80 Fourth of July Quotes That Will Make You Laugh, Cry and Get Very Excited for This Year’s BBQ
Happy Birthday, America!
Published Jun 10, 2024
•1:00pm
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No offense to all the other holidays but Fourth of July is kind of our favorite. Why? Barbecues, festive cocktails, fireworks and of course, red, white and blue everything. (Including these delicious desserts, appetizers and side dishes.)
Whether you’re cooking up a feast for friends or keeping things low-key with your family this year—whip out one of these Fourth of July quotes. From Dolly Parton to the iconic Legally Blonde 2, here are 80 sayings that will remind you of why you’re celebrating in the first place.
Funny Fourth of July Quotes
1. “It’s Fourth of July weekend, or, as I call it, exploding Christmas.” — Stephen Colbert
2. “If I have to lay an egg for my country, I’ll do it.” — Bob Hope
3. “America’s a family. We all yell at each other, and it all works out.” — Louis C.K.
4. “You wonder sometimes how our government puts on its pants in the morning.” — Jon Stewart
5. “Today is the 4th of July, when we honor the day that Uncle Sam chopped down Benedict Arnold at the Alamo. Happy hot dogs!” — Stephen Colbert
6. “Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn’t block traffic.” — Dan Rather
7. “If our Founding Fathers wanted us to care about the rest of the world, they wouldn’t have declared their independence from it.” — Stephen Colbert
Simple Fourth of July Quotes
8. “Laughter is America’s most important export.” — Walt Disney
9. “The Fourth of July should be celebrated with big hearts.” — Camila Alves
10. “We shall go wild with fireworks... and they will plunge into the sky and shatter the darkness.” — Natsuki Kataya
11. “July 4th fireworks exhale over the Hudson sadly. It is beautiful that they have to disappear.” — Frederick Seidel
12. “I always have the most fun on the Fourth of July. You don’t have to exchange any gifts. You just go to the beach and watch fireworks. It’s always fun.” — James Lafferty
13. “America is a tune. It must be sung together.” — Gerald Stanley Lee
14. “Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.” — Albert Camus
15. “If summer had one defining scent, it’d definitely be the smell of barbecue.” — Katie Lee
16. “America is another name for opportunity.”— Ralph Waldo Emerson
17. “People get a little bolder and more wild in summer. You’ve got things going on kabobs, things cooking on the bone. There’s something about standing over a grill or outside with the family that inspires us.” — Guy Fieri
18. “Freedom lies in being bold.” — Robert Frost
19. “It will be celebrated with pomp and parade, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other.” – John Adams
20. “In the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.” — Barack Obama
Fourth of July Quotes From Film, TV & Music
21. “We’re the kids in America.” — “Kids in America” by Kim Wilde
22. “Oh my God! You look like the Fourth of July. Makes me want a hot dog real bad.” — Paulette from Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde
23. “Baby, you’re a firework.” — "Firework" by Katy Perry
24. “He makes me melt like a popsicle on the Fourth of July.” — Darla from The Little Rascals
25. “I am red and white and blue, these are the colors that ring true, to all I am and, feel and love and do, I stand proud and brave and tall, I want justice for us all, so color me America, red, white and blue” — “Color Me America” by Dolly Parton
26. “Only in America, dreamin’ in red, white and blue, only in America, where we dream as big as we want to.” — “Only in America” by Brooks & Dunn
27. “Thanksgiving without turkey is like Fourth of July with no apple pie, or Friday with no two pizzas.” — Joey from Friends
28. “What was important wasn’t the fireworks, it was that we were together this evening, together in this place, looking up into the sky at the same time.” — Asleep by Banana Yoshimoto
29. “Living in America, eye to eye, station to station. Living in America, hand in hand, across the nation. Living in America, got to have a celebration, rock my soul!” — “Living in America” by James Brown
30. “Nothing's sweeter than summertime and American honey.” — “American Honey” by Lady A
31. “I’m just like my country—I’m young, scrappy and hungry, and I am not throwing away my shot.” — Alexander Hamilton from Hamilton
32. “Lift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmonies of liberty, let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies, let it resound loud as the rolling sea.” — “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” by James Weldon Johnson
33. “You get to cook outside, blow stuff up, wear shorts. Easter should be taking notes!” — Jay Pritchett from Modern Family
34. “This land is your land, this land is my land, from California, to the New York Island, from the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters, this land was made for you and me.” — “This Land Is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie
