Who said ...

[Golem]

..."Freedom is the acceptance of limitations."?

Any ideas?

Thanks.

[Quizmonster]

The actor/director, Orson Wells said, "The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.�
I appreciate this is not the exact phraseology you mention, but it does contain the concept that total freedom is more likely to lead to anarchy than good results.

[Peter Pedant]

something like this comes up in The History boys

currently revived at Wyndhams and WELL worth visit.

There, it is intended ironically,

that is in the same sense of ....'The Pope it is well known, says it is OK to lie now and then' - he doesn't
or,

The only reason Tony Blair is clinging to power is to get to the House of Lords. (he isnt, he is clinging to power for other reasons)

[Golem]

Thankyou gentlemen for your interesting answers. Neither of them provoked that spark of recognition of the source I first read the original quote from more than twenty years ago, but I shall continue looking.

What vague memory I do have is that it wasn't being used ironically in the way Peter Pedant's quotes are; in fact it has become one of my (over-)used phrases and beliefs. Perhaps that shows a certain naivety brought about from living in a very liberal country, but I do believe freedom is a state of mind as well as a physical existance.