“We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary source“Every gift we accept is a tie. Sometimes, one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.”
— Albert Einstein Secondary source“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
— Thomas Jefferson Primary source“There will never be a really free and enlightened State, until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary source“I believe this Government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“Of our political revolution of ’76, we all are justly proud. It has given us a degree of political freedom, far exceeding that of any other nation of the earth. In it the world has found a solution of the long mooted problem, as to the capability of man to govern himself. In it was the germ which has vegetated, and still is to grow and expand into the universal liberty of mankind.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility—I welcome it.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”
— Thomas Jefferson Primary source“Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.”
— Winston Churchill Primary source“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“To whom thy secret thou dost tell, to him thy freedom thou dost sell.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“How unreasonable people are! They never use the freedoms they have but demand those they do not have; they have freedom of thought—they demand freedom of speech.”
— Søren Kierkegaard Primary sourcePolitics Independence Liberty Enslavement Curiosity