Theme
Freedom
Liberty, independence, and the right to choose.
Every quote here is provenance-checked. AI will happily put a fake quote on a beautiful slide — these are the ones you can actually use, with the right name on them.
Ready for your slide
Verified quotes about freedom
Each is traced to a real source and correctly credited. ✓ Free to use = public domain, cleared for commercial reuse. Open one for a paste-ready credit line and its reuse status.
“Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications and to watch over their fate”
“Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven”
“Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude”
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard”
“Don't join the book burners. Don't think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed”
“Every joke is a tiny revolution”
“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”
“Feet, what do I need them for if I have wings to fly?”
“Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair”
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction”
“Hell is other people”
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me”
“I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul”
“I am too intelligent, too demanding, and too resourceful for anyone to be able to take charge of me entirely”
“I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man”
“I do not believe in God, because I believe in man”
“I do not wish women to have power over men, but over themselves”
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”
“I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America”
“I owe the public nothing”
“I would always rather be happy than dignified”
“Ich bin ein Berliner”
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear”
“Imagine all the people living life in peace”
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex”
“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem”
“In wildness is the preservation of the world”
“It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll”
“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind”
“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains”
“Man is condemned to be free”
“Men have become the tools of their tools”
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path”
“Not all those who wander are lost”
“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman”
“Our homes are our prisons; let us find freedom in their decoration”
“Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy”
“Real freedom is having nothing. I was freer when I didn't have a cent”
“The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it — basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them”
“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself”
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation”
“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help”
“The mountains are calling and I must go”
“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help”
“The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs”
“The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless”
“There are four hundred thousand words in the English language, and there are seven you can't say on television”
“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot long retain it”
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety”
“True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice”
“We have it in our power to begin the world over again”
“Well-behaved women seldom make history”
“You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist”
“You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one”
“Ask for work. If they do not give you work, ask for bread. If they do not give you bread, then take bread”
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom”
“Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do”
“Every time we liberate a woman, we liberate a man”
“Give me liberty, or give me death!”
“Hell, there are no rules here. We're trying to accomplish something”
“I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death”
“I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free”
“If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun”
“If you're not ready to die for it, take the word 'freedom' out of your vocabulary”
“It's not quite true that I had nothing on. I had the radio on”
“The ballot is stronger than the bullet”
“There is no room in baseball for discrimination. It is our national pastime and a game for all”
“This country has socialism for the rich, rugged individualism for the poor”
“Well, I don't know as I want a lawyer to tell me what I cannot do. I hire him to tell how to do what I want to do”
“You were born with wings. Why prefer to crawl through life?”
No public-domain quotes on this theme yet — try another, or use an in-copyright one with attribution.
Don’t get caught out
Commonly shared about freedom — but misattributed
Popular freedom lines that get pinned on the wrong name. If you use one, credit it correctly.
“Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one”
ReallyA. J. Liebling · not H. L. Mencken
“I never vote for anybody. I always vote against”
ReallyW. C. Fields · not H. L. Mencken
“The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much”
ReallyRonald Reagan · but not in these words
“My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government”
ReallyJohn Sharp Williams · not Thomas Jefferson
“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government”
ReallyUnknown — first known in print in 1989 · not Thomas Jefferson
“When the people fear the government there is tyranny; when the government fears the people there is liberty”
ReallyJohn Basil Barnhill · not Thomas Jefferson
“The John Birch Society is a good, patriotic society. I don't agree with what its founder said about me, but that does not detract from the fact that its membership is comprised of many fine Americans dedicated to the preservation of our libertarian Republic”
ReallyNo documented speaker · not Dwight D. Eisenhower
“The Palestinian struggle is not just a cry for justice. It's a blistering battle for the most fundamental human rights that every living soul on this planet should inherit by birthright”
ReallyUnknown · not Malcolm X
“A future startup with no patents of its own will be forced to pay whatever price the giants choose to impose”
ReallyLeague for Programming Freedom · not Bill Gates
“There is not a single citizen in South Africa who is not ready to stand by his Palestinian brothers in their legitimate fight against the Zionist racists”
ReallyUnknown · not Nelson Mandela
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music”
ReallyUnknown · not Rumi
“Every Ambitious Would-Be Empire Clarions It Abroad That She Is Conquering the World to Bring It Peace”
ReallyTaylor Caldwell · not Henry David Thoreau
“Your Liberty To Swing Your Fist Ends Just Where My Nose Begins”
ReallyJohn B. Finch · not John Stuart Mill
“Art is what you can get away with”
ReallyMarshall McLuhan · not Andy Warhol
“I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck”
ReallyUnknown · not Emma Goldman
“If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution”
ReallyEmma Goldman · but not in these words
“If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal”
ReallyAnonymous · not Emma Goldman
“Women need not always keep their mouths shut and their wombs open”
ReallyMargaret C. Anderson · not Emma Goldman