E. B. White on liberty

Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half the time.

Advice to young writers who want to get ahead without annoying delays: don’t write about Man, write about ‘a’ man.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Letter to William Stephens Smith (13 November 1787). Manuscript at the Library of Congress.

• War & Peace

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin1706–1790This was first used by Franklin for the Pennsylvania Assembly in its “Reply to the Governor” (November 11, 1755) Reply to the Governor

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.

Benjamin Franklin1706–1790