This has been the month for celebrating and remembering freedom isn’t free. Previous posts included: “Are You Celebrating or Losing Your Liberty,” “Declarations of Truth, Honor, and Independence,” and “Underestimating the Value of Freedom.” So to bring my celebrating freedom series of posts to a close, I’ve created a short video. If you don’t have the time for the nearly three minute video, scroll down for the transcript (though you’ll miss out on cool images and great music).
Remember What Freedom Is
Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better. ~ Albert Camus
For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. ~ Nelson Mandela
Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Freedom is not the right to live as we please, but the right to find how we ought to live in order to fulfill our potential. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
May we think of freedom, not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right. ~ Peter Marshall
Who Deserves Freedom?
Freedom, in any case, is only possible by constantly struggling for it. ~ Albert Einstein
In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it. ~ William Faulkner
My liberty depends on you being free, too. ~ Barack Obama
It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you. ~ Dick Cheney
If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all. ~ Noam Chomsky
We Have A Responsibility
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. ~ Phil Plait
A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom. ~ Bob Dylan
Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. ~ Martin Luther King Jr
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. ~ Thomas Paine
Because if you don’t stand up for the stuff you don’t like, when they come for the stuff you do like, you’ve already lost. ~ Neil Gaiman
How Long Must We Defend Freedom
The war for freedom will never really be won because the price of freedom is constant vigilance over ourselves and over our Government. Eleanor Roosevelt
Freedom Has a Cost
The price of freedom may be high, but never so costly as the loss of freedom. ~ Ronald Reagan
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. ~ Thomas Jefferson
You will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make a good use of it. John Adams
How have you made use of your freedom?
My wish for all of you readers is that you are celebrating and remembering freedom isn’t free. But most of all, that you stay knowledgable about what your freedoms are, you take your responsibilities seriously and protect not only your freedom but the freedom of your neighbor and fellow citizens who may not look or act like you. The cost of allowing their freedom to be curtailed is the eventual loss of your freedom.