If you think Independence Day is America's defining holiday think again. Thanksgiving deserves that title hands-down.

I am going to take something I learned over in Israel. Their Independence Day is preceded the 24 hours before with Memorial Day so it gives them a chance to serve and reflect and then celebrate. I am going to try to start that tradition here in America.

What happened in America in the 1860s was a war of secession a war of independence no different in principle from what happened in America in the 1770s and 1780s.

In war when a commander becomes so bereft of reason and perspective that he fails to understand the dependence of arms on Divine guidance he no longer deserves victory.

Could I say that the reason that I am here today you know from the mouth of the State Department itself is: I should not be allowed to travel because I have struggled for years for the independence of the colonial peoples of Africa.

A tragic irony of life is that we so often achieve success or financial independence after the chief reason for which we sought it has passed away.

They tell me that it will be hard to find a man strong enough to love my own strength and independence and not worry about being Mr. Diana Ross but I disagree. I know absolutely that that man is somewhere out there.

The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.

The only part of the conduct of any one for which he is amenable to society is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself his independence is of right absolute. Over himself over his own body and mind the individual is sovereign.

The virtues of science are skepticism and independence of thought.