Human nature is universally imbued with a desire for liberty, and a hatred for servitude.

To live is like to love — all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it

Life ought to be a struggle of desire toward adventures whose nobility will fertilize the soul.

There is a Passion natural to the Mind of man, especially a free Man, which renders him impatient of Restraint.

There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism

In men desire begets love, and in women love begets desire.

The good which every man, who follows after virtue, desires for himself he will also desire for other men...

And the secret of human life, the universal secret, the root secret from which all other secrets spring, is the longing for more life, the furious and insatiable desire to be everything else without ever ceasing to be ourselves, to take possession of the entire universe without letting the universe take possession of us and absorb us; it is the desire to be someone else without ceasing to be myself, and continue being myself at the same time I am someone else...

What light is to the eyes – what air is to the lungs – what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.

The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.

Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit.

It was not man who implanted in himself what is infinite and the love of what is immortal: those lofty instincts are not the offspring of his capricious will; their steadfast foundation is fixed in human nature, and they exist in spite of his efforts. He may cross and distort them – destroy them he cannot. The soul wants which must be satisfied; and whatever pains be taken to divert it from itself, it soon grows weary, restless, and disquieted amidst the enjoyments of sense.

"Many persons knowingly violate the laws of nature against their better impulses, for the sake of fashion. For instance, there is one thing that nothing living except a vile worm ever naturally loved, and that is tobacco; yet how many persons there are who deliberately train an unnatural appetite, and overcome this implanted aversion for tobacco, to such a degree that they get to love it. They have got hold of a poisonous, filthy weed, or rather that takes a firm hold of them. Here are married men who run about spitting tobacco juice on the carpet and floors, and sometimes even upon their wives besides. They do not kick their wives out of doors like drunken men, but their wives, I have no doubt, often wish they were outside of the house. Another perilous feature is that this artificial appetite, like jealousy, "grows by what it feeds on;" when you love that which is unnatural, a stronger appetite is created for the hurtful thing than the natural desire for what is harmless. There is an old proverb which says that "habit is second nature," but an artificial habit is stronger than nature. Take for instance, an old tobacco-chewer; his love for the "quid" is stronger than his love for any particular kind of food. He can give up roast beef easier than give up the weed."

It is the very mark of the spirit of rebellion to crave for happiness in this life