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 one's liberty is to renounce one's quality as a man, the rights of humanity, and even one's duties.”
Text from the included edition · French
“Renoncer à sa liberté c'est renoncer à sa qualité d'homme, aux droits de l'humanité, même à ses devoirs.”
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Du contrat social (Le contrat social)
“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.”
Text from the included edition · French
“L'homme est né libre, & par-tout il est dans les fers. Tel se croit le maître des autres, qui ne laisse pas d'être plus esclave qu'eux.”
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Du contrat social (Le contrat social)
“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)
“You shall become who you are.”
Text from the included edition · German
“Du sollst der werden, der du bist.”
— Nietzsche, Die fröhliche Wissenschaft
“Let there be no compulsion in Religion.”
— Quran, The Qur'an