35. “No matter what people say or do, we have to be ourselves. We’re Team USA, gathered from all across America. We’re going to stick together.” — D2: The Mighty Ducks
36. “It’s a party in the U.S.A.” — “Party in the U.S.A.” by Miley Cyrus
Patriotic Fourth of July Quotes
37. “America is not just a country, it’s an idea.” — Bono
38. “I venture to suggest that patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.” — Adlai E. Stevenson
39. “Unless our conception of patriotism is progressive, it cannot hope to embody the real affection and the real interest of the nation.” — Jane Addams
40. “May the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country!” — Daniel Webster
41. “Our United States of America is not about us versus them. It’s about We the People.” — Kamala Harris
42. “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”— Patrick Henry
43. “Where freedom is, there is my nation.” — Benjamin Franklin
44. “True patriotism springs from a belief in the dignity of the individual, freedom and equality not only for Americans but for all people on earth.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
45. “The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful and virtuous.” — Frederick Douglass
46. “Intellectually I know that America is no better than any other country; emotionally I know she is better than every other country.” — Sinclair Lewis
47. “Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.” — John Dickinson
48. “Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.” — George Washington
49. “Humanity has won its battle. Liberty now has a country.” — Marquis de Lafayette
50. “I think there are few things more patriotic than taking the time to make your country a better place.” — Michael Moore
51. “Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” — George Bernard Shaw
52. “Independence Day: freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed—else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower
53. “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” — John F. Kennedy
54. “Freedom is never granted, it is earned by each generation.” — Hillary Clinton
55. “History began on July 4th, 1776. Everything before that was a mistake.” — Ron Swanson
56. “Patriotism is easy to understand in America. It means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.” — Calvin Coolidge
57. “The cement of this union is the heart-blood of every American.” — Thomas Jefferson
58. “Liberty has been planted here; and the more it is attacked, the more it grows and flourishes.” — Samuel Sherwood
59. “Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity.” — Herbert Hoover
Inspirational Fourth of July Quotes
60. “My father described this tall lady who stands in the middle of the New York harbor, holding high a torch to welcome people seeking freedom in America. I instantly fell in love.” — Yakov Smirnoff
61. “Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
62. “No matter who you are or what you look like, how you started off, or how and who you love, America is a place where you can write your own destiny.” — Barack Obama
63. “May we think of freedom, not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right.” — Peter Marshall
64. “We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.” — William Faulkner
65. “From every mountainside, let freedom ring.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
66. “In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
67. “In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.” — Barack Obama
68. “America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination.” — Harry S. Truman
69. “A love for tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed, it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril.” — Winston Churchill
70. “America means opportunity, freedom, power.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
71. “Better to die fighting for freedom than be a prisoner all the days of your life.” ― Bob Marley
72. “Dreams are the foundation of America.” — Lupita Nyong’o
73. “I believe in America because we have great dreams, and because we have the opportunity to make those dreams come true.” — Wendell Willkie
74. “America is known as a country that welcomes people to its shores. All kinds of people.” — Ruth Bader Ginsberg
75. “You can come from humble circumstances and do great things.” — Condoleezza Rice
76. “The fact is, with every friendship you make and every bond you establish, you are shaping the image of America projected to the rest of the world.” — Michelle Obama
77. “Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on.” — Thurgood Marshall
78. “Freedom and democracy are dreams you never give up.” — Aung San Suu Kyi
79. “History is entirely created by the person who tells the story.” — Lin Manuel Miranda
80. “I’d like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free and wanted other people to be also free.” — Rosa Parks
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- Lifestyle editor focusing primarily on family, wellness and travel
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- Studied journalism at the University of Westminster in London, UK