July 4th is American Independence Day.
On July 4th 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, allowing some 2.5 million people in 13 colonies to begin the journey of becoming a sovereign nation.
1) – 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 — Declaration of Independence
2) – 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
3) – 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
4) – Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves — Abraham Lincoln
5) – Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed – Martin Luther King, Jr.
6) – Where liberty dwells, there is my country – Benjamin Franklin
7) – 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 — Dwight D. Eisenhower
8) – 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 — Lee Greenwood
9) – It is sweet to serve one’s country by deeds, and it is not absurd to serve her by words — Sallust
10) – It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you — Author unknown
11) – Fourscore 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 — Abraham Lincoln
12) – Without freedom, no one really has a name — Milton Acorda
13) – We need an America with the wisdom of experience. But we must not let America grow old in spirit — Hubert H. Humphrey
14) – Liberty is the breath of life to nations — George Bernard Shaw
15) – 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 — John F. Kennedy
16) – Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country — John F. Kennedy
17) – 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.
18) – My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success –- Barack Obama