#lit

If I love freedom above all else, then any commitment becomes a metaphor, a symbol. This touches on the difference between the forest fleer and the partisan:this distinction is not qualitative but essential in nature. The anarch is closer to Being. The partisan moves within the social or national party structure, the anarch is outside of it. Of course, the anarch cannot elude the party structure, since he lives in society. ↗

— Ernst Jünger

#anarchy #ernst-jünger #freedom #politics #freedom

Why should the constitution of a peaceful individual hold less weight than the constitution of a nation? ↗

— Joshua Emmet

#peace #philosophy #politics #freedom

All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not stakes. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that of expediency. Even voting FOR THE RIGHT is DOING nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. ↗

— Henry David Thoreau

#freedom #moral-concern #morality #personal-investment #politics

In comparison, young unmarried women in America were fortunate: They had a certain measure of sexual freedom. Eighteenth-century parents allowed their daughters to spend tie with suitors unsupervised, and courting couples openly engaged in "bundling," the practice of sleeping together without undressing, in the girls' homes. (Theoretically, that is, they were sleeping together without undressing: in fact, premarital pregnancy boomed during the period of 1750 to 1780, when bundling was nearly universal.) But by the turn of the century, in a complete reversal of previous beliefs about women's sexuality, the idea took hold that only men were carnal creatures; women were thought to be passionless and therefore morally superior. ↗

— Leora Tanenbaum

#history #morality #passion #sexuality #freedom

I'd trapped myself in a script.... But to be scripted at all is to be prepackaged, programmed, pinned to a page. Only the unwritten can truly live a life. So who I was, what I was, had to be unwritten. ↗

— David James Duncan

#freedom #independence #individuality #freedom

One of the prerogatives of American citizenship is the right to criticize public men and measures, and that means not only informed and responsible criticism but the freedom to speak foolishly and without moderation. ↗

— Felix Frankfurter of the U.S. Supreme Court

#freedom

In einem maßlosen Staat [...] gibt es vielleicht ein wenig mehr Sicherheit, aber ganz sicher sehr viel weniger Freiheit. ↗

— Heribert Prantl

#präventionsstaat #security #totalitarianism #freedom

Your personal declaration of will is the first step in a seemingly impossible journey. ↗

— Bryant McGill

#free-will #freedom #individuality #intelligence #proud

Wenn wir uns der Verfolgung des freien Geistes während der Diktatur besinnen, werden wir die Freiheit jedes Gedankens und jeder Kritik schützen, so sehr sie sich auch gegen uns selbst richten mag." [Ansprache am 8. Mai 1985 in der Gedenkstunde im Plenarsaal des Deutschen Bundestages] ↗

— Richard von Weizsäcker

#democracy #dictatorship #freedom #persecution #politics

It’s a path that grows government, restricts freedom and liberty and compromises those values, those Judeo-Christian, Western civilization values that made us such a great and exceptional nation in the first place. ↗

— Paul Ryan

#politics-of-the-united-states #freedom