July Fourth Quotes and Thoughts

Post by Doris McCraw

Today is a National Holiday in the United States. I thought this time around I would let you read and hear what others have to say about our Holiday and Freedom.

Let’s begin with Home Free and their latest video.

 

This quote may be obvious, but how many of us think of July 4th this way?

The United States is the only country with a known birthday. ~James G. Blaine

Of course we all salute those who created this democracy and have kept it going. That means we can also salute ourselves. Every time we take part in the choices and governing of the country, we keep the idea of democracy alive. That means voting, engaging in discourse, but leaving anger and hate outside.

We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it. ~William Faulkner

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

Where liberty dwells, there is my country. ~Benjamin Franklin

Mark Twain supplied an interesting piece. Written near the end of his life, it puts another face to what we call our country’s birthday. I’m sure not all will like it, but the wonderful thing about living here: we may not agree, but we cannot control another person’s thoughts, nor should we. We can only see where we need to improve by allowing all discourse. Was Twain being serious of just very cynical? I leave it to you to decide.

To-morrow is Hell-fire Day, that English holiday which we have celebrated, every Fourth of July, for a century and a quarter in fire, blood, tears, mutilation and death, repeating and repeating and forever repeating these absurdities because neither our historians nor our politicians nor our schoolmasters have wit enough to remind the public that the Fourth of July is not an American holiday. However, I doubt if there is a historian, a politician, or a schoolmaster in the country that has ever stopped to consider what the nationality of that day really is. I detest that English holiday with all my heart; not because it is English, and not because it is not American, but merely because this nation goes insane on that day, and by the help of noise and fire turns it into an odious pandemonium. The nation calls it by all sorts of affectionate pet names, but if I had the naming of it I would throw poetry aside and call it Hell’s Delight. ~Mark Twain, 1908

I will leave you with some additional words to challenge your thoughts.

Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better. ~Albert Camus

For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail? ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty. ~Louis D. Brandeis

Wishing everyone a wonderful July 4, filled with joy, peace and love wherever you live.

Of course I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you about my newly released story in the anthology “One Hot Knight” a collection of five Medieval Stories.

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Angela Raines is the pen name for Doris McCraw. Doris also writes haiku posted five days a week at – http://fivesevenfivepage.blogspot.com and has now passed one thousand haiku and photos posted on this blog. Check out her other work or like her Amazon author page:  http://amzn.to/1I0YoeL