The Quotation IndexThe trusted reference for quotations and the sources behind them
Tag Tag Liberty
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.
Abraham Lincoln The Gettysburg Address · 1863

Quotes

“Do not make the mistake of the ignorant who think that an individualist is a man who says: I’ll do as I please at everybody else’s expense. An individualist is a man who recognizes the inalienable individual rights of man—his own and those of others.

Ayn Rand · The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z, 1986 · Primary source

“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.”

Thomas Jefferson · Declaration of Independence, 1776 · Primary source

“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”

Abraham Lincoln · The Gettysburg Address, 1863 · Primary source

“Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power.”

Benjamin Franklin · Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1732-1758 · Primary source

“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.”

John F. Kennedy · Inaugural Address of President John F. Kennedy, 1961 · Primary source

“There will never be a really free and enlightened State, until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.”

Henry David Thoreau · Resistance to Civil Government, 1849 · Primary source

Works

Benjamin Franklin · 1787
Letter to the Abbés Chalut and Arnoux

A brief reflection on civic virtue, political freedom, social disorder, and the prospects for stable self-government in post-Revolutionary America.

Read summary·Explore 1 quotes

Related Tags

Declaration of Independence 4 American founding 2 Equality 5 National ideals 1 American Civil War 7 National survival 1 Popular government 2 Individualism 10 Individual rights 3 Non-aggression 2 Mutual rights 1 Virtue 6 Wealth 13 Power 10 Integrity 19 Cold War 30 Alliances 3 Deterrence 12 Foreign policy 1 Individual sovereignty 1 Political authority 3 Consent 1 Limited government 3 Natural rights 3 Popular sovereignty 4 Consent of the governed 1 Civic virtue 2 Self-government 4 Political stability 3 American republic 1