Bao Dai Quotes

Those who shall have tasted actual freedom I believe can never be slaves, or quasi slaves again.

Your thoughts and your actions are fixed forever in their terms. That is slavery. I, on the other hand, brought you freedom. Freedom is expensive, but the price is not impossible. So, fear your captors, your masters. Don't waste your time and your power fearing me.

No people must be forced under a sovereignty under which it does not wish to live.

Liberty is the most jealous and exacting mistress that can beguile the brain and soul of man.

Once a man has tasted freedom he will never be content to be a slave.

I'd rather be a free man in my grave than living as a puppet or a slave.

Henceforth, we shall be happy to be a free citizen in an independent country.

The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

It is terrible to speak of you, Liberty, for one who lives without you.

Empire and liberty.

People demand freedom only when they have no power.

Free nations of the world cannot allow Taiwan, a beacon of democracy, to be subdued by an authoritarian China.

No man is good enough to be another's master.

If you don't want to be a slave, stop acting like a slave.

The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves.

We do well in a country where people determine their own future. We suffer then there are dictators.

We’re not occupiers. We’re liberators.

The most powerful single force in the world today…man’s eternal desire to be free and independent.

Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.

I would rather be a free man than be President and a slave.

Liberty and Nationality are mere lyrics to them of which they understand nothing.

Be alike independent of crowned-kings. money-kings, and land-kings.

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

My promises to the people for whom I have waged war have been fulfilled — to accomplish their independence and leave the choice of their rulers to their own will. The presence of an unfortunate soldier, however disinterested he may be, is not desirable in newly constituted states. On the other hand, I am tired of having it said that I wish to make myself King. In short, I shall always be ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for the liberty of the country, but as in the character of a simple private citizen and in no other.

Our aim in waging the war in the [Middle] East was to ensure the complete and final emancipation of all those people so long oppressed by the Turks, to establish national governments and administrations which shall derive their authority from the initiative and free will of the peoples themselves