Give me liberty or give me death equivalent?

Question

does anyone know of a quote kind of like give me liberty or give me death? I want a quote that shows that someone is willing to give their life for a better one, or a better life for their children.

Answer 1

Live free, or die trying.

Every man dies, not every man lives.

You will give me everything, or nothing. I refuse to endure that sad gray in between.

Answer 2

uh... "give me liberty or give me death" doesn't apply to sacrifice.
well, first we have to define sacrifice, actually.
"risking your life" is at one end of the spectrum, where the person sacrificing will do everything they can to stay alive, but still take risks for the sake of pursuing a greater good.
then, at the other end of the spectrum is giving up your life, entirely, for someone else's benefit. essentially, committing suicide so that the people you are with can eat you and stay alive.

"give me liberty or give me death" is saying that you are unwilling to stay alive in a world where you are not allowed to express your life, because that is not a life at all, but rather a perpetual coma, or a hell.

"give me liberty or give me death" is something that, if said at times of action, would imply that the speaker is willing to put all of his energy into trying to attain liberty by "risking his life" until all of his energy is expended.
depending on the methods, this could be as a soldier fighting to end one battle, or it could be as a child slowly building up until he can finally make some moves, eventually dying as an old man.


for a quote that implies giving up your life for a better one, look for religious or cult indoctrination quotes. you should be able to find a few that don't imply worship, like maybe Alcoholics Anonymous.
and i would suspect that giving up your life for your children has some specific quotes somewhere, as it seems to be a common moral.
something along the lines of "it is the parents' job to protect their child at all costs.", or simply "i would die for my children.". i'm sure i've heard that last one a lot.

personally, i don't like quotes. i find that they often make people think "oh, it's been done before", like just because someone has thought of it before, i can't use the idea for myself.

Answer 3

New Hampshire license plates read "Live free or die"

Motto the 7 & 11 Hussars ( who took place in the charge of the light brigade ) is "Death or Glory"

Check military mottos, many should be what you are looking for.

Answer 4

Don't know if this really helps but, this is from Shakespear's Hamlet.

Hamlet:
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. - Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.

Anything from that would be good I think, but especially the beginning.

Answer 5

Uhh, I think shakespear coined the phrase first but it's been used a lot in pop-movie culture so you could of heard it anywhere.

Answer 6

"My only regret is that I have only one life to give for my injured bleeding country"
Nathan Hale

Answer 7

"No man dies for what he knows to be true. Men die for what they want to be true, for what some terror in their hearts tells them is not true." -Oscar Wilde