O'Regan, Emlyn <Emlyn.ORegan@actew.com.au> wrote:
> I'm looking for the original german (if it is german) for "Your thoughts are
> free", or whatever the famous phrase is.
"Die Gedanken sind frei."
> I don't even know who said it,
That's apparently complicated. According to the Duden volume on famous quotes it's the first line in a song in the collection _Des Knaben Wanderhorn_ (1806-1808) by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano. Later it was referenced in Joseph von Eichendorff's poem "Verschwiegene Liebe". I guess the latter source popularized it.
I think you can safely assume that it is quoted well out of context nowadays, like many of these bon mots are.
-- Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.rhein-neckar.de