John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
10431 Appendix John Bartlett
| NUMBER: | 10431 |
| AUTHOR: | Appendix |
| QUOTATION: | Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.—John Philpot Curran: Speech upon the Right of Election, 1790. (Speeches. Dublin, 1808.) There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots. What is it? Distrust.—Demosthenes: Philippic 2, sect. 24. |