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
“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays — First Series
“To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties.”
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The social contract & discourses
“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
“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.”
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The social contract & discourses
“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
“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)
“Thou shalt become what thou art.”
— Nietzsche, The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza)
“Let there be no compulsion in Religion.”
— Quran, The Qur'an