"No longer virtuous no longer free; is..." - Quote by Benjamin Franklin
No longer virtuous no longer free; is a Maxim as true with regard to a private Person as a Common-wealth.
More by Benjamin Franklin
“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”
“If we can sleep without dreaming, it is well that painful dreams are avoided. If, while we sleep, we can have any pleasing dreams, it is as the French say, tant gagne, so much added to the pleasure of life.”
“Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never.”
More on Virtue
“He was simply and staunchly true to his duty alike in the large case and in the small. So all true souls ever are. So every true soul ever was, ever is, and ever will be. There is nothing little to the really great in spirit.”
“Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.”
“A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the highest virtues of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means.”
More on Freedom
“I know not whether Laws be right,Or whether Laws be wrong;All that we know who be in jailIs that the wall is strong;And that each day is like a year,A year whose days are long.”
“A respect for the rights of other peoples to determine their forms of government and their economy will not weaken our democracy. It will inevitably strengthen it.”
“Negroes, like other people, act upon motives. Why should they do anything for us, if we will do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the strongest motive, even the promise of freedom. And the promise being made, must be kept.”