“Nations grown corrupt love bondage more than liberty; bondage with ease than strenuous liberty.”
John Milton · The Ready and Easy Way, 1660
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Philosophy Quotes
363 quotes on philosophy and the big questions — from the classics to the everyday.
“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves.”
Abraham Lincoln · Letter to Henry L. Pierce, 1859
“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.”
George Bernard Shaw · Man and Superman, 1903
“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
“Where liberty dwells, there is my country.”
Benjamin Franklin
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Benjamin Franklin · Pennsylvania Assembly reply to the Governor, 1755
“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 · Long Walk to Freedom, 1994
“Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.”
Albert Camus
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?”
Patrick Henry · Speech to the Virginia Convention, 1775
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Thomas Jefferson · Letter to William Stephens Smith, 1787
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
Thomas Jefferson · Declaration of Independence, 1776
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Benjamin Franklin · 1755
“Give me liberty, or give me death!”
Patrick Henry · Speech to the Virginia Convention, 1775
“Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.”
Seneca · Attributed, moral writings
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
“He who is brave is free.”
Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
Marcus Aurelius · Meditations
