Freedom
“The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.”
— John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
“The greatest thing in the world is for a man to know that he is his own.”
— Michel de Montaigne, Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete
“Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience.”
— Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
“There are things which are within our power, and there are things which are beyond our power.”
— Epictetus, The Enchiridion
“If God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him.”
— Mikhail Bakunin, God and the State
“The liberty of man consists solely in this: that he obeys natural laws because he has himself recognized them as such.”
— Mikhail Bakunin, God and the State
“To be great is to be misunderstood.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays — First Series
“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays — First Series
“Simplify, simplify.”
— Henry David Thoreau, Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience
“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears.”
— Henry David Thoreau, Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience
“I wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both of mind and body.”
— Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
“The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth.”
— Locke, Second Treatise of Government
“To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties.”
— Rousseau, The social contract & discourses
“Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Genius can only breathe freely in an atmosphere of freedom.”
— John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
“He who lets the world, or his own portion of it, choose his plan of life for him, has no need of any other faculty than the ape-like one of imitation.”
— John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
“The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement.”
— John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
“No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port.”
— Michel de Montaigne, Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete
“The individual is something quite new, and capable of creating new things. He is something absolute, and all his actions are quite his own.”
— Nietzsche, The Will to Power
“Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life.”
— Epictetus, A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus with the Encheiridion
“Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they.”
— Rousseau, The social contract & discourses
“The initiation of all wise or noble things, comes and must come from individuals; generally at first from some one individual.”
— John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
“The amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigour, and moral courage which it contained.”
— John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
“Hitch your wagon to a star.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Society and solitude Twelve chapters
“A great step towards independence is a good-humoured stomach, one that is willing to endure rough treatment.”
— Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius (Epistulae Morales)