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:
A law imposing criminal penalties on protected speech is a stark example of speech suppression.
The liberty of the press is a very great advantage and security to our public liberty.
When we become conscious of that which determines our life we attain the highest degree of freedom.
The free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.
Freedom all solace to man gives:
He lives at ease that freely lives.
A man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes.
The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts.
The love of liberty with life is given,
And life itself the inferior gift of Heaven.