Quotes About Independence

There is no greater bugbear than a strong-willed relative, in the circle of his own connections.

In the years after the War of Independence, historian paid scant attention to the Siege of Fort Mifflin, primarily because, Martin believed 'there was no Washington, Putnam, or Wayne there.' 'Had there been,' he conjecture, 'the affair would have been extolled to the skies.' As Martin and the five hundred defenders of Fort Mifflin had learned first-hard, 'great men get great priase, little men nothing.

As Thomas Jefferson wrote the following year, "the moderation and virtue of a single character has probably prevented this revolution from being closed as most others have been by a subversion of that liberty it was intended to establish.

The real Revolution was so troubling and strange that once the struggle was over, a generation did its best to remove all traces of the truth. No one wanted to remember how after boldly declaring their independence they had so quickly lost their way; how patriotic zeal had lapsed into cynicism and self-interest; and how, just when all seemed lost, a traitor had saved them from themselves.

Without the discovery of Arnold's treason in the fall of 1780, the American people might never have been forced to realize that the real threat to their liberties came not from without but from within.

Lafayette, who later claimed, "I would never have drawn my sword in the cause of America if I could have conceived that thereby I was founding a land of slavery.

In the end, both sides wanted what the Pilgrims had been looking for in 1620: a place unfettered by obligations to others.

Midshipman Edward Pellew was in the British boat right behind Arnold's. The American general had escaped, but in his haste he had left behind his stock and buckle, which Pellew took as a keepsake. Years later, by which time Pellew had become the much-decorated admiral Viscount Exmouth, he could not help but wonder how differently the War of Independence might have turned out if on that cold autumn day near the southern tip of Lake Champlain he had captured Benedict Arnold.

I breakfasted at four [a.m.], was in the saddle at five, and between that hour and 6 p.m. I rode fifty miles over a rough country, unknown to everybody, and only myself for a guide

She couldn't live her life as someone's prisoner the way he had lived his, caught up in a dream of the past, with no way forward and no way back, forced to dig down inside oneself.

Pritisnila je na gumb dvigala. Šla bo in kupila letalsko vozovnico. Svoboda, ki jo iš?e, je njena, ne Satakejeva, ne Jajoina, ne Jošijina, in prepri?ana je bila, da mora biti tam nekje zunaj. ?e so se za njo zaprla še ena vrata, nima druge izbire, kot da najde nova in jih odpre. Dvigalo, ki ji je prišlo naproti, je je?alo kot veter. END.

A woman who does not know herself has no choice other than to live with other people's evaluations. But no one can adapt perfectly to public opinion. And herein lies the source of their destruction.

If people can't stand being alone, they have no choice but to die.

She is free to do what she wants, and free not to do it.

How many were the years of my life that went by before my body, and my self became really mine, to do with them as I wished? How many were the years of my life that were lost before I tore my body and my self away from the people who held me in their grasp since the very first day?

And, when the revolutionary cries that he is fighting for 'freedom', be sure to go running away from him just as fast as you can, for you can be damned certain he's fighting for the freedom to tell you what to do.

Since the Allied thrust into France just over a week before, it had become clear that there would be no invasion to free Norway. His countrymen would have to do it themselves.

I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create. —WILLIAM BLAKE, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Teenage rebellion is for suburban schoolchildren. Get over it.

definition. How can she not see that when you are defined, you lose the ability to define yourself?

Connor tries to hold her arm to give her support, but she shakes him off and throws him a nasty gaze. If I want your help, I'll ask. Do I look feeble to you? Actually, yes. Looks are deceiving. she says. After all, when I saw you, I thought you looked reasonably intelligent. Very funny.

You are only one boy, with one voice...If you keep trying to be a choir, you'll lose that voice, and then who will hear you?

Tyger might have thought of himself as a free spirit, but he wasn't at all. He just defined the dimensions of his own cage.

I hadn't lived a real life?I'd had just a model of a life. Everything I did, everything I thought , was suspended safely by strings, too high up for anyone to damage. Zero contact, zero risk. Now those strings had been cut and I was going to die, never having had a chance to live without them.