Es gibt keine wahre Freiheit ohne Risiko.

Fred Vargas, Der untröstliche Witwer von Montparnasse (1999)

Der Zeit ihre Kunst. Der Kunst ihre Freiheit.

Aufschrift an der Wiener Secession

Dann weigern Sie sich. Machen Sie sich nicht das Leben kaputt, um der Konvention zu genügen. Ihre Freiheit ist mehr wert als jedes Vermögen.

Andrea Vitali, Tante Rosina und das verräterische Mieder (2005)

Nothing's sadder than the man who thinks he's free when he is chained to the prison of his hatred and a dream gone up in flames.

Janis Ian, Black & White (1997)

Each man would have to free himself, he thought, and the best way he could.

Grange Copeland, in: Alice Walker, The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970)

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life [...].

Henry David Thoreau,Ch. 2, Walden (1846-50)