Ellen Key Quotes

Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint.

Every step into freedom contains within it the potential for greater bondage.

Freedom is not possible without authority - otherwise it would turn into chaos and authority is not possible without freedom - otherwise it would turn into tyranny.

We are all of us the worse for too much liberty.

I just want to be master of my own time. It is ironic that someone in the watch business should not be in control of his time.

The chains that bind us the most closely are the ones we have broken.

A great work is made out of a combination of obedience and liberty.

Power ought to serve as a check to power.

Coercion, after all, merely captures man. Freedom captivates him.

Power should be a check to power.

In a democracy, the opposition is not only tolerated … but must be maintained as indispensable.

Freedom remains still the wisest cure for freedom's temporary inconveniences.

To Cure the ill Use of Liberty, with a Deprivation of Liberty, is like cutting off the Leg to cure the Gout in the Toe

A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few.

It [liberty] is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty, and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few; as we have learned to our sorrow.

In all governments, there must of necessity be both the law and the sword; laws without arms would give us not liberty, but licentiousness; and arms without laws, would produce not subjection, but slavery. The law, therefore, should be unto the sword what the handle is to the hatchet; it should direct the stroke and temper the force.

Freedom’s Keystone is Slavery.

If for harming himself a man forfeits his freedom, then he was never free in the first place.

Nothing brings more pain than too much pleasure; nothing more bondage than too much liberty.

Freedom without virtue isn't freedom - it will eventually destroy a society.

People have been fed this diet of pabulum, rights, and impulsive freedom. There's just an absolute starvation for the other side of the story.

Freedom comes with the impossibility of choosing.

I like to play my game. I don't want to do anything out of control, out of nature.

Marriage is the only known example of the happy meeting of the immovable object and the irresistible force.

Life forgets me but will not let me forget Holds me down and tells me that I'm free.