#inspiration

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill, of things unknown, but longed for still, and his tune is heard on the distant hill, for the caged bird sings of freedom. ↗

— Maya Angelou

#freedom

Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward towards the light; but the laden traveler may never reach the end of it. ↗

— Ursula K. Le Guin

#freedom

The function of freedom is to free someone else. ↗

— Toni Morrison

#responsibility #freedom

Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. ↗

— Martin Luther King Jr.

#freedom #human-rights #inspirational #justice #peace

Freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all of my people were the chains on me. ↗

— Nelson Mandela

#inspirational #freedom

Music, my rampart and my only one. ↗

— Edna St. Vincent Millay

#inspirational #music #rampart #freedom

Freedom has its dangers as well as its joys. And the sooner we learn to get up after a fall, the better off we'll be. ↗

— Alice Steinbach

#profound #freedom

Freedom is for honest people. No man who is not himself honest can be free – he is his own trap. ↗

— L. Ron Hubbard

#freedom

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom. ↗

— Barack Obama

#greatness #inspirational #obama-speeches #freedom

Losing a belief in free will has not made me fatalistic—in fact, it has increased my feelings of freedom. My hopes, fears, and neuroses seem less personal and indelible. There is no telling how much I might change in the future. Just as one wouldn’t draw a lasting conclusion about oneself on the basis of a brief experience of indigestion, one needn’t do so on the basis of how one has thought or behaved for vast stretches of time in the past. A creative change of inputs to the system—learning new skills, forming new relationships, adopting new habits of attention—may radically transform one’s life. ↗

— Sam Harris

#determinism #free-will #inspiration #philosophy #self-improvement