Freedom, liberty, license are comparable when meaning the state or condition of one who can think, believe, or act as he wishes.
Freedom (see also under FREE ) is the term of widest application; in philosophy, for example, it often implies a state or condition in which there is not only total absence of restraint but release even from the compulsion of necessity; at the other extreme, in ordinary casual use, freedom merely implies the absence of any awareness of being restrained, repressed, or hampered; between these two extremes the term may imply the absence of a definite restraint or of compulsion from a particular power or agency.
Liberty is often used interchangeably with freedom , but it often carries one of two implications which are not so marked in the use of freedom. The first of these implications is the power to choose what one wishes to do, say, believe, or support as distinguished from the state of being uninhibited in doing or thinking. The second of these implications is deliverance or release from restraint or compulsion.
License often implies the liberty to disobey the rules or regulations imposed on the many, but not necessarily governing all, when a great advantage is to be gained by disobedience. More often, however, the term implies an abuse of liberty in the sense of the power to do exactly what one pleases.