Real Freedom Quotes

But it was not real freedom, he realised. It was the freedom that comes from lack of choice and moreover, was the kind that only came with decisions delayed. It was a freedom of inaction. ~ Lavie Tidhar

Real freedom is not something to be acquired, it is the outcome of intelligence. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

One may gain political and social independence, but if one is a slave to his passions and desires, one cannot feel the pure joy of real freedom ~ Swami Vivekananda

Submitting self to God is the only real freedom - because the deepest slavery is self-dependence, self-reliance. When you live your life believing that everything (family, finances, relationships, career) depends primarily on you, you're enslaved to your strengths and weaknesses. You're trying to be your own savior. Freedom comes when we start trusting in God's abilities and wisdom instead of our own. Real life begins when we transfer our trust from our own efforts to the efforts of Christ. ~ Tullian Tchividjian

There's no subtext in 'Harry Potter,' really; it's all magic - anything can happen. Why do I say this? Because it's a magic spell. It's quite nice in a way. There is a real freedom to it. Doesn't say much for acting, does it? ~ Michael Gambon

There can never be any real freedom on earth as long as people try to exert ownership over the natural resources of the world. ~ Bryant McGill

Maybe the real freedom is in letting go of the what-ifs. Choosing hopeful expectation over worry that life is going to shortchange you. ~ Melissa Tagg

What would I like to get away from? Complexity. Anxiety. A feeling I've had my whole life that at any given time there's something I'm forgetting, some detail or chore, something that I'm supposed to be doing or should have already done. That nagging sensation - I get up with it, I go through the day with it, I go to sleep with it. When I was a kid, I had a habit of coming home from school on Friday afternoons and immediately doing my homework. So I'd wake up on Saturday morning with this wonderful sensation, a clean, open feeling of relief and possibility and calm. There'd be nothing I had to do. Those Saturday mornings, they were a taste of real freedom that I've hardly ever experienced as an adult. I never wake up in Elmsford with the feeling that I've done my homework. ~ Lionel Shriver

Real freedom is not a matter of the shifting of advantage from one sex to the other or from one class to another. Real freedom means the disappearance of advantage, and primarily of economic advantage. ~ Suzanne La Follette

Diversion consoles us - in trivial ways - in the face of our miseries or perplexities; yet, paradoxically, it becomes the worst of our miseries becuase it hinders us from ruminating on and understanding our true condition. Thus, Pascal warns, it 'leads us imperceptibly to destruction.' Why? If not for diversion, we would 'be bored, and boredom would drive us to seek some more solid means of escape, but diversion passes our time and brings us imperceptibly to our death.' Through the course of protracted stupefaction, we learn to become oblivious to our eventual oblivion. In so doing, we choke off the possibility of seeking real freedom. ~ Douglas Groothuis

They did not know; nor did they know that the negation of everything is in itself a form of servitude and
that real freedom is an inner submission to a value which defies history and its successes. ~ Albert Camus

Real freedom is saying 'no' without giving a reason. ~ Amit Kalantri

The real freedom comes to us when we can learn to go inside and connect with that voice. Then, we're not relying on outsiders. ~ Echo Bodine

luxury means little when there's no real freedom in the world ~ Julie Bertagna

No genuine equality, no real freedom, no true manhood or womanhood can exist on any foundation save that of pecuniary independence. As a right over a man's subsistence is a power over his moral being, so a right over a woman's subsistence enslaves her will, degrades her pride and vitiates her whole moral nature. ~ Susan B. Anthony

What we call society is the sum total of human thinking and feeling. It is a reflection of our attitudes. When we change them, we change society. We are only a change of mind away from real freedom, the freedom to express our God-given uniqueness and celebrate the diversity of gifts, perceptions and inspiration that exist within the collective human psyche. The creative force is within us all and desperate to express itself. ~ David Icke

I think I would co-direct because I love actors and I've got a very good eye. I'm not a second-guesser. I don't think that I would be very happy, getting inundated by financial issues. I would love to co-direct with somebody because that would be a real freedom and an adventure, and then I could leave all the pain and misery to them. I'm not glib about it. I would take the responsibility to make a really good movie. ~ Lance Henriksen

It is better to go near the truth and be imprisoned than to stay with the wrong and roam about freely, master Galilei. In fact, getting attached to falsity is terrible slavery, and real freedom is only next to the right. ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

God demands nothing less than self - surrender as the price for the only real freedom that is worth having. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

