For a human being as an animal creature, there can be no notion of freedom. The whole of his life is the result of a series of causes. But if a human being recognizes himself as a spiritual being, there can be no question of unfreedom. The notion of unfreedom is not applicable to the manifestations of reason, consciousness and love.
Remember that as your reason contains in itself the property of life, it makes you free, as long as you do not bend it towards the service of the flesh. A human being’s soul, illuminated by reason and free from the passions that obscure this light, is a true citadel, and there is no other refuge for a human being that is as true and as impregnable to evil. The one who does not know this is blind, and the one who knows this but does not enter the citadel of reason is unfortunate.
— Marcus Aurelius
You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
— John 8:32
Evil does not exist for material nature, but it exists for every human being, who is given the knowledge of the good and the freedom to choose between good and evil.
— Marcus Aurelius
A human being can only be free when everything that happens to him happens as he wants it. But does this mean that everything he thinks of necessarily happens to him? Not at all. For example, grammar is something that allows us to write anything we want using letters and words; but in order to write even my name I cannot just use any letters I like, because that way I would never write my name. I must instead want to write precisely the letters that are necessary, and in the correct order. And everything else is like this. We would never be able to learn anything if we did things just as we pleased. This means that in order to be a free human being, one cannot desire everything that comes to mind. On the contrary, a free human being must learn to want and accept everything that happens to him, because everything that happens to a human being happens only according to the will of the One that rules the universe.
— Epictetus
We perceive much more clearly that our will is free than the fact that everything that happens must have its cause. Could we not reverse this argument and say: our notions of cause and effect must be very wrong, because if they were right, our will could not be free?
— Lichtenberg
To have high moral character means to have a free soul. People who are always angry at someone, who are always afraid of something or who yield wholly to their passions cannot have a free soul.
— Confucius
People who deny the existence of freedom are like the blind who deny the existence of light: they do not know about the sphere in which people are free.
