Revolutionary War Quotes

In honor of the 4th of July:

"I hope I die up to the knees in British blood"

Joseph Warren, American commander at the (misnamed) Battle of Bunker Hill.

His hope was fulfilled; he was one of the last to die on the field but his militia killed or wounded a 1,000 British soldiers out of force of 2500.

"Come out, you old rat!"

Ethan Allen to the British commander of Fort Ticonderoga which surrendered without a shot being fired and allowed the Americans to move its 100 cannon to bolster the siege of Boston causing the British to evacuate.

"“At last, we have run down the old fox, and we will bag him in the morning."

British General Cornwallis referring to George Washington on January 2, 1977.

Not quite; Washington's army hammered two contingents of British forces and escaped to establish winter quarters at Morristown, NJ.

Originally posted by no1marauder
"“At last, we have run down the old fox, and we will bag him in the morning."

British General Cornwallis referring to George Washington on January 2, 1977.

Not quite; Washington's army hammered two contingents of British forces and escaped to establish winter quarters at Morristown, NJ.

1977? Was it a re-enactment?

"To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace".
George Washingon.

"Little stokes fell great Oaks".
Ben Franklin


"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories"
Thomas Jefferson

"He that makes his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression, for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach himself."
Thomas Paine

"National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman"
John Adams

"Happily, for America, happily, we trust, for the whole human race, they pursued a new and more noble course. They accomplished a revolution which has no parallel in the annals of human history."
James Madison

"Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Amighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
Patrick Henry

"Neither the wisest Constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt."
Samuel Adams.

"A government of laws, and not of men." -- 1774, Boston Gazette

"We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again." -- General Nathanael Greene

“It seems to be a law of nature, inflexible and inexorable, that those who will not risk cannot win.”

John Paul Jones

"I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."

"I may sink, but I'll be damned if I strike!" (a less famous quote from the battle with HMS Serapis)

-- John Paul Jones

"While we are contending for our own Liberty, we should be very cautious of violating the Rights of Conscience in others, ever considering that God alone is the Judge of the Hearts of Men, and to him only in this Case, they are answerable."

- George Washington, in a letter to Colonel Benedict Arnold, September 14, 1775

"Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature."

Ben Franklin

'Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.'" -

Ben Franklin, Proposed Seal of the United States, July, 1776

"A free people claim their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate." - Thomas Jefferson, A Summary View of the Rights of British America, August, 1774

"He (King George III) has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain.

Thomas Jefferson, Original draft of the Declaration of Independence, June, 1776

"All men have a right to remain in a state of nature as long as they please; and in case of intolerable oppression, civil or religious, to leave the society they belong to, and enter into another." - Sam Adams, The Rights of the Colonists, November 20, 1772

"The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule." - Sam Adams, The Rights of the Colonists, November 20, 1772

heres a rather revolutionary war quote,

“I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.”

Mohandas K Ghandi

"In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution."

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 1, October 27, 1787