Written by Team Scary Mommy

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What are your family’s plans for this 4th of July? You’re probably going to (or hosting) at least one backyard barbecue. You’ll undoubtedly be consuming something red, white, and blue. And there will be fireworks, for sure. But at some point amid the holiday weekend festivities, it’s nice to carve out a few minutes to remember what the 4th of July truly embodies: freedom. And with that, it’s equally important to examine freedom not just through rose-colored glasses (or red, white, and blue, as it were). Independence Day is a time for reflecting on the fact that freedom isn’t really free at all — and that none of us is free unless we all are.

So, while it’s cool to add cute and funny 4th of July captions to the patriotic pics you share on social media over the long weekend, consider sharing a few quotes that embody this holiday’s importance, too. The following words of wisdom will help you keep the reason for all your freedom-loving fun in context.

Poignant 4th of July Quotes to Pass Along

1. “Give me liberty or give me death!” — Patrick Henry
2. “The fact is, with every friendship you make and every bond of trust you establish, you are shaping the image of America projected to the rest of the world.” — Michelle Obama
3. “When you’re born, you get a ticket to the freak show. When you’re born in America, you get a front row seat.” — George Carlin
4. “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” — Gloria Steinem
5. “Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” — Abraham Lincoln
6. “We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.” — William Faulkner
7. “From every mountainside, let freedom ring.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
8. “I’d like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free and wanted other people be also free.” — Rosa Parks
9. “Laughter is America’s most important export.”— Walt Disney
10. “I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom.” — Bob Dylan
11. “With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?” — Oscar Wilde
12. “Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better.” — Maya Angelou
13. “Oh my God, you look like the Fourth of July… makes me want a hot dog, real bad!” — Legally Blonde
14. “In America, nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you.” — Amy Tan
15. “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.” — Bill Clinton
16. “The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.” — Frederick Douglass
17. “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it.” — Mark Twain
18. “The patriot’s blood is the seed of freedom’s tree.” — Thomas Campbell
19. “In the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it.” — Barack Obama
20. “Freedom is not won on the battlefields. The chance for freedom is won there. The final battle is won or lost in our hearts and minds.” — Helen Gahagan Douglas
21. “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
22. “Freedom lies in being bold.” — Robert Frost
23. “Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness.” — Louis D. Brandeis
24. “Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong.” — James Bryce
25. “That is the truly beautiful and encouraging aspect of freedom; no one struggles for it just for himself.” — Fanny Lewald
26. “Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit.” — Ronald Reagan
27. “Every American carries in [their] bloodstream the heritage of the malcontent and the dreamer.” — Dorothy Fuldheim
28. “America is much more than a geographical fact. It is a political and moral fact — the first community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality.” — Adlai Stevenson
29. “With freedom comes responsibility.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
30. “This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.” — Elmer Davis
31. “Liberty is the breath of life to nations.” — George Bernard Shaw
32. “Where liberty dwells, there is my country.” — Benjamin Franklin
33. “Dreams are the foundation of America.” — Lupita Nyong’o
34. “America was built on courage, on imagination, and an unbeatable determination.” — Harry S. Truman
35. “Freedom is never granted. It is earned by each generation.” — Hillary Clinton
36. “Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.” — Kahlil Gibran
37. “It will be celebrated with pomp and parade, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other.” — John Adams
38. “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” — John F. Kennedy
39. “In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
40. “People in power are trying to convince us that the villain in our American story is each other. But that is not our story. That is not who we are. That’s not our America. Our United States of America is not about us versus them. It’s about We the people!” — Kamala Harris
41. “Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.” — Albert Camus
42. “No other date on the calendar more potently symbolizes all that our nation stands for than the Fourth of July.” — Mac Thornberry
43. “We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their plows but to secure liberty for their souls.” — Robert J. McCracken
44. “Happy 4th of July! This country of immigrants, religious refugees, outcasts, and dreamers has come a long way. Let’s keep going.” — Ellen DeGeneres
45. “Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.” — Albert Einstein
46. “True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.” — Arthur Ash
47. “The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.” — James Madison
48. “For what avail the plow or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail?” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
49. “What is the essence of America? Finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom ‘to’ and freedom ‘from.'” — Marilyn vos Savant
50. “Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.” — Mahatma Gandhi
51. “You cannot separate peace and freedom, because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” — Malcolm X
52. “Who ever walked behind anyone to freedom? If we can’t go hand in hand, I don’t want to go.” — Hazel Scott
53. “What was important wasn’t the fireworks, it was that we were together this evening, together in this place, looking up into the sky at the same time.” — Banana Yoshimoto
54. “History is entirely created by the person who tells the story.” — Lin Manuel Miranda
55. “Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity.” — Herbert Hoover
56. “The function of freedom is to free someone else.” — Toni Morrison
57. “My favorite thing about the United States? Lots of Americans, one America.” — Val Saintsbury
58. “It is the love of country that has lighted and that keeps glowing the holy fire of patriotism.” — J. Horace McFarland
59. “What does the flag mean? It is the flag just as much of the man who was naturalized yesterday as the man whose people have been here generations.” — Henry Cabot Lodge
60. “You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4th, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.” — Erma Bombeck
61. “Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.” — Ayn Rand
62. “My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.” — Abraham Lincoln
63. “The happiness of America is intimately connected with the happiness of all mankind; she is destined to become the safe and venerable asylum of virtue, of honesty, of tolerance, and quality and of peaceful liberty.” — Marquis de Lafayette
64. “We shall go wild with fireworks… and they will plunge into the sky and shatter the darkness.” — Natsuki Takaya
65. “May we think of freedom not as the right to do as we please, but the opportunity to do what is right.” — Peter Marshall
66. “Find a moment, just a simple moment, to close your eyes and think of the men and women who protect the freedoms you enjoy. It’s a privilege, not a right.” — Matthew Lillard
67. “Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong.” — James Bryce
68. “America is known as a country that welcomes people to its shores. All kinds of people.” — Ruth Bader Ginsburg
69. “For change often seems impossible until it is inevitable. Just as we must own our lives, we must own our country. For, we, the people, are ultimately in control of America’s story.” — Valerie Jarrett
70. “Let us remember we are all part of one American family. We are united in common values, and that includes belief in equality under the law, basic respect for public order, and the right of peaceful protest.” — Barack Obama
71. “America is a tune. It must be sung together.” — Gerald Stanley Lee
72. “Only in America can someone start with nothing and achieve the American dream. That’s the greatness of this country.” — Rafael Cruz
73. “I want to see young people in America feel the spirit of the 1960s and find a way to get in the way. To find a way to get in trouble. Good trouble, necessary trouble.” — John Lewis
74. “One cannot be an American by going about saying that one is American. It is necessary to feel America, like America, love America, and then work.” — Georgia O’Keeffe
75. “If you take advantage of everything America has to offer, there’s nothing you can’t accomplish.” — Geraldine Ferraro

This article was originally published on July 2, 2022