32 Patriotic Independence Day Quotes

Words to Make Every American Proud on the 4th of July

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It was a historic moment when Thomas Jefferson, along with other members of the Continental Congress, drafted the Declaration of Independence. The Continental Congress declared the people of America independent from the British colonies. It was the moment of truth all Americans had waited for. If the effort of severing ties from the British succeeded, the leaders of the movement would be hailed as true American heroes. However, if the effort failed, the leaders would be guilty of treason and face death.

Clever Wording, Smart Strategies

It was the clever wording of the Declaration of Independence, followed by some smart strategies employed by the leaders that sparked the Independence movement. What followed was a relentless power struggle to gain absolute independence from the British monarchy.

July 4, 1776, was the historic day when the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. Every year, Americans rejoice and celebrate Independence Day, or the 4th of July, with great fanfare. Amidst colorful parades, flag hoisting ceremonies, and barbecue parties, Americans remember the suffering their forefathers endured to win them precious freedom.

Patriotic Quotes From the Famous

Over the decades and centuries, famous figures have spoken eloquently about patriotism. Following are some of their best quotes.

Love of Country

Erma Bombeck: "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."

Daniel Webster: "May the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country!"

Hamilton Fish: "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."

Benjamin Franklin: "Where liberty dwells, there is my country."

John F. Kennedy: "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."

Freedom and Liberty

Elmer Davis: "This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave."

Joseph Addison: "Let freedom never perish in your hands."

Dwight D. Eisenhower: "Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed - else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die."

George Bernard Shaw: "Liberty is the breath of life to nations."

Ralph Waldo Emerson: "For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail?"

Thomas Paine: "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."

Thomas Paine: "In a chariot of light from the region of the day, / The Goddess of Liberty came / She brought in her hand as a pledge of her love, / The plant she named Liberty Tree." / "He that would make his own liberty ​secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty / he establishes a precedent that will reach himself."

Harry Emerson Fosdick: "Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have."

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "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."

Franklin D. Roosevelt: "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."

John F. Kennedy: "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, 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."

Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, 1863: "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

Lee Greenwood: "And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me."

United and Wise

Oliver Wendell Holmes: "One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, One Nation evermore!"

Gerald Stanley Lee: "America is a tune. It must be sung together."

John Dickinson: "Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! / By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall."

Hubert H. Humphrey: "We need an America with the wisdom of experience. But we must not let America grow old in spirit."

Musings on Patriotism

James G. Blaine: "The United States is the only country with a known birthday."

George Santayana: "A man's feet must be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world."

Bill Vaughan: "A real patriot is the fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices that the system works."

Adlai Stevenson: "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."

John Quincy Adams: "All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse."

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

Aurora Raigne: "America, for me, has been the pursuit and catching of happiness."

Woodrow Wilson: "The American Revolution was a beginning, not a consummation."

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Khurana, Simran. "32 Patriotic Independence Day Quotes." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/4th-of-july-quotes-speak-of-patriotism-2832514. Khurana, Simran. (2023, April 5). 32 Patriotic Independence Day Quotes. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/4th-of-july-quotes-speak-of-patriotism-2832514 Khurana, Simran. "32 Patriotic Independence Day Quotes." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/4th-of-july-quotes-speak-of-patriotism-2832514 (accessed March 19, 2024).