If freedom is the basis of life, then love is the basis of real freedom, the capacity to love without bonds is the freedom of the highest order. ~ Vivek Mehta

The most intelligent of the Nazis, the legal theorist Carl Schmitt, explained in clear language the essence of fascist governance. The way to destroy all rules, he explained, was to focus on the idea of the exception. A Nazi leader outmaneuvers his opponents by manufacturing a general conviction that the present moment is exceptional, and then transforming that state of exception into a permanent emergency. Citizens then trade real freedom for fake safety. When ~ Timothy Snyder

I'm not ambitious. I don't want to get anywhere, I don't want anything more. I sometimes think that for me that is the real freedom, that I don't want anything. I don't want money or prizes. I want people to know that a war is going to be fought. ~ Arundhati Roy

Real freedom is having nothing. I was freer when I didn't have a cent. ~ Mike Tyson

Real freedom lies in wildness, not civilization. ~ Charles Lindbergh

Integrity gives you real freedom because you have nothing to fear since you have nothing to hide. ~ Zig Ziglar

If we apply our minds directly and competently to the needs of the earth, then we will have begun to make fundamental and necessary changes in our minds. We will begin to understand and to mistrust and to change our wasteful economy, which markets not just the produce of the earth, but also the earth's ability to produce. We will see that beauty and utility are alike dependent upon the health of the world. But we will also see through the fads and the fashions of protest. We will see that war and oppression and pollution are not separate issues, but are aspects of the same issue. Amid the outcries for the liberation of this group or that, we will know that no person is free except in the freedom of other persons, and that man's only real freedom is to know and faithfully occupy his place - a much humbler place than we have been taught to think - in the order of creation.
(pg.89, "Think Little") ~ Wendell Berry

I used to wear sleeveless T-shirts all the time on court, but now I've got a brand new look - I've moved on to polo shirts. Sleeveless T-shirts give you real freedom of movement and they keep you cooler in matches, but I just thought it was time for a change. ~ Rafael Nadal

The only real freedom we have left is the home. Only there can we express anything we want. ~ William Haines

Freedom from sin is real ~ Sunday Adelaja

I was a prisoner, but I always felt free because I was not frightened So for me real freedom is freedom from fear. ~ Aung San Suu Kyi

Too many people base their worth and value on what other people think of them. They worry if others like them, approve of them, or think of them as important. Because of such insecurities, they are constantly playing up to others, trying to win their favor and to meet others' every expectation.
When you do that, you set yourself up to be controlled and manipulated. You allow others to put you in a box. Some people do not follow their dreams because they are so concerned about falling from the good grace of others. You may lose the approval of others if you follow your own dreams. But if your friends approve of you only when you meet their expectations, they aren't true friends. They are manipulators. They are controllers.
There is a real freedom when you realize you don't need the approval of others. You have almighty God's approval. Don't try to keep everyone around you happy. Some people don't even want to be happy. You've got to be secure enough to say, "I love you, but I won't allow you to control me. You may not give me your blessing, but that's okay. I have God's blessing. And I'm not a people pleaser; I'm a God pleaser."
Take charge of your life. If you're being manipulated and pressured into being someone you are not, it's not the other person's fault, it's your own fault. You control your destiny. You can be nice. You can be respectful. But do not allow anyone to make you feel guilty for being your own person.
Life is too short to spend it trying ~ Joel Osteen

The immature conscience is not its own master. It simply parrots the decisions of others. It does not make judgments of its own; it merely conforms to the judgments of others. That is not real freedom, and it makes true love impossible, for if we are to love truly and freely, we must be able to give something that is truly our own to another. If our heart does not belong to us, asks Merton, how can we give it to another? ~ Jon Katz

Secularity is a way of being dependent on the responses of our milieu. The secular or false self is the self which is fabricated, as Thomas Merton says, by social compulsions. 'Compulsive' is indeed the best adjective for the false self. It points to the need for ongoing and increasing affirmation. Who am I? I am the one who is liked, praised, admired, disliked, hated or despised. Whether I am a pianist, a businessman or a minister, what matters is how I am perceived by my world. If being busy is a good thing, then I must be busy. If having money is a sign of real freedom, then I must claim my money. If knowing many people proves my importance, I will have to make the necessary contacts. The compulsion manifests itself in the lurking fear of failure and the steady urge to prevent this by gathering more of the same - more work, more money, more friends. ~ Henri J.M. Nouwen

You see, real freedom is something tangible- it's the American's birthright- but it is also something that can be taken away at a moment's notice. ~ Alex Gilvarry

Real freedom is not merely doing what you like, but also NOT doing what you like. ~ Swami Vivekananda

In a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear. Never let fear prevent you from doing right. ~ Aung San Suu Kyi

Real freedom cannot exist alongside false freedom, but the abandonment of false freedom looks as if it would leave you as good as dead. But this is the secret of Goethe's Stirb und werde, "Die and come to life." For the job of compassion in a sick society only the dead need apply. ~ Alan W. Watts

Real freedom is creative, proactive, and will take me into new territories. I am not free if my freedom is predicated on reacting to my past. ~ Kenny Loggins

Where freedom is real, equality is the passion of the masses. Where equality is real, freedom is the passion of a small minority. ~ Eric Hoffer

If you would enjoy real freedom, you must be the slave of Philosophy. ~ Epicurus

Freedom cannot simply mean doing whatever strikes you at the moment: that way you're a slave to any whim or passing fancy. Real freedom involves control over your life as a whole, learning to make plans and promises and decisions, to take responsibility for your actions' consequences. ~ Susan Neiman

Without total freedom, every perception, every objective regard, is twisted. It is only the man who is totally free who can look and understand immediately. Freedom implies really, doesn't it, the total emptying of the mind. Completely to empty the whole content of the mind-that is real freedom. Freedom is not mere revolt from circumstances, which again breeds other circumstances, other environmental influences, which enslave the mind. We are talking about a freedom that comes naturally, easily, unasked for, when the mind is capable of functioning at its highest level. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Contrary to what I had thought, I did not need easing circumstances, relief from difficulty, and distance from pain in order to be free. I was learning that the freedom Jesus secured for me is not freedom from pain and suffering here and now. Rather, it's freedom from bitterness, anger, fear, resentment, self-pity, offense, and hopelessness in the crucible of present pain and suffering; it is freedom from my burdensome sense of "I deserve better," the encumbrance of entitlement. I was realizing that only the gospel can free us from the enslaving pressure to defend ourselves. That's real freedom - God-sized freedom! ~ Tullian Tchividjian

Behind real freedom, there lies discipline. ~ Erwin McManus

In the 1930s, Americans hopped trains. In the 1950s, beat poets wrote about road trips. In the 1960s, we hitched rides. Today, however, it seems like the whole "coming of age" adventure has been abridged from a young person's life experience, leaving no gap, no bridge, no moment of real freedom in between school and career. I ~ Ken Ilgunas

These countries formally achieved independence ,but they didn't achieve real freedom, since freedom of any kind is primarily spiritual.the independence of a people which has not first won this is soon reduced to an anthem and a flag , two very minor factors for true independence ~ Alija Izetbegovic

This is real freedom-the ability to enjoy the choices we make in every successive moment of the present. ~ Deepak Chopra

Watts said that real freedom was not freedom of choice but freedom from choice. ~ Gil Friedman

We must be free, but to have real freedom, you must be wild and free yourself. ~ Bryant McGill

I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America. ~ Alexis De Tocqueville

The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear ~ Aung San Suu Kyi

Freedom of mind is the real freedom.
A person whose mind is not free though he may not be in chains, is a slave, not a free man.
One whose mind is not free, though he may not be in prison, is a prisoner and not a free man.
One whose mind is not free though alive, is no better than dead.
Freedom of mind is the proof of one's existence. ~ B.R. Ambedkar

There is no real freedom for the man who is in so much of a hurry that he is annoyed by the human race and by the hot glaring afternoon sun. ~ William, Saroyan

If we are to give the people of China complete self-government we must first solve the problem of livelihood for all, and give real freedom to the races within China. If the foundations of democracy are secure, then true equality can be achieved. ~ Chiang Kai-shek

Every one is as much bound in thought, word, deed, and mind, as a piece of stone or this table. That I talk to you now is as rigorous in causation as that you listen to me. There is no freedom until you go beyond Maya. That is the real freedom of the soul. ~ Swami Vivekananda

Women in most countries have not achieved much, because they can't be liberated under the patriarchal, capitalist, imperialist and military system that determines the way we live now, and which is governed by power, not justice, by false democracy, not real freedom. ~ Nawal El Saadawi

If we examine ourselves carefully we shall see most of us have an enormous amount of unfinished business ... We have to be free so that we can just step across the line and that's it. That is what real freedom is. ~ Thomas Merton

