Karl Popper Freedom Quotations

We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than only freedom can make security more secure.

It is wrong to ask who will rule. The ability to vote a bad government out of office is enough. That is democracy.

I personally call the type of government which can be removed without violence 'democracy,' and the other, 'tyranny.'.

It is wrong to think that belief in freedom always leads to victory; we must always be prepared for it to lead to defeat. If we choose freedom, then we must be prepared to perish along with it.

We do not choose political freedom because it promises us this or that. We choose it because it makes possible the only dignified form of human coexistence, the only form in which we can be fully responsible for ourselves. Whether we realize its possibilities depends on all kinds of things — and above all on ourselves.