The Meaning of Freedom

The state can’t give you freedom, and the state can’t take it away. You’re born with it, like your eyes, like your ears. Freedom is something you assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist* is the degree to which you are free.

-Utah Phillips

*Note that Phillips was a pacifist – lest the word ‘resist’ be misunderstood.