By Scott Robertson
If you’ve read this column for any length of time, (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, in general, are far smarter, more articulate, and more interesting than I am. So, as we approach Independence Day, here, with profound thanks to all those who’ve protected American freedom for more than 200 years, are a few words on the the fact that freedom isn’t free.
Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel.
Patrick Henry
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
Liberty of speech inviteth and provoketh liberty to be used again, and so bringeth much to a man’s knowledge.
Sir Francis Bacon
To speak his thoughts is every free man’s right, in peace and war, in council and in fight.
Homer
If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.
George Washington
The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance.
John Philpot Curran
Freedom is fragile and must be protected. To sacrifice it, even as a temporary measure, is to betray it.
John F. Kennedy
Liberty does not consist in mere declarations of the rights of man. It consists in the translation of those declarations into definite action.
Woodrow Wilson
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
When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.
Thomas Paine
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin
