Bound to be Free

It was compiled at the end of last century but it seems so much is relevant today.  It is a book of quotes.  In this day when I see what I consider are the excesses of social media, I thought immediately of the words of the song, “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”
“The right to do something does not mean doing it is right” By William Safire and “My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular” by Adali E. Stevenson says it all for me.
There were what I consider random quotes that I really liked. “a society that values its privileges above it’s principles soon loses both” by Dwight Eisenhower and “it is easy to take liberty for granted when you have never had it taken from you” by Dick Cheney seem to me to be very relevant today.
One that immediately had me think of a song I particularly like was, “freedom is the right to choose the habits that bind you” by a Renate Rubenstein.  The song I like contained the words “you set me free with that ball and chain.”  Cicero said, “we are in bondage to the law, in order to be free.”  Igor Stravinsky put it this way, “if everything would be permitted to me, I would be lost in this abyss of freedom.
I totally believe in free choice, and I also  know that not all choices are good ones.  A child is told not to put its hand on a hot plate not to limit but to warn.
The quotes I am drawn to include, “the function of freedom is to free somebody else” by Toni Morrison and “loving someone else more than you love yourself, that’s freedom” by Malcolm Muggeridge.  The reason I like those quotes is I am a big believer in putting others before oneself.  That sounds noble but I have really found that by seeing the needs of others met my own are.