Quotations from July 4

There are literary and historical quotations that, perhaps because of my own personal family history, now lost to me in Kiev, Ukraine, stick with me, always.  In Kiev, Babi Yar is now a memorial at a ravine.  Babi Yar is also an eponymous, documentary novel (Anatoly Kuznetsov) and a memorial poem (Yevgeny Yevtushenko).  As for the quotations given below, you will mostly know them as from writers and statesmen both.  In one, the second, it comes with regret. The quotations appear in writings over and over, and at least one is carved into the record (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum).   I write them down now on July 4, with attribution.  They are my American flag for the day.   

"The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history." -Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)

“First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.”
 -Pastor Martin NiemÖller (1892 – 1984)

"Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" “A Republic, Madam, if you can keep it.” -Ben Franklin (1706 -1790) responding to Elizabeth Powell (1742/43 -1830; political force in Philadelphia)

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed." -Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826)

"A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people." -Andrew Carnegie (1835 – 1919)

“Democracy is not the default.” You can have fun guessing at this last one; you may not know it. Today is July 4, 2025.