Famous Quotes & Sayings

Aristotle

The basis of a democratic state is liberty

Aesop

Better to starve free than be a fat slave

Andy Rooney

One of the things we can be sure of over the July 4th weekend is that news reports will keep telling us how many of us are going to die in automobile accidents.

Thomas Jefferson

To make us one nation as to foreign concerns, and keep us distinct in Domestic ones gives the outline of the proper division of powers between the general [national] and particular [state] governments.

Thomas Jefferson

No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.

Thomas Jefferson

I thank heaven that the 4th. of July is over. It is always a day of great fatigue to me, and of some embarrassments from improper intrusions and some from unintended exclusions.

Thomas Jefferson

An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.

Thomas Jefferson

Liberty is the great parent of science and of virtue; and a nation will be great in both in proportion as it is free.

Thomas Jefferson

When wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne, resistance becomes morality.

Thomas Jefferson

Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.

Thomas Jefferson

To preserve the freedom of the human mind then and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to devote itself to martyrdom; for as long as we may think as we will, and speak as we think, the condition of man will proceed in improvement

Thomas Jefferson

The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart.

Scott Walker

You see, here in America there's a reason why we celebrate the 4th of July and not April 15th because in America we celebrate our independence from the government, not our dependence on it.

Marilyn vos Savant

What is the essence of America? Finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom 'to' and freedom 'from.'

John Quincy Adams

Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day (the 4th of July)? Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior?.

Abraham Lincoln

But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or to detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

Erma Bombeck

You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.

Felix Frankfurter

We have enjoyed so much freedom for so long that we are perhaps in danger of forgetting how much blood it cost to establish the Bill of Rights.

George Washington

Lenience will operate with greater force, in some instances than rigor. It is therefore my first wish to have all of my conduct distinguished by it.

George Washington

I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery.

George Washington

I walk on untrodden ground. There is scarcely any part of my conduct which may not hereafter be drawn into precedent.

George Washington

The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it.

George Washington

Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government.

George Washington

Some day, following the example of the United States of America, there will be a United States of Europe.

George Washington

Laws made by common consent must not be trampled on by individuals.

George Washington

A government is like fire, a handy servant, but a dangerous master.

George Washington

My observation is that whenever one person is found adequate to the discharge of a duty... it is worse executed by two persons, and scarcely done at all if three or more are employed therein.

George Washington

The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.

George Washington

The Constitution is the guide which I never will abandon.

George Washington

Do not let anyone claim tribute of American patriotism if they even attempt to remove religion from politics.

Frederick Chiluba

The greatest lesson we can learn from the past. . . is that freedom is at the core of every successful nation in the world.

George Bernard Shaw

Liberty is the breath of life to nations.

Jack Kerouac

This is the story of America. Everybody's doing what they think they're supposed to do.