In honor of July Fourth, America’s Independence Day, here’s what some patriots, politicians and other people have to say about the freedom we cherish.
- “The winds that blow through the wide sky in these mounts, the winds that sweep from Canada to Mexico, from the Pacific to the Atlantic — have always blown on free men.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
- “We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls.” — Robert J. McCracken
- “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty.” — John F. Kennedy
- “In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
- “You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” — Malcolm X
- “Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” — George Bernard Shaw
- “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.” — Erma Bombeck
- “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
- “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.” — Abraham Lincoln
- “The essence of America—that which really unites us—is not ethnicity, or nationality, or religion. It is an idea—and what an idea it is: that you can come from humble circumstances and do great things. That it doesn’t matter where you came from, but where you are going.” — Condoleezza Rice
- “Freedom is never free.” — Author Unknown
- “With freedom comes responsibility.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
- “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.” — Bill Clinton
- “Patriotism is easy to understand in America; it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.” — Calvin Coolidge
- “My country, ‘tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing, Land where my fathers died, Land of the pilgrims’ pride, From every mountainside, Let freedom ring!” — Samuel Francis Smith
- “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it.” — Mark Twain
- “I believe in America because we have great dreams, and because we have the opportunity to make those dreams come true.” — Wendell Willkie
- “So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
- “Courage, then, my countrymen, our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty.” — Samuel Adams
- “Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.” — Margaret Thatcher
- “We, the People, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which only asks what’s in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense.” — Barack Obama
