“There is…confusion as to the meaning of personal freedom. For some it means to function without limitations at any point, to be able to do what one wants to do and without hindrance. This is the fantasy of many minds, particularly those that are young. For others, personal freedom is to be let alone, to be protected against any force that may move into the life with a swift and decisive imperative. For still others, it means to be limited in one’s power over others only by one’s own strength, energy, and perseverance.

“…[These definitions] lack the precious ingredient, the core of discipline and inner structure without which personal freedom is a delusion. At the very centre, personal freedom is a discipline of the mind and of the emotions.”

Howard Thurman (1899-1981) , African American scholar, writer and pastor, from his book A Strange Freedom