QuoteProject
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
Ronald Reagan
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Freedom requires active effort to maintain and pass on to future generations.

This quote emphasizes the idea that freedom is not something that is inherited or guaranteed; rather, it requires continual struggle and vigilance to preserve. It highlights the responsibilities of each generation to protect freedom and ensure that it is transmitted to the next, reinforcing the notion that complacency can lead to its loss.

Themes

FreedomGenerationExtinctionFightProtectResponsibility

In practice

Example use cases

During a speech on Independence Day to emphasize the importance of citizen engagement.

More from Ronald Reagan

Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.
Ronald ReaganRead
Our status as a free society and world power is not based on brute strength. When we've taken up arms, it has been for the defense of freedom for ourselves and for other peaceful nations who needed our help. But now, faced with the development of weapons with immense destructive power, we've no choice but to maintain ready defense forces that are second to none. Yes, the cost is high, but the price of neglect would be infinitely higher.
Ronald ReaganRead
I'm spending more time at this library in four days than I did at the Eureka College Library in four years.
Ronald ReaganRead
I'm not a politician by profession. I am a citizen who decided I had to be personally involved in order to stand up for my own values and beliefs. My candidacy is based on my record, and for that matter, my entire life.
Ronald ReaganRead
My fellow citizens, our nation is poised for greatness. We must do what we know is right, and do it with all our might. Let history say of us: "These were golden years - when the American Revolution was reborn, when freedom gained new life, and America reached for her best."
Ronald ReaganRead
We must have faith in the people of this country and faith in our principles.
Ronald ReaganRead

Similar quotes

I showed her how I'd been making tiny cuts in my skin to let the badness and the pain leak out. They were shallow at first, and short, like claw marks made by a desperate cat that wanted to hid under the front porch. Cutting pain was a different flavor of hurt. It made it easier not to think about having my body and my family and my life stolen, made it easier not to care.
Laurie Halse AndersonRead
Some of us have a hard time believing that we are actually able to face our own pain. We have convinced ourselves that our pain is too deep, too frightening, something to avoid at all costs. Yet if we finally allow ourselves to feel the depth of that sadness and gently let it break our hearts, we may come to feel a great freedom, a genuine sense of release and peace, because we have finally stopped running away from ourselves and from the pain that lives within us.
Wayne MullerRead
My feelings of revulsion and foreboding about nuclear weapons had not changed an iota since 1945, and they have never left me. Since I was 14, the overriding objective of my life has been to prevent the occurrence of nuclear war.
Daniel EllsbergRead
One usually dies because one is alone, or because one has got into something over one's head. One often dies because one does not have the right alliances, because one is not given support. In Sicily the Mafia kills the servants of the State that the State has not been able to protect.
Giovanni FalconeRead
If parents snicker at racial and gender jokes, another generation will pass on the poison adults still have not had the courage to snuff out.
Marian Wright EdelmanRead
You don't have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight.
Barry GoldwaterRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.