Our defense is in the spirit which prized liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism at your own doors.

—Abraham Lincoln

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.

—Woodrow Wilson

For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail?

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

The freedom and happiness of man ... are the sole objects of all legitimate government.

—Thomas Jefferson

I realize in hindsight that the night of the first televised presidential debate was the moment at which television and politics became engaged, and the marriage that followed was a disaster for free elections. What we now have instead are expensive elections. Simply put, they married us for love and we married them for money.

—60 Minutes producer Don Hewitt

One of the striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.

—Mark Twain

Humor is one of our greatest allies.

—James Thurber

That Americans are the worst thing that has ever happened to the English language has never been doubted by many Brits, from Prince Charles on down. And while we are indeed responsible for the high quality of our slang and for an unfortunate predilection for using like as a form of punctuation, Americans, I am here to say, are not all bad for English. The ultimate repository for the history of the language is greatly indebted to Americans for much of what makes the Oxford English Dictionary what it is: the citations.

—Jesse Shiedlower, “On Language: The Citation”

(Each week this column features quotations gleaned from the readings and experiences of our editors, reporters, readers, and friends. All are invited to submit quotations for inclusion here. They may be sent to Gleanings, c/o The Newtown Bee, 5 Church Hill Road, Newtown, CT 06470 or emailed to editor@thebee.com.)