As we celebrate the 4th of July, with enjoyed time off work, BBQs, beaches and picnics, we should also remember the very reason for this holiday. The freedom that we enjoy every day of our lives is due to many who lived, fought, and died before us. Let your patriotism and commitment to that freedom shine through this Independence Day!

1. We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it. -William Faulkner
2. 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
   
3. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. – Abraham Lincoln
   
4. Democracy is the government by the people, for the people, of the people. – Abraham Lincoln
   
5. 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
   
6. America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination, and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand. –Harry S. Truman
   
7. One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, one nation forevermore! – Oliver Wendell Homes
   
8. The essence of America—that which really unites us—is not ethnicity, or nationality, or religion. It is an idea—and what an idea it is: that you can come from humble circumstances and do great things. That it doesn't matter where you came from, but where you are going. – Condoleeza Rice
   
9. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. –John F. Kennedy
10. We, the People, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which only asks what's in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense. – Barack Obama