A free culture has been our past, but it will only be our future if we change the path we are on right now.
Freedom is like taking a bath: You got to keep doing it every day.
The fact that we've been a great democracy doesn't mean we will automatically keep being one if we keep waving the flag.
Freedom received though the efforts of others, however benevolent, cannot be retained when such effort is withdrawn.
Liberty is no heirloom. It requires the daily bread of self-denial, the salt of law and, above all, the backbone of acknowledging responsibility for our deeds.
… the maintenance of a free society is a very difficult and complicated thing and it requires a self-denying ordinance of the most extreme kind
Christ sets us free by the power of His Spirit; then He maintains our freedom as we learn to live from day to day in the power of that Spirit.
Our government conceived in freedom and purchased with blood can be preserved only by constant vigilance.
For history tells us that while these truths may be self-evident, they've never been self-executing. That while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by his people here on earth.
Constantly bear in mind that not with politicians, not with Presidents, not with office-seekers, but with you, is the question, Shall the Union and shall the liberties of this country be preserved to the latest generations?
I want people to take thought about their condition and to recognize that the maintenance of a free society is a very difficult and complicated thing and it requires a self-denying ordinance of the most extreme kind
Freedom is never an achieved state; like electricity, we've got to keep generating it or the lights go out.
We must not then depend alone upon the love of liberty in the soul of man for its preservation.
The liberties of a people depend on their own constant attention to its preservation.
He alone deserves liberty and life who daily must win them anew.
