Illumination and The Freedoms We Celebrate

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“But what is liberty without wisdom and without virtue?

It is the greatest of all possible evils;

for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.

Those who know what virtuous liberty is,

cannot bear to see it disgraced by incapable heads,

on account of their having

high-sounding words in their mouths.”

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Edmund Burke

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“If ever a time should come,

when vain and aspiring men

shall possess the highest seats in Government,

our country will stand in need

of its experienced patriots

to prevent its ruin.”

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Samuel Adams

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“Liberty without Learning is always in peril

and Learning without Liberty is always in vain.”

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John F. Kennedy

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“They who can give up essential liberty

to obtain a little temporary safety

deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

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Benjamin Franklin

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“Those who deny freedom to others,

deserve it not for themselves”

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Abraham Lincoln

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2018

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“I am an American; free born and free bred,

where I acknowledge no man as my superior,

except for his own worth,

or as my inferior,

except for his own demerit.”

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Theodore Roosevelt

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“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom,

must, like men,

undergo the fatigues of supporting it.”

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Thomas Paine

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July 2018: What Is This Freedom We Celebrate?

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“ In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
     

The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world.

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” The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world.

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“ The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world.

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“ The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.

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  ” That is no vision of a distant millennium.    It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.
     

That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb. “

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Franklin D. Roosevelt,

excerpted from the State of the Union Address to the Congress,

January 6, 1941

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Much like this butterfly with a damaged wing, each of tries our best to keep moving through each day, gathering what we need, caring for those we love and enjoying the time at hand.  With faith and determination we persist, finding sustenance and meaning where we can.

Let’s pause this week to consider again the wisdom given to us in past years by our country’s greatest leaders.  Their words echo across the years, as fresh and true as the day they were uttered.  Those who understand and remember our nation’s history are best equipped to resist all attempts to corrupt our nation’s purpose. 

It is by keeping our American ideals in heart and mind that we find the energy to persevere, and to prevail in preserving human freedoms and individual dignity for generations to come.

Persist, Resist, Prevail!

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Woodland Gnome 2018

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