Real freedom isn't subject to how others estimate our value; it is in realizing that none are free who find their sense of worth wondering how others measure their lives. ~ Guy Finley

If we seek solace in the prisons of the distant past
Security in human systems we're told will always always last
Emotions are the sail and blind faith is the mast
Without the breath of real freedom we're getting nowhere fast.
(History Will Teach Us Nothing) ~ Sting

I will continue to expose your right-wing, anti-people politics until groups like your won't dare show their face on a college campus. Real freedom will come when soldiers in Iraq turn their guns on their superiors and fight for just causes and for people's needs-such freedom fighters can be counted throughout American history and they certainly will be counted again. ~ John Daly

What's real freedom? Real freedom is being able to not have my way and still be just as happy as if I did. ~ Joyce Meyer

Real Freedom is to not feel limited when wearing this Zen robe, this troublesome formal robe. Similarly, in our busy life we should wear this civilization without being bothered by it, without ignoring it, without being caught by it. ~ Shunryu Suzuki

The problem is that democracy is not freedom. Democracy is simply majoritarianism, which is inherently incompatible with real freedom. Our founding fathers clearly understood this. ~ Ron Paul

Real freedom comes from the mastery, through knowledge, of historic conditions and race character, which makes possible a free and intelligent use of experience for the purpose of progress. ~ Hamilton Wright Mabie

Without the breath of real freedom we're getting nowhere fast. ~ Sting

Real freedom is freedom from the opinions of others. Above all, freedom from your opinions about yourself. ~ Brennan Manning

Until economic freedom is attained for everybody, there can be no real freedom for anybody. ~ Suzanne La Follette

Freedom of speech is detestable only to those who have no desire to think for themselves. ~ Criss Jami

The real development I've seen of people in organizations, especially in big ones, comes from their being volunteers in a nonprofit organization - where you have responsibility, you see results, and you quickly learn what your values are. There is no better way to understand your strengths and discover where you belong than to volunteer in a nonprofit. That is probably the great opportunity for the social sector - and especially in its relationship to business. ~ Peter Drucker

Sometimes we don't even know what we seek anymore. Life halts for a second, and we see a shadow of dreams, some lived, some unlived. So many stories, so many voices and yet each stands distinct for each took a part of your heart, each made a part of your soul. A list of songs, and a whole lot of unkempt moments, a handful of tears and a whole sky of smiles, so much walked and yet such a long path remains, only the steps aren't the same anymore. Words and silence play within and without as nothing seems real in a world that is made of moments, yet the memories bind a reality that shines vividly through a hole of illusions, an illusion of happiness, an illusion of despair, an illusion of love, an illusion of loss. Someday, perhaps in a distant dream, in a known star, there would be a home, where the void of nothingness will forever merge with the wholeness of moments. Someday, in the stillness of a wild heart, we would hold each other in the sky of that dream, that which isn't sought yet found. Because sometimes, we don't even know what we seek anymore. ~ Debatrayee Banerjee

If all the exchange-ratios of the past were erased from human memory, the process of market-price-determination might certainly become more difficult, because everybody would have to construct a new scale of valuations for himself; but it would not become impossible. In fact, people the whole world over are engaged daily and hourly in the operation from which all prices result: the decision as to the relative significance enjoyed by specific quantities of goods as conditions for the satisfaction of wants. ~ Ludwig Von Mises

The idea that the business world's needs get ignored in Washington is perpetuated by business so it can fulfill even more of its needs, real or imagined. ~ Timothy Noah

There are always some people who are ready to embrace a doctrine, a notion, a dogma, and they miss the real teaching. ~ Nhat Hanh

Freedom - a drunken whore
Sprawling in a power maddened soldier's arms. ~ Marina Tsvetaeva

As much as I had always longed to be freed of my duties and obligations, being released from such bonds was as much a severing as an emancipation. ~ Robin Hobb

The choice people have to make is never between slavery and freedom. We will always have to choose between slavery and the unknown. ~ Rachel Naomi Remen

With MOOCs, the real question becomes, where is human intervention important? ~ Shirley Ann Jackson

All I can do in one session is to be real, to leap into the patient's life, to offer observations in the hope that he'll be able to open doors and explore some new parts of himself in his ongoing therapy. ~ Irvin D. Yalom

Our species ... has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of a man. Nothing was ever created by two men ... Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man ... And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for that is one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system. Surely I can understand this, and I hate it and I will fight against it to preserve the one thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts. If the glory can be killed, we are lost. ~ John Steinbeck

