#freedom

Never,” said he, as he ground his teeth, “never was anything at once so frail and so indomitable. A mere reed she feels in my hand!” (And he shook me with the force of his hold.) “I could bend her with my finger and thumb: and what good would it do if I bent, if I uptore, if I crushed her? Consider that eye: consider the resolute, wild, free thing looking out of it, defying me, with more than courage—with a stern triumph. Whatever I do with its cage, I cannot get at it—the savage, beautiful creature! If I tear, if I rend the slight prison, my outrage will only let the captive loose. Conqueror I might be of the house; but the inmate would escape to heaven before I could call myself possessor of its clay dwellingplace. And it is you, spirit—with will and energy, and virtue and purity— that I want: not alone your brittle frame. Of yourself you could come with soft flight and nestle against my heart, if you would: seized against your will, you will elude the grasp like an essence—you will vanish ere I inhale your fragrance. ↗

— Charlotte Brontë

#beauty

Real change isn't found in some new way to think about yourself, but in freedom from the need to think about yourself at all. ↗

— Guy Finley

#change #found #freedom #freedom from #need

I believe our flag is more than just cloth and ink. It is a universally recognized symbol that stands for liberty, and freedom. It is the history of our nation, and it's marked by the blood of those who died defending it. ↗

— John Thune

#blood #cloth #defending #died #flag

Some of the press who speak loudly about the freedom of the press are themselves the enemies of freedom. Countless people dare not say a thing because they know it will be picked up and made a song of by the press. That limits freedom. ↗

— Geoffrey Fisher

#because #countless #dare #freedom #know

My mission, I guess, has always been the kind of world where lesbian and gay people can celebrate who we are with equal freedom, dignity, and respect. ↗

— John Fisher

#been #celebrate #dignity #equal #freedom

Freedom, where are you? Who holds you back? [...] The mother of wit and pleasure, Oh freedom! ↗

— Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage

#pleasure #freedom

Freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of achieving a free society. ↗

— Felix Frankfurter

#achieving #end #free #free society #itself

I hope my work has inspired young artists. I have always tried to maintain my freedom as an artist and I feel it is one of the main reasons I have been successful. ↗

— Frank Frazetta

#artist #artists #been #feel #freedom

Anyone who says that economic security is a human right, has been to much babied. While he babbles, other men are risking and losing their lives to protect him. They are fighting the sea, fighting the land, fighting disease and insects and weather and space and time, for him, while he chatters that all men have a right to security and that some pagan god—Society, The State, The Government, The Commune—must give it to them. Let the fighting men stop fighting this inhuman earth for one hour, and he will learn how much security there is. ↗

— Rose Wilder Lane

#ethics #freedom #individual-rights #ownership #philosophy

If one chooses sides on emotion then the rebel is the guy to go with. He is fighting for everything men claim to honour, freedom, independance, truth, the right.......all the subjective illusions. All the eternal trigger words. We are minions of the villan of the piece. We confess the illusion and deny the substance. ↗

— Glen Cook

#freedom