If that is wrong, Drew boldly went on, -then I would rather be wrong then to be numbered among the majority of the so-called righteous people whose only mandate seems to be controlling people. If a government is against its people expressing themselves, then that government is obviously hiding something criminal from its people and the world, and it is therefore afraid of being exposed and losing whatever power it has.”
― Andrew James Pritchard, Circle In the Sand

“With their concern for personal autonomy and individual freedom, anarchists more than any other socialists are aware of the inhumanity of both physical punishment and manipulative cure for anti-social members of the community. They look to reasoned argument and friendly treatment to deal with criminals and wish to respect their humanity and individuality.”
― Peter Marshall, Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism

“Comparison is waste of energy. Every individual is unique with unique talents. Find your passion and live your best life.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind

“Only he qualifies to be an INDIVIDUAL, who has created an IMAGE for himself, in tune with his INTRINSIC NATURE, for majority only succumb to the human stupidity and perish!”
― Ramana Pemmaraju

“We all tried [to be open and free]. I’m not sure the organism is fully capable.”
― Michael Cunningham, The Hours

“The essence of the Industrial Revolution consists in the triumph of this principle over the medieval and mercantilist regulations. Modern economy first begins with the introduction of the principle of laissez-faire, and the idea of individual freedom first succeeds in establishing itself as the ideology of this economic liberalism. These connections do not, of course, prevent both the idea of labour and the idea of freedom from developing into independent ethical forces and from often being interpreted in a really idealistic sense. But to realize how small a part was played by idealism in the rise of economic liberalism, it is only necessary to recall that the demand for freedom of trade was directed, above all, against the skilled master, in order to take away from him the only advantage he had over 55 the mere contractor. Adam Smith himself was still far from claiming such idealistic motives for the justification of free competition; on the contrary, he saw in human selfishness and the pursuit of personal interests the best guarantee for the smooth functioning of the economic organism and the realization of the general weal. The whole optimism of the enlightenment was bound up with this belief in the selfregulating power of economic life and the automatic adjustment of conflicting interests; as soon as this began to disappear, it became more and more difficult to identify economic freedom with the interests of the general weal and to regard free competition as a universal blessing.”
― Arnold Hauser, The Social History of Art Volume 3: Rococo, Classicism and Romanticism

“Only two unhappy people can be happy with each other, because they are dependent on the 'other' for happiness. Only an INDIVIDUAL relishes in his own presence, the 'other' is a hindrance to his freedom. He doesn't fit with the society, he stands out from the mediocre, he lives in 'totality' and celebrates in aloneness.”
― Ramana Pemmaraju