Tao Te Ching
Freedom
Will Durant talks about the conflict between freedom and equality and describes how throughout history when more freedom becomes possible, equality rapidly decreases as the the more intelligent, competent, and motivated become more rich, powerful, and famous subjugating the less intelligent and less skilled into physical slavery, wage slavery, powerlessness, and poverty. This kind of “freedom” though only enslaves both the rich and the poor. Real freedom recognizes the obligations of having more. As Muhammad Ali said, “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” And the more intelligence, fame, power, and wealth we possess; the higher the rent we owe.
Quotes (119)
“Since, O Mazda, from the beginning, Thou didst create soul and body […] you wished that everyone should choose his or her own faith and path freely .”
“The excessive increase of anything causes a reaction in the opposite direction;… dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme form of liberty.”
“In a democracy, liberty is taken for granted because no one is free in any other kind of government.”
“If we are content with whatever happens and follow the flow, joy and sorrow cannot affect us. This is what the ancients called freedom from bondage.”
“Law is the highest reason, implanted in Nature; intelligence whose natural function is to command right conduct and forbid wrongdoing; the foundation of liberty, the fountainhead of all justice. We are threfore all slaves of the laws that we may enjoy freedom.”
“Does the tyrant say he will throw me into prison? He cannot imprison my spirit. Does he say that he will put me to death? He can only cut off my head.”
“It is called, ‘consummation of incomparable enlightenment.’ attained by freedom from separate personal selfhood and by cultivating all kinds of goodness… though there is no goodness; such is merely a name.”
“He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.”
“Freeing oneself from words is liberation.”
“For I am one who strives for freedom. I must not be caught by wealth and honors.”
“If you want to reach the true beyond doubt, place yourself in the same freedom as sky. You name it neither good nor not good.”
“When you aren't either attached to or detached from, you enjoy perfect unobstructed freedom, the seat of enlightenment.”
“I have come to see these bones as the very nature of all things completely freeing all activity.”
“To free your mind from desire, visualize your body as the heavens and your thoughts as stars in the sky.”
“Having personal freedom
Brings greater happiness than assuming a thousand golden thrones.”
“A devil is anything that obstructs the realization of freedom and there is no greater devil than fixation on a ‘self’… exert yourself at a skillful method to sever the devil of ego-fixation.”
“Free from duality, preconception, and discursive thought; the realization of pure awareness and knowledge assures freedom.”
“Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open?”
“This aloneness is worth more than a thousand lives.
This freedom is worth more than all the lands on earth.
To be alone with the truth for just a moment,
Is worth more than the world and life itself.”
“Mankind is at its best when it is most free and the basic principle is freedom of choice—a saying many have on their lips but few in their mind.”
“All phenomena are timelessly free in awakened mind, and so there is no phenomenon that is not free... no need now for anyone to make an effort to free them anew... Do not strive or try to achieve!”
“Liberty is one of the choicest gifts that heaven can bestowed upon man, and exceeds in value all the treasures for without it, life is insupportable.”
“Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.”
“allowing every man to pursue his own interest in his own way, upon the liberal plan of equality liberty, and justice”
“A constitution of the greatest possible human freedom must place at its foundation and for all its laws, the liberty of every individual co-existing with the liberty of every other.”
“All men are created equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights… enjoyment of life and liberty with the means of acquiring and possessing property, pursuing happiness and safety.”
“mankind is governed by names… and submit to slavery, provided they are respectfully assured that they still enjoy their ancient freedom.”
“Corruption: the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.”
“What most clearly characterizes true freedom and its true employment is its mis-employment.”
“If we do not die for liberty, we shall soon have nothing left to do but weep for her.”
“Make men wise, and by that very operation you make them free. Civil liberty follows as a consequence of this; no usurped power can stand against the artillery of wisdom.”
“If the true spark of religious and civil liberty be kindled it will burn… the ocean may overwhelm it; mountains may press it down; but its inherent and unconquerable force will heave both the ocean and the land, the volcano will break out and flame up to heaven.”
“Yet, Freedom! yet the banner, torn but flying,
Streams like the thunderstorm against the wind!”
“A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.”
“A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.”
“What art thou, Freedom? Oh! could Slaves
Answer from their living graves...
For the laborer thou art bread,
And a comely table spread...
For the rich thou art a check
Where his foot is on the neck.”
“Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom.”
“highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
“The liberty of humanity consists in obeying the laws of nature—not because they have been imposed by on external will, but because the individual has personally recognized them”
“Liberty relies upon itself, invites no one, promises nothing, sits in calmness and light, is positive and composed, and knows no discouragement.”
“Freedom does not consist in any dreamt-of independence from natural laws, but in the knowledge of these laws, and in the possibility this gives of systematically making them work towards definite ends.”
“Nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than freedom.”
“People are more convinced than ever that they have perfect freedom, yet they have brought their freedom to us and laid it humbly at our feet… now it is ended and over for good.”
“Liberty, next to religion, has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime... beset by its natural enemies: ignorance, superstition, lust of conquest, love of ease, craving for power”
“The two forces, the two worst enemies of civil freedom are absolute monarchy and revolution.”
“It is precisely the weaker nature, as the more delicate and free, that makes progress possible at all.”
