#pre

We must relentlessly and unyieldingly protect freedom of speech and peaceful assembly. ↗

— Bryant McGill

#freedom-of-speech #peace #freedom

You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home -- all the more powerful because forbidden -- terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic. ↗

— Winston Churchill

#dictatorship #fear #freedom #government #independent-thought

The regime had understood that one person leaving her house while asking herself: Are my trousers long enough?' Is my veil in place?' Can my make-up be seen?' Are they going to whip me?' No longer asks herself: Where is my freedom of thought?' Where is my freedom of speech?' My life, is it livable?' What's going on in the political prisons? ↗

— Marjane Satrapi

#opression #freedom

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.... During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution. ↗

— James Madison

#freedom #president #religion #freedom

... how terrible is the pain of the mind and heart when the freedom of mankind is suppressed! ↗

— E.A. Bucchianeri

#free-will #freedom #heart #heartache #liberty

Over the years, Americans in particular have been all too willing to squander their hard-earned independence and freedom for the illusion of feeling safe under someone else's authority. The concept of self-sufficiency has been undermined in value over a scant few generations. The vast majority of the population seems to look down their noses upon self-reliance as some quaint dusty relic, entertained only by the hyperparanoid or those hopelessly incapable of fitting into mainstream society. ↗

— Cody Lundin

#preparedness #self-reliance #self-sufficiency #survival #freedom

Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them. ↗

— George W. Bush

#george #president #freedom

We sensible often resist intrusive love and its chaos practically, employing measures to prevent the former for fear of the latter. But for all our wit and work, that desperation for control also prevents the pure, transcendental freedom more often delivered by both. ↗

— Tiffany Madison

#control #desperation #freedom #love #lover

The pursuit of joy in God is not optional. It is not an “extra” that a person might grow into after he comes to faith. It is not simply a way to “enhance” your walk with the Lord. Until your heart has hit upon this pursuit, your “faith” cannot please God. It is not saving faith. Saving faith is the confidence that if you sell all you have and forsake all sinful pleasures, the hidden treasure of holy joy will satisfy your deepest desires. Saving faith is the heartfelt conviction not only that Christ is reliable, but also that He is desirable. It is the confidence that He will come through with His promises and that what He promises is more to be desired than all the world. ↗

— John Piper

#everything #freedom #joy #life #peace

Of all the religions in the world, perhaps the religion of liberty is the only faith capable of purity. ↗

— Tiffany Madison

#freedom #freedom-of-expression #freedom-of-religion #freedom-of-thought #liberty