A comfortable, convenient life is not a real life - the more comfortable, the less alive. The most comfortable life is in the grave. ~ Rajneesh

Learn to understand the real beauty of simplicity. ~ Christoph Von Schmid

He commences to laugh. Nobody can tell exactly why he laughs; there's nothing funny going on. But it's not the way that Public Relation laughs, it's free and loud and it comes out of his wide grinning mouth and spreads in rings bigger and bigger till it's lapping against the walls all over the ward. Not like that fat Public Relation laugh. This sounds real. I realize all of a sudden it's the first laugh I've heard in years. He stands looking at us, rocking back in his boots, and he laughs and laughs. He laces his fingers ~ Ken Kesey

Women have participated in almost every fight for freedom. They were there when civilians were targeted they were there when the bombs were planted. To argue they didn't have enough power to speak up or they had been brainwashed by their male colleagues is to try to disassociate from the darkness that resides in everyone. And to disassociate from your darkness is to lose your power over it. ~ Jessa Crispin

It is because baptism is a real insertion of human beings into the ascended manhood of Christ that the Church is Christ's own body, flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones. ~ E.L. Mascall

We must be free for the truth; and conversely, to be able to be open toward the truth may be our deepest freedom as human creatures. ~ William Barrett

You know, it's a hugely difficult thing to take any work of art or drawing and say 'make that real.' ~ Zack Snyder

I rarely play a real person, because I don't think I'm a good imitator. ~ Harrison Ford

I'm saying I love you, Cami. All of that was as real for me as it was for you. I'm asking if you'll stick this out beside me. I'm willing to lose my badge and even be dishonorably discharged if that's the case. I just don't want to lose you. ~ Lacey Weatherford

I never put real people into my fiction
I can't see the slightest point of that, when I have the alternative of inventing utterly subservient slave-people, whose every detail of appearance and behavior I can bend to serve my theme and plot. ~ Barbara Kingsolver

Yes, she would go - to Rifthold, to anywhere, even through the Gates of the Wyrd and into Hell itself, if it meant freedom. After all, you aren't Adarlan's Assassin for nothing. ~ Sarah J. Maas

If it be asked what is to restrain the House of Representatives from making legal discriminations in favor of themselves and a particular class of the society? I answer, the genius of the whole system, the nature of just and constitutional laws, and above all the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America, a spirit which nourishes freedom, and in return is nourished by it. If this spirit shall ever be so far debased as to tolerate a law not obligatory on the Legislature as well as on the people, the people will be prepared to tolerate anything but liberty. ~ Alexander Hamilton

I don't think I could walk down the street wearing bubbles or a dress made of ham. What Lady GaGa has done has been kind of amazing. I am the opposite. I wear clothes I would wear on the street. I'm all about a real look. ~ Rihanna

The functions of the human frame are, broadly speaking, known. They are a country, anyhow, that has been charted and mapped out. But outside that lie huge tracts of undiscovered country, which certainly exist, and the real pioneers of knowledge are those who, at the cost of being derided as credulous and superstitious, want to push on into
those misty and probably perilous places. I felt that I could be of more use by setting out without compass or knapsack into the mists than by sitting in a cage like a canary and chirping about what was known. Besides, teaching is very very bad for a man who knows himself only to be a learner: you only need to be a self-conceited ass to teach. ~ E.F. Benson

When I felt rather overcome with my father's opposition, I said as firmly as I could, that I must have this or something else, that I could not live without some real work. ~ Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

I understand that fictional men aren't real. Not 'really real'. I know this the same way I wonder if my readers are disappointed when they meet me. ~ Margaret Stohl

Out & Equal is about work. It's about authenticity. It's also about justice. Essentially it's about love, because when you get right down to it, the civil rights movement for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community is really about having the freedom to be who we are, and to love who we love. ~ Selisse Berry

As real as,' said Eddie.
'As real as what?' said Jack.
'Wish I knew,' said Eddie. 'But I can't do corroborative nouns. None of us are perfect, are we? I can get started. As big as, as obscene as, as foul as. But I can't get any further. But that's life for you again. As unfair as ... ~ Robert Rankin

I love being vulnerable. It's scary. I feel like the best stuff that I have ever written can come from real vulnerable places. ~ Mat Kearney

Freedom is not empowerment. Empowerment is what the Serbs have in Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

The range of choice open to the individual is not the decisive factor in determining the degree of human freedom, but what can be chosen and what is chosen by the individual. ~ Herbert Marcuse