Quotes Tagged "freedom-of-thought"

There is more to life than both cold facts and blind faith.

In the Hindu religion, one can[not] have freedom of speech. A Hindu must surrender his freedom of speech. He must act according to the Vedas. If the Vedas do not support the actions, instructions must be sought from the Smritis, and if the Smritis fail to provide any such instructions, he must follow in the footsteps of the great men. He is not supposed to reason. Hence, so long as you are in the Hindu religion, you cannot expect to have freedom of thought

If a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission.

Life is an outward projection of one's perceived self value.

Liberty is too precious a thing to be buried in books. Humans should hold it up in their hands every single day of their lives and say from the deepest fathoms of their soul – “I am free – to think – to speak – to act – the way a real, novel, civilized being should – my ancestors couldn’t, but I can, and my children will”.

The time has come, to stand up and to defy. Its our life, our choices, how long can they deny? The time has come, not to believe in every lie. Not to follow every rule, without asking why. The time has come, not to ignore as others cry. Or soon, very soon, it will be our turn to die. The time has come, not to turn a blind eye. Because once lost, freedom is hard to come by.

You can hardly realize the essence of my ideas, if you try to comprehend them in terms of what your society has taught you. To understand me, you must first be free, and start off in an investigative journey with me, like a naïve newborn with no preconceived idea about anything whatsoever.

I have very strong opinions and don’t want to give them up.. That’s your problem! You’ll be screwed up by those who have the same opinions as you and by those who have the opposite opinions.

If I knew then what I know now I guess it'd make no difference; Fate's sure in the way somehow. What's important is the essence. Although we still have free will We also have a whole lot to deal.

Freedom is an expression of self-love

Beyond culture, beyond tradition, beyond all dogmas and doctrines, there lies a beautiful valley full with real liberty and real harmony - in that valley, diversity is no cause for discrimination or hatred, rather it provides colors to the collective life of humanity as one family - in that valley, the best creed is to have no creed - the best path is to have no path - the best ideology is to have no ideology.

The best path is to have no path.

In the land of liberty, the self and others are all one all-pervading system of magnificent harmony, but what keeps most humans to live in that land, is non-acceptance of their own self, which is a form of denial of the self - therefore, the first step is acceptance of the self.

من أوجب الواجبات على الدولة أن تترك العلماء أحراراً في حكمهم على الأمور، أن تشعرهم باستقلالهم، لأنهم قادة الفكر، كما أن على العلماء أن يتمسكوا بهذا الاستقلال. فاستقلال العلم والعلماء شرط لابد منه لحياة العلم والفضيلة على حد سواء. وإذا ضاع استقلال العلم ضاع العلم وضاعت الفضيلة، بل وضاعت الأمة. وقد بقيت أوروبا ألف عام في ظلمات العصور الوسطى، لأن أمورهم كانت في أيدي قوم لا يؤمنون بالحق، ولا يؤمنون باستقلال العلم، فاضطهدوا العلماء، وحاربوا حرية الفكر، واتغمسوا في الجهالة محتمين وراء الجدل اللفظي الأجوف، فعم الظلم والضلال.

If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all—except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty. [Response to questionnaire in Saturday Review, October 29 1960]

[Public] libraries should be open to all—except the censor. [Response to questionnaire in Saturday Review, October 29 1960]

It is very nearly impossible to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind.

Freedom of speech is unnecessary if the people to whom it is granted do not think for themselves.

With or without 'college' we are able to use our senses by perceiving the world around us, that in turn shapes and creates ones own reality. Perception is reality. My 'reality' is not the same as your 'reality' since we all have a different mental database, life experience, physiology, different characteristics, environments we grew up and people we hang out with, etc. I might fall in love with a certain smell while it triggers bad memories for someone else. Same goes for the other senses while perceiving 'reality'. And how real is this so called 'reality' anyway? Our senses can be quite limited compared to a camera or other living creatures on the planet. There are sounds and colours humans can not detect with their senses. We in fact do not perceive the whole 'picture'. The most important things in life are unseen. My point is that we do not need hierarchic, indoctrinating, and capitalized institution called 'science' to tell us what, when, why, and how to think, experiment, sense, and live our lives. Long before there was any 'science', there was sense first.