The fatherland

...Fatherland without freedom and merit is a large word with little meaning.

For What Reason do so Many Swedes Emigrate Every Year? 1765.

Freedom comes first

Freedom with dry crusts is often more pleasant for an individual than a great feast when he is under the power of another. It costs a lot to sit with your feet under your own table, but who would not rather do that with a small income than prosper as another man’s servant?

Thoughts on the Natural Rights of Servants and Peasants, 1778.

The important little word

... I am speaking only of that little, but blessed, word Freedom.

Thoughts on the Natural Rights of Servants and Peasants, 1778.

Force

The exercise of one coercion always makes another inevitable.

Thoughts on the Natural Rights of Servants and Peasants, 1778.

Freedom - only a word?

There are only few people who speak in favour of civil liberty, although most people speak openly of freedom, and the few who follow this path and consider human rights as belonging to people in general, are themselves considered by most people as defenders of self-indulgence and political free-thinkers. Others speak much of freedom but take this to mean the freedom of certain groups of people or individuals, and forget the humblest who have not had the advantage to have sought refuge in the entrenchments of the others, but the more these entrenchments are extended to the others, then naturally the humblest become more crowded and homeless on our earth.

Thoughts on the Natural Rights of Servants and Peasants, 1778.