Lay the proud usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty's in every blow—
Let us do or die!
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 is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.
I gave my life for freedom—This I know:
For those who bade me fight had told me so.
Jehovah is the Spirit, and where the spirit of Jehovah is, there is freedom.
Give a man a free hand and he'll try to put it all over you.
Liberty
A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty
Is worth a whole eternity in bondage.
The sun of liberty is set; you must light up the candle of industry and economy.