Without freedom of speech, there is no modern world, just a barbaric one.
Ai Weiwei - Oktober 2009
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This is how liberty dies - with thunderous applause!
Fight and you may die. Run, and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!
William Wallace in Braveheart
10It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you.
Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 2
9It was right then that I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence and the part about our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And I remember thinking: How did he know to put the pursuit part in there? That maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue. And maybe we can actually never have it, no matter what. How did he know that?
Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness
8Men must be free to do what they believe. It is not our right to punish one for thinking what they do, no matter how much we disagree.
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
But only in their dreams can men be truly free. 'Twas always thus, and always thus will be.
John Keating in Dead Poets Society
5Some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice. But still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they're gone.
Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding in The Shawshank Redemption
5So long as men write what they think, then all of the other freedoms - all of them - may remain intact. And it is then that writing becomes a weapon of truth.
We don't appreciate what we have until it's gone. Freedom is like that. It's like air. When you have it, you don't notice it.
With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.
Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek - Season 4 Episode 21
3I should like to help everyone, if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness -- not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another.
In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.
The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood, for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world -- millions of despairing men, women and little children -- victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say -- do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed -- the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people and so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes -- men who despise you -- enslave you -- who regiment your lives -- tell you what to do -- what to think or what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men -- machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate! Only the unloved hate -- the unloved and the unnatural!
Soldiers! Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the 17th Chapter of St. Luke it is written: 'the Kingdom of God is within man' -- not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power -- the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.
Then, in the name of democracy, let us use that power! Let us all unite! Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth the future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie! They do not fulfill their promise; they never will. Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people! Now, let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.
Soldiers! In the name of democracy, let us all unite!
In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.
The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood, for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world -- millions of despairing men, women and little children -- victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say -- do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed -- the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people and so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes -- men who despise you -- enslave you -- who regiment your lives -- tell you what to do -- what to think or what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men -- machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate! Only the unloved hate -- the unloved and the unnatural!
Soldiers! Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the 17th Chapter of St. Luke it is written: 'the Kingdom of God is within man' -- not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power -- the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.
Then, in the name of democracy, let us use that power! Let us all unite! Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth the future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie! They do not fulfill their promise; they never will. Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people! Now, let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.
Soldiers! In the name of democracy, let us all unite!
Charlie Chaplin - in "The Great Dictator"
3They say a man never really knows himself until his freedom's been taken away. I wonder - how well do you know yourself?
Arcturus Mengsk in StarCraft - 2: Wings of Liberty
2People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.
V in V for Vendetta
9The day we stop believing democracy can work is the day we lose it.
Jamillia in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
2Democracy isn't just there. We have to work for it together - every day.
Angela Merkel - October 2021, during the 31st Day of German Unity
1It's every citizen's duty to challenge their leaders, to keep them honest, and hold them accountable if they're not.
Ahsoka Tano in Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Season 3 Episode 6
1Democracy is too important to leave up to the votes of the people.
Democracy is complicated. It enables openness, it values debates, free thoughts and arguments. That's why it's vulnerable - from the inside and outside.
Annalena Baerbock - August 2022
Democracy has the power to quickly spread. But its erosion can happen just as fast. Democracy is freedom. We need to stand up for it.
Ursula von der Leyen - December 2021
Democracy is based upon empathy and the recognition that some decisions are solely for the community's benefit without regard to one's own narrow self-interest.
Democracy is being allowed to vote for the candidate you dislike least.
Human beings do want peace, stability and harmony and that comes through democracy.
Democracy means that anyone can grow up to be president, and anyone who doesn't grow up can be vice president.
Democracy is not static. It is a living force. Every new idea, every new invention offers opportunity for both good and evil.
A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess.
Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on.
When you become part of something, in some way you count. It could be a march; it could be a rally, even a brief one. You're part of something, and you suddenly realize you count. To count is very important.
I like the noise of democracy.
I will stand strong to defend people even if I don't agree with them.
There are two kinds of fools: those who can't change their opinions and those who won't.
A lion doesn't concern himself with the opinions of the sheep.
Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones - Season 1 Episode 7
2A nation that has no music and no fairytales is a tragedy.