Born Free Quotes

• I was not born with a hunger to be free, I was born free.

  Nelson Mandela

  Hunger, Born

  Nelson Mandela (2011). “Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations”, p.158, Pan Macmillan

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• Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Inspirational, Motivational, Freedom

  Du Contrat Social bk. 1, ch. 1 (1762)

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• It's not enough to be born free; I have to live my freedom!

  Esther M. Friesner

  Enough, Born

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• Under the law of nature, all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the Author

  Thomas Jefferson

  Moving, 4th Of July, Men

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Reports of Cases Determined in the General Court of Virginia: From 1730, to 1740; and from 1768, to 1772”, p.92

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• All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

  Eleanor Roosevelt

  Rights, Dignity, Equal

  Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Steve Neal (2002). “Eleanor and Harry: The Correspondence of Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman”, p.277, Simon and Schuster

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• Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Peace, Men, Thinking

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• Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than the skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one's soul; when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood.

  Josephine Baker

  Mean, Equality, Men

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• If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.

  Baruch Spinoza

  Philosophical, Men, Long

  Baruch Spinoza (1981). “Ethics”, p.219, Commodius Vicus

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• Humans are born free then put into cages, then convinced freedom is what being in a cage is, and what freedom is, is being in a cage.

  Craig Stone

  Cages, Born, Humans

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• Born free. Taxed to death.

  Christopher Titus

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Born

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• Women are born free, and I think that they should stay that way.

  Oscar de la Renta

  Thinking, Way, Born

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• If all men are born free, why is it that all women are born slaves?

  Mary Astell

  Men, Birth, Slave

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• No man who knows aught, can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free.

  John Milton

  Freedom, Stupid, Reality

  The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649)

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• Never may an act of possession be exercised upon a free being; the exclusive possession of a woman is no less unjust than the possession of slaves; all men are born free, all have equal rights: never should we lose sight of those principles; according to which never may there be granted to one sex the legitimate right to lay monopolizing hands upon the other, and never may one of the sexes, or classes, arbitrarily possess the other.

  Marquis de Sade

  Sex, Men, Rights

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• We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against.

  Ray Bradbury

  Men, Judging, Mountain

  Ray Bradbury (2016). “Fahrenheit 451”, p.28, Hamilton Books

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• Slavery's crime against humanity did not begin when one people defeated and enslaved its enemies (though of course this was bad enough), but when slavery became an institution in which some men were 'born' free and others slave, when it was forgotten that it was man who had deprived his fellow-men of freedom, and when the sanction for the crime was attributed to nature.

  Hannah Arendt

  Men, People, Humanity

  Hannah Arendt (1968). “Imperialism: Part Two Of The Origins Of Totalitarianism”, p.189, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• It is quite useless to declare that all men are born free if you deny that they are born good . Guarantee a man's goodness and his liberty will take care of itself. To guarantee his freedom on condition that you approve of his moral character is formally to abolish all freedom whatsoever, as every man's liberty is at the mercy of a moral indictment which any fool can trump up against everyone who violates custom, whether as a prophet or as a rascal.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Character, Men, Liberty

  George Bernard Shaw (2015). “The Collected Plays of George Bernard Shaw (Illustrated): Including Renowned Titles like Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, The Inca Of Perusalem, Macbeth Skit, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion”, p.1375, e-artnow

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• Someone should keep reminding Mr. Average Man that he was born free, divine, strong; uncrushable by fate, society, or hell itself; and that he is a child of God, equal heir to all the bounties of God; and that goodness is riches, kindness is power, and freedom is glory. Above all, every man is born with an inner capacity to take him as far as his imagination can dream or envision-providing he is free to dream and envision.

  Frank Capra

  Dream, Strong, Children

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• Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant--they have been cheated; asleep--they have been surprised; divided--the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson...? The people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government they should watch over it.... It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently free.

  James Madison

  Men, Race, People

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• All men were made brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born free should be content when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases.

  Chief Joseph

  Mother, Running, Brother

  Lincoln Hall Speech in Washington D.C., January 14, 1879.

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• You were born free by accident. You live free by choice. To die free is your responsibility.

  Russel Honore

  Responsibility, Choices, Live Free

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• Release your majestic mind, embrace your untamed inner spirit. Break free from captivity, avoid society.. You were born to be free.

  Melanie Muller

  Free Spirit, Mind, Untamed

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• We are all born free from all religious affiliations and only come to believe in such things after being introduced to it ― so, atheism is the default position. Although some children are not indoctrinated with a specific religion before the age of reason, there are many more who are.

  David G. McAfee

  Religious, Children, Believe

  David G McAfee (2012). “Mom, Dad, I'm an Atheist - The Guide to Coming Out as a Non-Believer”, p.108, Dangerous Little Books

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• I have always believed, heretofore, in the doctrines of the Declaration of Independence, that all men are born free and equal; but of late it appears that some men are born slaves, and I regret that they are not black, so all the world might know them.

  Benjamin F. Wade

  Regret, Men, Black

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• Whatever may be the sociological value of the legal fiction that 'all men are born free and equal,' there can be no doubt that...in its biological application, at any rate, this statement is one of the most stupendous falsehoods ever uttered by man through his misbegotten gift of articulate speech.

  Earnest Hooton

  Men, Race, Doubt

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