independence-say

On this July 4th, which of these quotes best represents your feelings on American Independence?

• "I have not yet begun to fight!" -- John Paul Jones, after being boarded while raiding the British Isles, 1779.~
• "There never was a good war or a bad peace." -- Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to Letter to Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society of London, 1783.~
• "To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." -- George Washington, in an address to Congress, 1790.~
• "Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live." -- Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, 1863.~
• "No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country." -- George S. Patton, speech to the Third Army, 1944.~
• "Nuts!" -- General Anthony McAuliffe, upon being asked to surrender his surrounded division during the Battle of the Bulge, before holding out for four days until reinforcements arrived, 1944.~