If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is no barking dog to be tethered on a one-foot chain.

The quotation argues that genuine inquiry requires intellectual freedom: if knowledge is truly valued, thinkers must be allowed to pursue questions and conclusions without external constraint. The vivid metaphor—rejecting the idea of the mind as a “barking dog” kept on a short chain—casts censorship, ideological policing, or institutional pressure as forms of domestication that reduce thought to reactive noise rather than critical reflection. In Adorno’s broader critical-theory spirit, the line implies that unfree conditions deform reason itself: when inquiry is tethered to approved outcomes, “knowledge” becomes propaganda or mere technique. The quote therefore defends autonomy of thought as a precondition for truth-seeking and responsible critique.