{"quotes":[{"text":"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.","author":"Nadja Sam","tags":["education","education-system","freedom-of-thought","institution","life","perception","perception-of-reality","reality","science","scientism","senses"],"id":7378,"author_id":"Nadja+Sam"},{"text":"The man who can keep order can rule the world, but the man who can bear disorder is truly free.","author":"Gillian Cross","tags":["choice","free-will","freedom-of-thought"],"id":10599,"author_id":"Gillian+Cross"},{"text":"Remember your connection with the cosmos. Remember your connection with the infinity and that remembrance will give you the freedom.","author":"Amit Ray","tags":["connection","connection-with-the-infinity","contemplation","cosmos","enlightenment","enlightenment","free-will","free-will","freedom","freedom-of-choice","freedom-of-thought","happiness","infinity","nonduality","perfection","reflection","remember","remembering","remembrance","vedanta","vedanta-remembrance"],"id":19432,"author_id":"Amit+Ray"},{"text":"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.","author":"James Madison","tags":["ity","constitution","freedom-of-speech","freedom-of-thought","politics"],"id":19527,"author_id":"James+Madison"},{"text":"No man owns me. All man can do is practice the timeless, criminal art of threatening to separate my soul from her physical host.","author":"Tiffany Madison","tags":["art","criminal","eternal-life","freedom","freedom-of-speech-dissent","freedom-of-thought","libertarianism","liberty","ownership","soul"],"id":20401,"author_id":"Tiffany+Madison"},{"text":"Since then your sere Majesty and your Lordships seek a simple answer, I will give it in this manner, neither horned nor toothed. Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.', April 18, 1521).","author":"Martin Luther","tags":["belief","christian","conscience","freedom-of-religion","freedom-of-thought","organized-religion","reformation","religion","steadfastness","truth"],"id":29134,"author_id":"Martin+Luther"},{"text":"While America will always, I think, feel foreign to me, New York City is my home. This is where I can construct my own identity freely and reject labels imposed on me.","author":"Raquel Cepeda","tags":["america","foreign","freedom","freedom-of-choice","freedom-of-thought","home","homeland","identity","labels","new-york-city","race","racial-constructs","racism","self-awareness","united-states"],"id":30727,"author_id":"Raquel+Cepeda"},{"text":"A freedom given up is not so easily regained.","author":"Rivera Sun","tags":["america","civil-liberty","civil-rights-movement","constitution","constitutional-rights","freedom","freedom-of-expression","freedom-of-speech","freedom-of-the-press","freedom-of-thought","novels"],"id":31624,"author_id":"Rivera+Sun"},{"text":"Once the government can demand of a publisher the names of the purchasers of his publications, the free press as we know it disappears. Then the spectre of a government agent will look over the shoulder of everyone who reads. The purchase of a book or pamphlet today may result in a subpoena tomorrow. Fear of criticism goes with every person into the bookstall. The subtle, imponderable pressures of the orthodox lay hold. Some will fear to read what is unpopular, what the powers-that-be dislike. When the light of publicity may reach any student, any teacher, inquiry will be discouraged. The books and pamphlets that are critical of the administration, that preach an unpopular policy in domestic or foreign affairs, that are in disrepute in the orthodox school of thought will be suspect and subject to investigation. The press and its readers will pay a heavy price in harassment. But that will be minor in comparison with the menace of the shadow which government will cast over literature that does not follow the dominant party line. If the lady from Toledo can be required to disclose what she read yesterday and what she will read tomorrow, fear will take the place of freedom in the libraries, book stores, and homes of the land. Through the harassment of hearings, investigations, reports, and subpoenas government will hold a club over speech and over the p.","author":"William O. Douglas","tags":["communication","control","first-amendment","freedom","freedom-of-thought","government","liberty","privacy","repression","surveillance","thought-police"],"id":33211,"author_id":"William+O.+Douglas"},{"text":"The moment you say that any idea system is sacred, whether it’s a religious belief system or a secular ideology, the moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible.","author":"Salman Rushdie","tags":["criticism","freedom-of-thought","idea","ideology","offended","religion","rushdie","sacred","satire"],"id":37074,"author_id":"Salman+Rushdie"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":122,"pages":13,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}