By Scott Robertson
If you’ve been reading this column for any length of time, (and thank you for doing so) then you’re probably aware that on certain major holidays, I choose to devote the space to quotes regarding the holiday made by people who are far smarter, more articulate, and more interesting than I am.
I’ve been asked how I decide which of the major holidays I choose. Some folks have noted that I might, for instance, do this on Easter and Memorial Day but not Mother’s or Fathers’ Day.
The answer is simply that if I have a column that’s just bursting out of me, I’ll write it and save that holiday’s quotes for next year. Some holidays, like Christmas and Independence Day, however, receive this treatment every year. So without further ado, a few words on the concept of Liberty, and the fact that freedom isn’t free.
Freedom exists only where the people take care of the government. – Woodrow Wilson
Pray you use your freedom, and as so far as you please, allow me mine. – Philip Massinger
For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail? -Ralph Waldo Emerson
The greatest glory of a freeborn people is to transmit that freedom to their children. – William Havard
He only earns his freedom and existence who daily conquers them anew. – Goethe
O Freedom! Once thy flame hath fled, it never lights again. – Thomas More
Liberty of speech inviteth and provoketh liberty to be used again, and so bringeth much to a man’s knowledge. – Sir Francis Bacon
The most beautiful thing in the world is freedom of speech. – Diogenes
To speak his thoughts is every free man’s right, in peace and war, in council and in fight. – Homer
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. – Voltaire
The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance. – John Philpot Curra
Freedom is fragile and must be protected. To sacrifice it, even as a temporary measure, is to betray it. – Germaine Greer
Freedom is a condition of mind, and the nest way to secure it is to breed it. – Elbert Hubbard
It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees. – Dolores Ibarruri
Safe? It is often safer to be in chains than to be free. – Franz Kafka
We have confused the free with the free and easy. – Adlai Stevenson
I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death. – Patrick Henry
One should never put on one’s best trousers to go out to battle for freedom and truth. – Henrik Ibsen
I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free. – Abraham Lincoln
There is only one cure for the ills which freedom produces; and that is freedom. – Lord Macaulay
A professor once said, “People are not interested in freedom, but in ham and eggs.” Ten years in prison with only ham and eggs would cure that. – Salvador de Madariaga
There is no easy walk to freedom. -Nelson Mandela
I am not a number! I am a free man! – George Markstein
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. – George Orwell
We must plan for freedom, not merely for security, if for no other reason than that only freedom can make security secure. – George Popper
Liberty is always dangerous. But it is the safest thing we have. – Harry Emerson Fosdick
Liberty is the breath of progress. – R. G. Ingersoll
The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time. – Thomas Jefferson
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. – Bernard Shaw
Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. – Woodrow Wilson
The people never give up their liberties except under some delusion. – Edmund Burke
Where liberty dwells, there is my country. – author unknown
He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression. – Thomas Paine
Tis liberty alone that gives the flower of fleeting life its lustre and perfume. – William Cowper
What light is to the eyes – what air is to the lungs – what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man. – R. G. Ingersoll
Liberty is the best of all things. Never live beneath the noose of a servile halter. – William Wallace
I would rather belong to a poor nation that was free than to a rich nation that had ceased to be in love with liberty. We shall not be poor if we love liberty. – Woodrow Wilson
Liberty can neither be got nor kept, but by so much care that mankind are generally unwilling to give the price for it. – Lord Halifax
By no sword but her own falls liberty. – R. U. Johnson
God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it. – Daniel Webster
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be. – Thomas Jefferson
