Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes on Liberty & Freedom (12 Quotes)

Liberty is slow fruit. It is never cheap it is made difficult because freedom is the accomplishment and perfectness of man.

Lawyers are a prudent race though not very fond of liberty

Good breeding, a union of kindness and independence.

Outside, among your fellows, among strangers, you must preserve appearances, a hundred things you cannot do, but inside, the terrible freedom.

We rail at trade, but the historian of the world will see that it was the principle of liberty that it settled America, and destroyed feudalism, and made peace and keeps peace that it will abolish slavery.

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion-it is easy in solitude to live after your own but the great man is he who, in the midst of the world, keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

Slavery it is that makes slavery freedom, freedom. The slavery of women happened when the men were slaves of kings.

Self Esteem'It is very easy in the world to live by the opinion of the world. It is very easy in solitude to be self-centered. But the finished man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. I knew a man of simple habits and earnest character who never put out his hands nor opened his lips to court the public, and having survived several rotten reputations of younger men, honor came at last and sat down with him upon his private bench from which he had never stirred.

Nothing is more disgusting than the crowing about liberty by slaves, as most men are, and the flippant mistaking for freedom of some paper preamble like a Declaration of Independence, or the statute right to vote, by those who have never dared to think or to act.

The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom.

The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit.

The philosopher and lover of man have much harm to say of trade but the historian will see that trade was the principle of Liberty that trade planted America and destroyed Feudalism that it makes peace and keeps peace, and it will abolish slavery