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:
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.
If you're not ready to die for it, take the word "freedom" out of your vocabulary.
For what avail the plough or sail,
Or land or life, if freedom fail?
To preserve the life of citizens, is the greatest virtue in the father of his country.
I freed thousands of slaves. I could have freed thousands more, if they had known they were slaves.