#freed

We are not going to change the whole world, but we can change ourselves and feel free as birds. We can be serene even in the midst of calamities and, by our serenity, make others more tranquil. Serenity is contagious. If we smile at someone, he or she will smile back. And a smile costs nothing. We should plague everyone with joy. If we are to die in a minute, why not die happily, laughing? (136-137) ↗

— Swami Satchidananda

#death #freedom #happiness #joy #laughter

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid ... Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man. ↗

— Bertrand Russell

#defiance #fearlessness #free-thinker #freedom #freedom-of-thought

Today I will masterbate! Okay, that was a mistake. I should have written "Today I will masterbate--if I want to! ↗

— Al Franken

#humor #masturbation #sex #freedom

The fundamentalists of every faith remain blind to the truth that the “sigh within the prayer is the same in the heart of the Christian, the Muslim, and the Jew.” I have seen this unity with my eyes, heard it with my ears, felt it with all my being. ↗

— David James Duncan

#mysticism #religion #religious-freedom #spirituality #faith

The problem with freedom is that you are free to succeed, as well as free to fail. ↗

— Lionel Suggs

#freedom

In einem freien Staat müssen Zunge und Meinung frei sein. ↗

— Suetonius

#freedom #rechtsstaat #freedom

Ohne Gedankenfreiheit gibt es keine Weisheit. Und ohne Redefreiheit keine öffentliche Freiheit. ↗

— Benjamin Franklin

#freedom #wisdom #freedom

One avoids Creolisms. Some families completely forbid Creole and mothers ridicule their children for speaking it. ↗

— Frantz Fanon

#fanon #freedom #negritude #onwuegbute #family

Individuality, family, and community are, by definition, expressions of singular organization, never of "one-right-way" thinking on the grand scale. Children and families need some relief from government surveillance and intimidation if original expressions belonging to THEM are to develop. Without these freedom has no meaning. ↗

— John Taylor Gatto

#children #education-system #family #freedom #education

Freedom is not having everything we crave, it's being able to go without the things we crave and being OK with it. ↗

— Rob Bell

#freedom