Philip Yancey Quotes

The idea that freedom is merely the ability to act upon one's whims is surely very thin and hardly begins to capture the complexities of human existence; a man whose appetite is his law strikes us not as liberated but enslaved.

It's sort of what the Johnny and Devi stories are about, the idea of always being a slave to something.

I hate exercising self-control.

Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.

Some people regard discipline as a chore. For me, it is a kind of order that sets me free to fly.

I was not created to be occupied by eating delicious foods like tied up cattle.

To be one's own master is to be the slave of self.

In that power of self-control lies the seed of eternal freedom.

How can you call a man free when his pleasures rule over him.

It seems that it is madder never to abandon one's self than often to be infatuated; better to be wounded, a captive and a slave, than always to walk in armor.

He who is a slave to his stomach seldom worships God.

When we, through our educational culture, through the media, through the entertainment culture, give our children the impression that human beings cannot control their passions, we are telling them, in effect, that human beings cannot be trusted with freedom.

I've learned over the years that freedom is just the other side of discipline.

If we do not discipline ourselves the world will do it for us.

Fear clogs; faith liberates.

Man is free; yet we must not suppose that he is at liberty to do everything he pleases, for he becomes a slave the moment he allows his actions to be ruled by passion.

I never forbid myself anything.

Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is responsible to himself.

The greatest blessing of our democracy is freedom. But in the last analysis, our only freedom is the freedom to discipline ourselves.

No one is free who does not lord over himself.

I think there's some connection between absolute discipline and absolute freedom.

I think the real free person in society is one that's disciplined. It's the one that can choose; that is the free one.

I don't have anyone curbing my instincts, doing anything destructive to my self opinion.

No man is free who is not master of himself.

In the last analysis, our only freedom is the freedom to discipline ourselves.