freedom

Freedom of will is the ability to do
gladly that which I must do.

Carl Jung

Total freedom is never what one imagines and, in fact,
hardly exists. It comes as a shock in life to learn that
we usually only exchange one set of restrictions for
another. The second set, however, is self-chosen,
and therefore easier to accept.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Freedom is as frightening now as it was thousands of years ago.
It will always require a willingness to sacrifice what is
most familiar for what is most true. To be free we may need
to act from integrity, on trust, sometimes for a very long
time. Few of us will reach our promised land in a day. But
perhaps the most important part of the story is that God
does not delegate this task. Whenever anyone moves
toward freedom, God Himself is there.

Rachel Naomi Remen

I call that mind free which is
not passively framed by outward
circumstances, which is not swept
away by the torrents of events,
which is not the creature of
accidental impulse, but which bends
events to its own improvement,
and acts from an inward spring,
from immutable principles which
it has deliberately espoused.

W.E. Channing

No person is free until he or she is free at the center. When we let go
there, we are free indeed. When the self is renounced, then
one stands utterly disillusioned, apart, asking for nothing. If anything
comes to us, it is all sheer gain. Then life becomes one constant surprise.

E. Stanley Jones

The price of freedom is responsibility, but it is a bargain, because freedom is priceless.

Hugh Downs

People are freest when they are most
unconscious of freedom.

David H. Lawrence

Anything you strive to hold captive will hold you captive, and if you desire freedom you must give freedom.

Peace Pilgrim

You are already free. You only have to know and realize this truth.

Sivananda

Freedom is not a goal, it is the supreme awareness of who you are.
Freedom is found once all concepts are thrown away, and one stands
alone in the present moment to find the depth of meaning inherent in their spirit.

A Spiritual Warrior

Only on the surface of things have I ever trod the beaten path.
So long as I could keep from hurting anyone else, I have lived,
as completely as it was possible, the life of my choice.
I have been free. . . . I have done the work I wished to do
for the sake of that work alone.

Ellen Glasgow

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If some great Power would agree to make me think always what
is true and do what is right on condition of being turned into a
sort of clock, I would instantly close with the bargain. The only
freedom I care about is the freedom to do right; the freedom
to do wrong I am ready to part with.

Thomas Henry Huxley

Freedom--no word was ever spoken that has held out
greater hope, demanded greater sacrifice, needed
more to be nurtured, blessed more the giver. . . or
came closer to being God's will on earth.

Omar N. Bradley

A superficial freedom to wander aimlessly here or there, to taste this or that, to make a choice of distractions, is simply a sham. It claims to be a freedom of "choice" when it has evaded the basic task of discovering who it is that chooses.

Thomas Merton

Freedom does not mean that right to do whatever we please,
but rather to do as we ought. The right to do whatever we
please reduces freedom to a physical power and
forgets that freedom is a moral power.

Fulton J. Sheen

It is dangerous to take human freedom for granted, to regard it as
a prerogative rather than as an obligation, as an ultimate fact
rather than as an ultimate goal. It is the beginning of wisdom
to be amazed at the fact of our being free.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

When freedom does not have a purpose, when it does not
wish to know anything about the rule of law engraved in
the hearts of men and women, when it does not listen to the
voice of conscience, it turns against humanity and society.

Pope John Paul III

Let your cry be for free souls rather than for freedom.
Moral liberty is the only important liberty.

Joseph Joubert

The price of freedom is to allow freedom.
Very few people are willing to pay the price.

Leonard Jacobson

Everyone talks about freedom. All around the world different people,
different races, different countries are fighting for freedom. But what
is freedom? In America we speak of living in a free country. But
are we really free? Are we free to be who we really are? The answer
is no, we are not free. True freedom has to do with the human
spirit--it is freedom to be who we really are.
Who stops us from being free? We blame the government, we blame the
weather, we blame our parents, we blame religion, we blame God.
Who really stops us from being free? We stop ourselves.

Don Miguel Ruiz

I was put into a jail once on this account, for one night; and, as I stood
considering the walls of solid stone, two or three feet thick, the door
of wood and iron, a foot thick, and the iron grating which strained
the light, I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that
institution which treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood
and bones, to be locked up. I wondered that it should have concluded
at length that this was the best use it could put me to, and had never
thought to avail itself of my services in some way. I saw that, if there
was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more
difficult one to climb or break through before they could get to be as free
as I was. I did not for a moment feel confined,
and the walls seemed a great waste of stone and mortar.

Henry David Thoreau

A free mind is one which is untroubled and unfettered by anything,
which has not bound its best part to any particular manner of being
or worship and which does not seek its own interest in anything
but is always immersed in God's most precious will. . . . There is no
work which men and women can perform, however small, which does
not draw from this its power and strength.

Meister Eckhart

Freedom is not worth having if it does not
include the freedom to make mistakes.

Mohandas Gandhi

As long as you are free, you are free to select and choose alternatives,
provided that you are willing to accept the responsibility for being free.
And after you've tried your alternatives, and they don't work as you
would wish, don't blame me. Blame your choice. Try another alternative.

Leo Buscaglia