Only the one who believes that the essence of his life consists in his spiritual rather than his material life can be free.
A slave who is content with his position is doubly a slave, because it is not just his body that is in bondage, but his soul also.
— Burke
People who do evil are harming themselves, not you, for they cannot harm you. You were not born to do evil and to sin with others, but to help them do good deeds and to find happiness in that.
Know and remember that if a person is unhappy, then he is to blame for it, because God has created everyone to be happy, not miserable.
Of all that God has given us in this life, he let us have one part at our complete disposal, which, so to speak, constitutes our property; the other part lies outside our power and does not belong to us; everything that others can bind, damage and take away from us does not belong to us, and everything that no one can interfere with and harm constitutes our property. And God, in his goodness, has let us have as our property precisely that which is the true good. This means that God is not our enemy; he has treated us like a kind father; the only things he did not give us are the things that cannot give us the good.
And that is why a wise person cares only about fulfilling God’s will, and in the depth of his soul he meditates as follows: “If you desire, Lord, that I should live, then I shall live as you command, I shall make use of the freedom that you have given me in everything that belongs to me.
“But if you no longer need me, then so be it.
“I have lived on earth until now solely to serve you; if you send me death, then I will leave the world, I will obey you like a servant who understands the orders and prohibitions of his master. And while I am still here on earth, I want to be that which you desire me to be.”
— Epictetus
Peace is a great good but, if peace is attained via slavery, it ceases being a good and becomes a disaster. Peace is freedom based on the recognition of the rights of every human being, slavery is a denial of human rights and human dignity. And therefore we must sacrifice everything to achieve peace, and even more to rid ourselves of slavery.
— After Cicero
Remember that it is more in keeping with freedom to change your mind and to follow that which corrects your mistake than to refuse to admit it.
— Marcus Aurelius
I call that mind free which acts from immutable principles which it has deliberately espoused. I call that mind free, which resists the bondage of habit, which does not live on its old virtues, which does not enslave itself to precise rules, but which forgets what is behind, listens for new and higher monitions of conscience, and rejoices to pour itself forth in fresh and higher exertions.
— Channing
Only that which does not aim to enslave us is real duty. Only that which helps set us free is knowledge.
All other duty is merely a new yoke. All other knowledge is merely idle speculation.
— Vishnu Purana
There is no middle ground: you are either a slave of God or of other people.
