Lest We Forget, Teach Your Children about Freedom & Liberty

Unknown Soldier 1921

Today is Veteran’s Day. Below is a short list of quotes about “liberty” and “freedom”. Use them to remind yourself and to teach your children that these two precious words are not entitlements – they can be lost. They must be fought for and defended by every generation, on every front. As you do school at home, use these quotes as a springboard to help them understand the deep, costly meaning of these words.

The patriot’s blood is the seed of Freedom’s tree. Thomas Campbell

Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom. John Adams

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same. Ronald Reagan

It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you. Author unknown

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin

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

We have enjoyed so much freedom for so long that we are perhaps in danger of forgetting how much blood it cost to establish the Bill of Rights. Felix Frankfurter

I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. James Madison

Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves. D.H. Lawrence, Classical American Literature, 1922

The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government. Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Men fight for freedom, then they begin to accumulate laws to take it away from themselves. Author Unknown

Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty. Ronald Reagan

While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but once they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader. John Adams

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. Abraham Lincoln

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty. John Adams

That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves. Thomas Jefferson

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. Thomas Jefferson

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too. Somerset Maugham

The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Patrick Henry

Patrick Henry did not say, ‘Give me absolute safety or give me death. John Stossel

A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one!” Alexander Hamilton

In the end, more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all — security, comfort, and freedom. When … the freedom they wished for was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free.
Sir Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)

The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.-Thomas Jefferson

And these quotes serve to create in us a gratitude for all the Americans both past and present, even today, who were willing to stand and defend our liberty and freedom. Thank you men and women of America. Thank you for defending me, my family, all of us.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 10:45 am and is filed under Life Lessons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.