A silver goblet with a chain looped around its stem leading to an open padlock beside it.

Original artwork, not a still

Brutus · 1730

Voltaire

Man is free at the instant he wants to be.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker argues that freedom is chiefly a matter of will: a person becomes free the moment they truly desire it. On this view, the obstacles to liberty lie less in outside circumstances than in hesitation, and wanting freedom wholeheartedly is already the decisive step toward having it.

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