LIBERTY
The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.
Burke—Speech at a County Meeting at Bucks, 1784.
Liberty’s in every blow!
Let us do or die.
Burns—Bannockburn.
What is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.
Burke—Reflections on the Revolution in France.
The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the force of the crown.
Earl of Chatham—Speech on the Excise Bill.
’Tis liberty alone that gives the flower
Of fleeting life its luster and perfume;
And we are weeds without it.
Cowper—The Task. Bk. V. Line 446.
The love of liberty with life is given,
And life itself the inferior gift of heaven.
Dryden—Palamon and Arcite. Bk. II. Line 291.
This is true liberty when freeborn men,
Having to advise the public, may speak free:
Which he who can and will deserves high praise:
Who neither can nor will may hold his peace.
What can be juster in a state than this?
Milton—Trans. Horace. Ep. i. 16, 40.
Give me again my hollow tree
A crust of bread, and liberty!
Pope—Imitations of Horace. Bk. II. Satire VI. Line 220.
O Liberty! Liberty! how many crimes are committed in thy name!
Madame Roland—Macaulay. Mirabeau.