Show Off Your American Pride by Reading These Patriotic Quotes
To be patriotic is to love and respect your country. It's the feeling you get when you appreciate everything this country has to offer while making sure you spread that joy to others. Patriotism is also the reason we celebrate Independence Day and Memorial Day—one which remembers the day we gained our freedom and the other to honor those who help us keep it. While you get ready to embark in those 4th of July festivities, indulge in delicious 4th of July food, and participate in the most patriotic activities, it's nice to take a step back and bask in your pride. That's exactly the reason we curated this list of best patriotic quotes—to really dial it up!
Here, you'll find a quote for just about every mood and occasion, including simple one-liners (Benjamin Franklin's words come to mind: "Where liberty dwells, there is my country") and longer verses with a little more to unpack (like James Bryce's words about patriotism:"[It] is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime"). Thrown into the mix are a few unexpected Fourth of July quotes and Memorial Day quotes about patriotism by household names, like these words from John Adams: “It will be celebrated with pomp and parade, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other.”
Whether you're on the hunt for a patriotic Instagram caption or a pride-filled message to text to a friend who you're proud of, you're bound to find it here.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
“The history of free men is never really written by chance but by choice; their choice!”
Mac Thornberry
“No other date on the calendar more potently symbolizes all that our nation stands for than the Fourth of July.”
Barack Obama
“In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“America means opportunity, freedom, power.”
Kahlil Gibran
“Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.”
Daniel Webster
“Independence now and forever!”
Wendell L. Wilkie
“I believe in America because we have great dreams, and because we have the opportunity to make those dreams come true.”
J.S.B. Morse
“I don't believe in the constitution because I'm American. I'm American because I believe in the constitution.”
John Adams
“It will be celebrated with pomp and parade, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other.”
Aung San Suu Kyi
“Freedom and democracy are dreams you never give up.”
Thomas Wolfe
“America. It is the only place where miracles not only happen, but where they happen all the time.”
Moshe Dayan
“Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.”
Thomas Paine
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like me, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”
Lech Walesa
“We hold our heads high, despite the price we have paid because freedom is priceless.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“America is known as a country that welcomes people to its shores. All kinds of people.”
John Philip Sousa
“The red and white and starry blue is freedom's shield and hope.”
Rudyard Kipling
“All we use or know -- this our fathers bought for us long ago.”
Harry Emerson Fosdick
“Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have.”
Natsuki Takaya
“We shall go wild with fireworks... and they will plunge into the sky and shatter the darkness.”
Aurora Raigne
“America, for me, has been the pursuit and catching of happiness.”
Amy Tan
“In America, nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you.”
Mike Fitzpatrick
“The American flag is the symbol of our freedom, national pride and history.”
Bill Clinton
“There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”
Louis D. Brandeis
“Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness.”
Mark Twain
“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it.”
Abraham Lincoln
“Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.”
Rosa Parks
“I’d like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free and wanted other people to be also free.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
“With freedom comes responsibility.”
Thomas Campbell
“The patriot's blood is the seed of freedom's tree.”
Paul Tsongas
“America is hope. It is compassion. It is excellence. It is valor.”
Nelson Mandela
“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.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“From every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
Fanny Lewald
“That is the truly beautiful and encouraging aspect of freedom; no one struggles for it just for himself.”
Lupita Nyong'o
“Dreams are the foundation of America.”
Elmer Davis
“This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.”
Ronald Reagan
“All great change in America begins at the dinner table.”
Gen. George S. Patton
“It's better to fight for something in life than to die for nothing.”
George Bernard Shaw
“Liberty is the breath of life to nations.”
Henry James
“I think patriotism is like charity— it begins at home.”
Jessi Lane Adams
“I love my freedom. I love my America.”
Barack Obama
"Our responsibility as citizens is to address the inequalities and injustices that linger, and we must secure our birthright freedoms for all people."
Benjamin Franklin
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country."
A. Philip Randolph
"Freedom is never given; it is won."
Benjamin Disraeli
"The legacy of heroes—the memory of a great name, and the inheritance of a great example."
John F. Kennedy
“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
Adlai Stevenson
"Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime."
Robert Frost
"Freedom lies in being bold."
James Bryce
"Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong."
Claudia Pemberton
"America without her soldiers would be like God without his angels."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"America is another name for opportunity."
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