A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither.
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:
Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure...
Liberty must be a mighty thing; for by it God punishes and rewards nations.
Freedom is coming to mean little more than the right to ask permission.
No one has the right to steal our dreams and trespass upon our liberties.