#reed

We are motivated more by aversion to the unpleasant than by a will toward truth, freedom, or healing. We are constantly attempting to escape our life, to avoid rather than enter our pain we, and we wonder why it is so difficult to be fully alive. (43) ↗

— Stephen Levine

#freedom #healing #life #living #motivation

Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage; Minds innocent and quiet take That for an hermitage; If I have freedom in my love And in my soul am free, Angels alone that soar above, Enjoy such liberty. ↗

— Richard Lovelace

#love #poetry #freedom

These are the things before me. And as I stand here at the door of glory, I look behind me for the last time. I look upon the history of men, which I have learned from the books, and I wonder. It was a long story, and the spirit which moved it was the spirit of man’s freedom. But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man’s freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. This and nothing else. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#freedom

I demand unconditional love and complete freedom. That is why I am terrible. ↗

— Tomaž Šalamun

#freedom

So much of liberalism in its classical sense is taken for granted in the west today and even disrespected. We take freedom for granted, and because of this we don't understand how incredibly vulnerable it is. ↗

— Niall Ferguson

#freedom #liberalism #liberty #freedom

The good news is that Christ frees us from the need to obnoxiously focus on our goodness, our commitment, and our correctness. Religious has made us obsessive almost beyond endurance. Jesus invited us to a dance...and we've turned in into a march of soldiers, always checking to see if we're doing it right and are in step and in line with the other soldiers. We know a dance would be more fun, but we believe we must go through hell to get to heaven, so we keep marching. ↗

— Steve Brown

#gospel #march #religion #freedom

Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist. ↗

— Edmund Burke

#freedom #liberty #freedom

...freedom being the sauce best beloved by the boyish soul. ↗

— Louisa May Alcott

#freedom

Consider the blundering anarchic system of the United States the stupidity of some of its lawmakers, the violent reaction, the slowness of its ability to change. Twenty-five key men destroyed could make the Soviet Union stagger, but we could lose our congress, our president, and our general staff and nothing much would have happened. We would go right on. In fact we might be better for it. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#freedom #individuality #us-politics #change

It is easy to be disgruntled if you are denied rights and freedoms to which you feel entitled. But if you are not coherent, if you cannot put into words what it is that displeases you and why it is unfair and should change, then you are dismissed as an unreasonable whiner. You may be lectured about perseverance and patience, life as a test, the need to accept the higher wisdom of others. ↗

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

#freedom #self-expression #change