07/03/2024
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, opening section "For the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor." — Declaration of Independence, closing lines "Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists." — Franklin D. Roosevelt, president, 1933 to 1945
"In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope." — Barack Obama, president, 2009 to 2017
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like me, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." — Thomas Paine, American patriot
"Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." — George Orwell, English author
"Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance." — Woodrow Wilson, president, 1913 to 1921
"You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July Fourth, 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, American humorist
"If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under." — Ronald Reagan, president, 1981 to 1989
"Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on." — Thurgood Marshall, Supreme Court justice, 1967 to 1991
"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." — Condoleezza Rice, former secretary of state, 2005 to 2009
"What we need are critical lovers of America — patriots who express their faith in their country by working to improve it." — Hubert Humphrey, former vice president, 1965 to 1969
Compiled by the Lincoln Journal Star as reprinted in today's Atlantic City Press