“Neither of us tried to meddle with the other’s soul and in this way my good husband and I, both of us, felt ourselves free in spirit.”
“The coming change can only come through a revolution, because the possessing class will not allow a peaceful change to take place; still we are willing to work for peace at any price, except at the price of liberty.”
“Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.”
“People are never so likely to be wrong as when they are organized. And they never have so little freedom. Perhaps that is why the people at large keep their freedom. People can be manipulated only when they are organized.”
“When the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.”
“Nothing to illuminate,
Nothing to eliminate,
Looking perfectly at perfection itself,
Seeing perfection, one is perfectly free.”
“Love can flourish only as long as it is free and spontaneous; it tends to be killed by the thought of duty. To say that it is your duty to love so-and-so is the surest way to cause you to hate him of her.”
“The Greek air is truly holy, I thought to myself; surely freedom was born here... Norway's struggle had become this Greek shepherd's struggle, because liberty, for him, was like his own daughter.”
“You prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom, even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them.”
“The fear of capitalism has compelled socialism to widen freedom, and the fear of socialism has compelled capitalism to increase equality. East is West and West is East, and soon the twain will meet.”
“People are intrinsically unequal and while enforced equality creates a rebellion of the more skilled and intelligent, too much freedom creates an extreme of inequality that creates a rebellion of the less intelligent and skilled.”
“Nature smiles at the union of freedom and equality in our utopias. For freedom and equality are sworn and everlasting enemies, and when one prevails the other dies.”
“The greatest blow for freedom that was ever struck in the world's history, perhaps, was when Abraham Lincoln decided that the slaves of the South were to be free and he freed them... He was very wise in the ways of men. He knew that deeper than anything else in the hearts of men everywhere is the wish for simple freedom- freedom without any promises even of protection, of food, of security- just freedom.”
“It is perfectly possible for a man to be out of prison and yet not free—to be under no physical constraint and yet to be a psychological captive, compelled to think, feel and act as the representatives of the national State, or of some private interest within the nation, want him to think, feel and act.”
“Freedom is pure observation without direction, without fear of punishment and reward.”
“Freedom unexercised may be freedom forfeited. The preservation of freedom is in the hands of the people themselves - not of the government.”
“Political freedom cannot last without provision for the free unlimited acquisition of knowledge. A political order is tyrannical if it is not rational.”
“We do not choose political freedom because it promises us this or that. We choose it because it makes possible the only dignified form of human coexistence, the only form in which we can be fully responsible for ourselves.”
“freedom is more important than equality; the attempt to realize equality endangers freedom; and, if freedom is lost, there will not even be equality among the unfree.”
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
“If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It's always easier to apologize for something you've already done than to get approval for it in advance.”
“People cannot be free unless they are willing to sacrifice some of their interests to guarantee the freedom of others.”
“All phenomena are completely new and fresh, absolutely unique and entirely free from all concepts of past, present, and future.”
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
“Therapy gives relief; sitting gives freedom. If you practice long and hard enough, and uncover your core belief, you won't need therapy. Instead of being self-centered, you will become life-centered.”
“So many people have said to me, ‘If we didn't make children do things, they wouldn't do anything.’ Even worse, they say, ‘If I weren't made to do things, I wouldn't do anything.’ It is the creed of a slave.”
“Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice... there's only one way to be free.”
“Freedom is not given to us by anyone; we have to cultivate it ourselves. It is a daily practice...”
“the highest form of freedom carries with it the greatest measure of discipline”
“You only are free when you realize you belong no place - you belong every place - no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great.”
“Seek out and identify structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination in every aspect of life, challenge them, and unless a justification… dismantle to increase the scope of human freedom.”
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
“The concept of freedom did not emerge in a vacuum. Nothing highlighted freedom—if it did not fact create it—like slavery.”
“If there isn’t any format; there’s no freedom. Freedom has to come from structure… freedom itself exists in structure.”
“these twelve experiences that Naropa went through were a continuous unlearning process. To begin with, he had to unlearn, to undo the cultural façade. Then he had to undo the philosophical and emotional façade. Then he had to step out and become free altogether.”
“Mandalas multiply so many times that they finally become nonexistent. The boundaries begin to dissolve. This is such an invasion of privacy! That is why it's called freedom.”
“For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Do what they do just to be
Nothing more than something
They invest in.”
“Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.”
“The best thing you can buy with money is freedom, time. I don't know how much I earn a year. I have no idea.”
“Freedom and liberty… how precious they are, as precious as the air we breathe, the water we drink.”
“One of our greatest Presidents in the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, understood this truth... He called upon the world to embrace four fundamental freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.”
“Labels... They save you the bother of thinking. They become a habit. You start thinking reality is the labels... The trouble is, reality's the opposite... the Queen of Freedoms is this: to be free of labels.”
“Freedom rarely arrives in the form we think it should… For most of us, freedom feels not only unfamiliar but distinctly unpleasant. That’s because we’re used to our chains. They might chafe, they might make us bleed, but at least they’re familiar.”
“In all his writing, he ranged himself on the side of freedom—political, social, personal. But the surest sign of his genius was the paradoxical way in which he imagined a metaphysical freedom... for Tagore, it was life that meant confinement in subjectivity, while death was liberation into the free play of being.”
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