Those who would give up Essential Liberty

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (June 2007)
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety", is an often misquoted phrase commonly attributed to Benjamin Franklin.

The quote is taken from, "An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania," first published anonymously in London in 1759. The quote is an excerpt from a letter written in 1755 from the Assembly to the Governor of Pennsylvania.

Benjamin Franklin did publish the edition printed in Philadelphia in 1812, and most likely the original, but denied writing any part of it. The quote, however, may have originated from Franklin and been excerpted for the book by the author.

A very similar quote is also sometimes attributed to Thomas Jefferson. However the website for the Jefferson Library makes it clear that Jefferson was quoting Franklin.

[edit] External links