That which distinguishes this day from all others is that then both orators and artillerymen shoot blank cartridges.

                                                                                    —John Burroughs

In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.              —Franklin D. Roosevelt

This, then, is the state of the union: free and restless, growing and full of hope. So it was in the beginning. So it shall always be, while God is willing, and we are strong enough to keep the faith. —Lyndon B. Johnson

Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.

                                                                                —Louis D. Brandeis

Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.    —Albert Camus

America is much more than a geographical fact. It is a political and moral fact — the first community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality.       —Adlai Stevenson

Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.                           —Moshe Dayan

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.        —Abraham Lincoln

My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!                                                                        —Thomas Jefferson

How often we fail to realize our good fortune in living in a country where happiness is more than a lack of tragedy.

                                                                                        —Paul Sweeney

What is the essence of America? Finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom “to” and freedom “from.”                                                                                 —Marilyn vos Savant

We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.     —William Faulkner

Many politicians are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim.      —Thomas Macaulay

Where liberty dwells, there is my country. —Benjamin Franklin

If our country is worth dying for in time of war, let us resolve that it is truly worth living for in time of peace.”      –Hamilton Fish

Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.            –Judge Learned Hand

 

Liberty means responsibility. That’s why most men dread it.     – George Bernard Shaw