Quotes from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“To be nobody but yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you somebody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. — e.e. cummings”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“An individual might say, “I don’t want to change anyone.” And yet, he might still spend a great deal of his time trying to get others to agree with his views, or trying to prevent someone from doing something he thinks will be bad for him, or trying to change people by participating in a movement over a burning issue, or voting to prevent others from doing what they want to do. In all these ways, he’s trying to change others — to make them do other than what their natures lead them to do.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“Things will get better only when you make the changes that are necessary to make them better.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“I’ve concentrated upon the things I control, and used that control to remove the restrictions and complications from my life.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“And when someone accuses you of being selfish, just remember that he’s upset only because you aren’t doing what he selfishly wants you to do.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“I’m free and happy because I accepted myself as I am and found a life that suits me”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“One person devotes his life to helping the poor. Another one lies and steals. Still another person tries to create better products and services for which he hopes to be paid handsomely. One woman devotes herself to her husband and children. Another seeks a career as a singer. In every case, the basic motivation has been the same. Each person is doing what he believes will bring him happiness. What varies between them is the means each has chosen to gain his happiness.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“He doesn’t sacrifice himself for others, nor does he expect others to be sacrificed for him. He takes the third alternative —  he  finds  relationships  that  are  mutually beneficial so that no sacrifice is required.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“The more directly individual rewards are tied to individual achievements, the greater incentive there is to increase one’s individual effort. Joint Efforts”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“Never focus your attention on anyone’s weaknesses — his temper, sloppiness, poor logic, dishonesty, whatever. Recognize these shortcomings, take them into consideration, but don’t waste your time complaining about them. Instead, pay attention to what your actions should be in order to deal with him.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“To be self-reliant is to recognize that no one else is as concerned about your future as you are and that no one knows as much about you as you do.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“There’s no final resting place — short of death — where you can stop having to earn what you want.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“Freedom from exploitation is perhaps the easiest freedom to get. All you have to do is to stop participating in any relationship — of any kind — that doesn’t suit you. It”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“As I lie on my couch by the fireplace, looking out from my hillside home at the snow leading down to the ocean, with the right woman in my arms, a glass of Bordeaux beside me and a Puccini opera on the stereo system, knowing that I’ve earned the pleasure I feel, I’m so glad I didn’t let someone else decide what’s best for me.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“A big philosophical breakthrough for me was the realization that my own freedom was not only possible, but far more important than the establishment of a free society.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“The answer is simple: You are you, the person who will live with the consequences of what you do. No one else can be responsible, because no one else will experience the consequences of your actions as you will.”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“you’re wrong, you will suffer for it. If you’re right, you will find happiness. You have to be the one to decide. “Who are you to know?” It’s your future at stake. You have to know. Freedom comes only from seeing the ignorance of your critics and discovering the emptiness of their virtue. — David Seabury”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

Popular quotes

“It's not Americans I find annoying; it's Americanism: a social disease of the postindustrial world that must inevitably infect each of the mercantile nations in turn, and is called 'American' only because your nation is the most advanced case of the malady, much as one speaks of Spanish flu, or Japanese Type-B encephalitis. It's symptoms are a loss of work ethic, a shrinking of inner resources, and a constant need for external stimulation, followed by spiritual decay and moral narcosis. You can recognize the victim by his constant efforts to get in touch with himself, to believe his spiritual feebleness is an interesting psychological warp, to construe his fleeing from responsibility as evidence that he and his life are uniquely open to new experiences. In the later stages, the sufferer is reduced to seeking that most trivial of human activities: fun.”
― Trevanian, quote from Shibumi

“Gisaroli is no better than Donatella. You're both knockin' Easton off all whilst waving your dicks in my face.”
― Avery Aster, quote from Undressed

“One goes into the forest to pick food and already the thought of one fruit rather than another has grown up in one’s mind. Then, it may be, one finds a different fruit and not the fruit one thought of. One joy was expected and another is given. But this I had never noticed before that at the very moment of the finding there is in the mind a kind of thrusting back, or a setting aside. The picture of the fruit you have not found is still, for a moment, before you. And if you wished—if it were possible to wish—you could keep it there. You could send your soul after the good you had expected, instead of turning it to the good you had got. You could refuse the real good; you could make the real fruit taste insipid by thinking of the other.” Ransom”
― C.S. Lewis, quote from Space Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet / Perelandra / That Hideous Strength

“Try - Takes the infinitive: "try to mend it," not "try and mend it." Students of the language will argue that 'try and' has won through and become idiom. Indeed it has, and it is relaxed and acceptable. But 'try to' is precise, and when you are writing formal prose, try and write 'try to.”
― William Strunk Jr., quote from The Elements of Style

“let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences”
― Sylvia Plath, quote from The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.