Philo of Alexandria Quotes on Freedom
Philo of Alexandria was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who synthesized the Hebrew scriptures with Greek philosophical thought, especially Platonism and Stoicism. This page collects quotes attributed to Philo of Alexandria on the topic of freedom, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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“Moses … denied to the members of the sacred commonwealth unrestricted liberty to use and partake of the other kinds of food. All the animals of land, sea or air whose flesh is the finest and fattest, thus titillating and exciting the malignant foe pleasure, he sternly forbade them to eat, knowing that they set a trap for the most slavish of the senses, the taste, and produce gluttony, an evil very dangerous both to soul and body.”
69. -
“But you say, “by obedience to another he loses his liberty.” How then is it that children suffer the orders of their father and mother, and pupils the injunctions of their instructors?”
Every Good Man is Free | 36. -
“We have a very clear evidence of freedom in the equality recognized by all the good in addressing each other.”
Every Good Man is Free | 48. -
“Noble souls, whose brightness the greed of fortune cannot dim, have a kingly something, which urges them to contend on equal footing with persons of the most massive dignity and pits freedom of speech against arrogance.”
Every Good Man is Free | 126. -
“He who has God alone for his leader, he alone is free.”
Every Good Man is Free | 20. -
“The good man … has learnt to set at naught the injunctions laid upon him by those most lawless rulers of the soul, inspired as he is by his ardent yearning for the freedom whose peculiar heritage it is that it obeys no orders and works no will but its own.”
Every Good Man is Free | 22.