Theodore Dalrymple Quotes

A slave cannot be freed, save he do it himself. Nor can you enslave a free man; the very most you can do is kill him!

Whoever wants to be free, therefore, let him not want or avoid anything that is up to others. Otherwise he will necessarily be a slave.

No man is free who is not master of himself... Is freedom anything else than the power of living as we choose?

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

Do whatever you will, but first be such as are able to will.

I hate exercising self-control.

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.

Implicit in true freedom of spirit lies a proud and virile will. Such glorious power of free will to choose, envisages beneficent social responsibility as manifest and welcome.

People who think they are free eventually end up slaves to their own desires, and those who give their freedom away to the only One you can trust with that freedom eventually get it back.

Men are not free when they are doing just what they like. The moment you can do just what you like, there is nothing you care about doing.

I thought The Limits of Control could be interpreted in two ways: as the limits of one's self-control; and as the limits of allowing other people's control over one's - consciousness - which I kind of thought was a double meaning that was appropriate.

We have power over nothing except our will.

We must understand that the highest form of freedom carries with it the greatest measure of discipline.

We do not what we ought; What we ought not, we do; And lean upon the thought That chance will bring us through; But our own acts, for good or ill, are mightier powers.

Freedom or prison--what's the difference? A man must develop unwavering will power subject only to his reason.

Freedom requires responsibility to choose who we are above and beyond our immediate impulses, needs, and social pressures, so that we can genuinely express the type of person we want to be, live the life we truly want to live, leave the legacy we desire.

The most important attribute of man as a moral being is the faculty of self-control.

The disciplined are free.

Whoever will be free must make himself free. Freedom is no fairy gift to fall into a man's lap. What is freedom? To have the will to be responsible for one's self.

Only by taking responsibility for oneself, to the greatest extent possible, can one ever be free, and only a free person can make responsible choices - between right and wrong, saving and spending, giving or taking.

Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make, both consciously and unconsciously. If you can control the process of choosing, you can take control of all aspects of your life. You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself.

See, it's no in between: you're either free or you're a slave.

I protest that if some great Power would agree to make me always think what is true and do what is right, on condition of being turned into a sort of clock and would up every morning before I got out of bed, I should instantly close with the offer.

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

A man should control his life. Mine is controlling me.