Practice of Freedom by Alexandre Jollien

* "Liberate yourself by means of attention. Learn to track all disturbing emotions from the moment they arise, so as not to fall into their infernal spiral. Be aware of the thunder before it breaks.

* "The CCL file. Create a CCL (Couldn't Care Less) file and put in it all the unwholesome ideas that bug you —fantasies, illusions, and deliriums. Don't dwell on the stream of useless and harmful thoughts that pass through our minds from morning till night — get out of that fog.

* "Liberate yourself from the past. Liberating oneself, for Spinoza, is revisiting our past, examining our history. What are we getting out of it? What are we holding on to from it? Prejudices and traumas? Identifying the influences and automatic mechanisms that we are dragging around with us will speed us toward freedom. It took years to shape us, so let's take the time needed to free ourselves from the after effects of our history, from betrayals, from deficiencies. The challenge? Revisit the past not to find excuses in it but to become better."

For a Just Freedom by Matthieu Ricard

* "Outer freedom is mastery of your life, and inner freedom is mastery of your mind.

* "Inner freedom is acquired through training the mind, which becomes free from the yoke of confusion and the mental poisons.

* "Inner freedom has kindness and compassion as natural parts of it, and they should be the guides for our outer freedom."

The Four Keys to Freedom by Christophe Andre

* "Always think of freedom in stereo: freedom and responsibility. As soon as you separate freedom from responsibility, you are on the very slippery slope of selfishness, . . .

* "Don't forget morality. Freedom needs to be regulated in two ways: inwardly (individual responsibility) and outwardly (rules and laws). Once laws have been established, you come back to the individual, because the question is not just what's legal but also what's moral. Even if the law allows me to do certain things, it's not always desirable for me to do them.

* "Pass my freedom through two filters: (1) Is the freedom I claim aimed at attaining my personal pleasure, or does it offer something for the common good? (2) If this freedom that I claim, even though it is aimed at the common good, causes problems for others, are there other ways that I can reach this goal?

* "Decline freedom in the plural. It is a common possession, and every time I insist on something for the sake of my own freedom, I am making a big mistake — I should be thinking about our freedom."