Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be.

Boorstin frames freedom less as the absence of restraint and more as a positive capacity for self-transformation. The emphasis on “opportunity” suggests that liberty is realized through open horizons—social, educational, economic, and imaginative—that allow people to exceed the identities they inherit or initially envision. “What we never thought we would be” points to the unpredictability of human development in a genuinely free society: new roles, vocations, convictions, and forms of belonging become possible when institutions and culture do not rigidly pre-assign a life course. The line also implies humility about the self: freedom includes the chance to discover latent talents and unforeseen callings.