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STATUE OF LIBERTY National Monument Bedloe's Island, New York |
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Inscriptions
Inscribed on jade green carraralike glass plaques are excerpts from works of great American statesmen:
Our defense is in the spirit which prized liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism at your own doors.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Liberty is the air America breathes . . . In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential freedoms . . . freedom of speech and expression . . . freedom of worship . . . freedom from want . . . freedom from fear .
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
I would rather belong to a poor nation that was free than to a rich nation that had ceased to be in love with liberty.
WOODROW WILSON
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail?
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
The freedom and happiness of man . . . are the sole objects of all legitimate government.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.
LEVITICUS, XXV, 10.
Inscribed on the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pa. The original source of the quotations is Laviticus, third book of the Old Testament.
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Last Modified: Tues, Sep 25 2000 10:00:00 pm PDT |
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