Skip to content

Freedom Quotes

    “We can only escape from the world by outgrowing the world. Death may take man out of the world but only wisdom can take the world out of the man. As long as the human being is obsessed by worldliness, he will suffer from the Karmic consequences of false allegiances. When however, worldliness is transmuted into Spiritual Integrity he is free, even though he still dwells physically among worldly things.”

    Manly P. Hall

      “Abide by rules, then throw them out!—only then may you achieve true freedom.”

      Bashō, Narrow Road To The Interior (Page XXIII)

        “if you want to know

        how free you are,

        ask yourself,

        ‘how far does

        my love extend?'”

        Yung Pueblo, Inward (Page 177)

          “true self-love is when one understands that the inward journey is the path to freedom, that observing and releasing our inner burdens is what will make us feel lighter and more aware. self-love does not grow the ego; it does the opposite. it is our ego that carries the craving that causes our suffering—the incessant craving that rests at the center of the ego is the ultimate block that stops us from achieving freedom.”

          Yung Pueblo, Inward (Page 148)

            “To feel sufficient, to be satisfied with what we have: Chisoku in Japanese. Of course, by some measures, there’s never enough. We can always come up with a reason why more is better, or better is better, or new is better or different is better. Enough becomes a choice, not a measure of science. The essence of choice is that it belongs to each of us. And if you decide you have enough, then you do. And with that choice comes a remarkable sort of freedom. The freedom to be still, to become aware and to stop hiding from the living that’s yet to be done.”

            Seth Godin, Blog

              if you measure

              the length

              of your ego,

              it will equal

              the distance

              between you

              and your freedom

              Yung Pueblo, Inward (Page 31)

                “You are only free when you realize you belong no place—you belong every place—no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great.”

                Maya Angelou

                  “Show me someone who isn’t a slave! One is a slave to lust, another to greed, another to power, and all are slaves to fear. I could name a former Consul who is a slave to a little old woman, a millionaire who is the slave of the cleaning woman… No servitude is more abject than the self-imposed.”

                  Seneca, via The Daily Stoic (Page 287)

                    “The purpose of discipline is to promote freedom. But freedom leads to infinity and infinity is terrifying.”

                    Henry Miller, via Sunbeams (Page 93)

                      “There are two ways to be wealthy—to get everything you want or to want everything you have. Which is easier right here and right now? The same goes for freedom. If you chafe and fight and struggle for more, you will never be free. If you could find and focus on the pockets of freedom you already have? Well, then you’d be free right here, right now.”

                      Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 95)

                        “I fear nothing, I hope for nothing, I am free.”

                        Nikos Kazantzakis, via Sunbeams (Page 67)

                          “The unrestricted person, who has in hand what they will in all events, is free. But anyone who can be restricted, coerced, or pushed into something against what they will is a slave.”

                          Epictetus, Discourses, via The Daily Stoic (Page 81)

                            “The person is free who lives as they wish, neither compelled, nor hindered, nor limited—whose choices aren’t hampered, whose desires succeed, and who don’t fall into what repels them. Who wishes to live in deception—tripped up, mistaken, undisciplined, complaining, in a rut? No one. These are base people who don’t live as they wish; and so, no base person is free.”

                            Epictetus, Discourses, via The Daily Stoic (Page 74)

                              “Keep constant guard over your perceptions, for it is no small thing you are protecting, but your respect, trustworthiness and steadiness, peace of mind, freedom from pain and fear, in a word your freedom. For what would you sell these things?”

                              Epictetus, The Daily Stoic (Page 52)