These quotes collectively inspire us to reflect on our history, summon our inner courage, and actively contribute to the preservation of freedom in our daily lives.
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May all of you, as Americans, never forget
your heroic origins and never fail to seek divine guidance… We are forever indebted to those that have given their lives that we might be free.
—PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN -
For the support of this declaration,
with a firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
—Pledge made by Signers of the Declaration of Independence -
The stories of past courage can define that
ingredient – they can teach, they can offer hope, they provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.
—PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY -
The battle for American freedom was begun by thousands of farmers and
tradesmen who made up the Minute Men – citizens who were ready to defend their liberty at a moment’s notice. Today we need a nation of minute men; citizens who are not only prepared to take up arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as a basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom. The cause of liberty, the cause of America, cannot succeed with any lesser effort.
—PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY -
Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike,
that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans — born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage — and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world… 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 the success of liberty.
—PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY -
These are the times that try men’s souls:
The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
—Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, December 23, 1776 -
For of those to whom much is given,
much is required.
—PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY -
There are your enemies,
the Redcoats and the Tories. They are ours, or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow
—General John Stark’s words to his men, the New Hampshire Regiment, prior to the Battle of Bennington at Walloomsac, New York on August 16, 1777 -
Live free or die:
Death is not the worst of evils.
—General John Stark’s toast, delivered via letter, to a group of veterans attending a reunion on July 31,1809 commemorating the Battle of Bennington -
We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
—Declaration of Independence -
Join, or Die.
—Political cartoon published in the Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754 (imagery later used to foster unity amongst 13 colonies during the American War for Independence) -
And where the body of the people, or any single man, is deprived of the right,
or is under the exercise of a power without right, and have no appeal on earth, then they have a liberty to appeal to heaven, whenever they judge the cause of sufficient moment.
—British philosopher John Locke’s expression of the right of revolution used in his Second Treatise on Civil Government (as part of Two Treatises of Government refuting the theory of the divine right of kings) -
Give me liberty, or give me death!
—Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775 -
And so, my fellow Americans:
ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.
— President John F. Kennedy -
I only regret that I have but one life
to lose for my country.
—Nathan Hale’s last words prior to being hung by British forces in occupied New York City on September 22, 1776 -
Don’t tread on me!
—rallying cry against tyranny -
Wherever your armies go, there we will go;
you shall always find us by your side; and if providence calls us to sacrifice our Lives in the field of battle, we will fall where you fall, and lay our bones by yours. Nor shall peace ever be made between our nation and the red-coats until our brothers lead the way.
—Stockbridge tribes (Mohican, Munsee and Wappinger tribes from Western Massachusetts) pledge of loyalty to the American cause -
The surrender of Lieutenant General John Burgoyne on the 17th of October
1777, formed a niche in the Temple of Liberty which patriotism will one day fill with an appropriate monument
—William L. Stone, Secretary, Saratoga Monument Association -
The victory of the Americans over Burgoyne at Saratoga is one of the fifteen most decisive battles in world history.
—British historian Sir Edward S. Creasy, in 1851, in his acclaimed book “Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, From Marathon to Waterloo.” -
The millennium would see other great battles, like Gettysburg and the
Marne and D-Day. But in the last 1,000 years, I think, only the defeat of the Turks by Jan Sobieski near Vienna in 1683 rivaled Saratoga…Saratoga did more. It launched two centuries of revolution elsewhere. It marked the beginning of the end of the British Empire. And it breathed life into the United States of America.
—R.W. Apple, Jr., NY Times Magazine, May 9, 1999 -
The glorious work we have in hand.
Note: Upon receiving news of the stunning victory at Saratoga, Washington referred to the American Revolution as “the glorious work we have in hand” and acknowledged freedom and the American victory in the Upper Hudson Valley as unique gifts of the “Providence” of God.
—General George Washington -
I congratulate you upon the glorious successes of our Arms in the North
[T]his singular favour of Providence is to be received with thankfulness and the happy moment which Heaven has pointed out for the firm establishment of American Liberty ought to be embraced with becoming spirit.
—letter written on October 18, 1777 by Gen. George Washington the day he first received news of the complete victory at Saratoga. -
Since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of heaven,
can never be expected on a nation that disregards the internal rules of order and right, which heaven itself has ordained. And since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”
—President George Washington, First Inaugural Address
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May all of you, as Americans, never forget your heroic origins and never fail to seek divine guidance… We are forever indebted to those that have given their lives that we might be free.
— PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN