Independence Day Quotes
Despite the name, this is not a page about the American Fourth of July. It is built from the freedom and patriotism pages, and the writers who turn up come from all over: the Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos, the Italian anarchist Bruno Filippi, Shakespeare, Anna Quindlen. De Burgos has a line about an invaded nation where today’s battlefield is independence.
A few entries are there because of a keyword, not a mood. Cervantes’s remark about not thrusting his nose into other men’s porridge (Don Quixote, 1605) is about minding your own business. If you want something for a speech, sort by source grade and skip the oddities.
Most quoted on independence day:
What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence?
Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.
I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.
The Confederacy stands for slavery and the Union for freedom.
Jesus wanted to liberate everyone from the law — from all laws.
To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men.
Self-regulation is the basis of freedom, and dependence the origin of inequality.
Ever since I arrived to a state of manhood, I have felt a sincere passion for liberty.
Come all you true friends of the nation, attend to humanity's call!