The arc of American history almost inevitably moves toward freedom. Whether it's Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation the expansion of women's rights or now gay rights I think there is an almost-inevitable march toward greater civil liberties.

I think the American people have become more reliant upon government and less reliant upon themselves and that they now tend to put security ahead of freedom but I think freedom is the most important aspect of our lives.

Americans are free to choose everything from what they eat drive and watch on TV to the President of the United States. Yet when it comes to allowing Americans to choose the health insurance that works best for them and their family the freedom to choose suddenly becomes un-American.

More than anything else let me be clear - we need to be willing to fight for freedom and free markets and traditional moral values. That's what the American people want to see this movement and this party return to.

All Americans value the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press and I believe this is essential for our continued way of life. But with this freedom comes responsibility. That responsibility has been abdicated here by some in the media and some in the government.

To us Americans much has been given of us much is required. With all our faults and mistakes it is our strength in support of the freedom our forefathers loved which has saved mankind from subjection to totalitarian power.

I think we recognize as Americans there are certain things that are just primary to the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy here and religious freedom is one of the most important things we as Americans cherish.

I think to be - for me to be an American is - you know it's one of the greatest things in the world for - you know for me just because I've been able to grow up with everything. The freedom. You know in my eyes this is the greatest country in the world.

If our freedom is taken the American dream will wither and die.

The Declaration of Independence was always our vision of who we wanted to be our ideal of freedom and justice how we were going to be different and what the American experiment was going to be about.

Bush sees the evil as out there in the wider world residing in people who 'hate freedom'. Look at his immediate response to the pictures of prisoner abuse this is not what Americans do these are not our values.

While Democrats fussed with the details of health care reforms conservatives spent months telling the nation that the real issue is freedom that what's on the line is American liberty itself.

There's a glorious sense of freedom in comedy just allowing myself to tell jokes allowing myself to interrupt myself and tell old African folk stories that I made up - or didn't - and Jamaican stories.

The American dream is about freedom.

To me the American Dream is being able to follow your own personal calling. To be able to do what you want to do is incredible freedom.

If the events of September 11 2001 have proven anything it's that the terrorists can attack us but they can't take away what makes us American - our freedom our liberty our civil rights. No only Attorney General John Ashcroft can do that.

Watching President Obama apologize last week for America's arrogance - before a French audience that owes its freedom to the sacrifices of Americans - helped convince me that he has a deep-seated antipathy toward American values and traditions.

That's what we do in this country. That's the American Dream. That's freedom and I'll take it any day over the supervision and sanctimony of the central planners.

Look freedom is an overwhelming American notion. The idea that we want to see the world the peoples of the world free is something that all of us subscribe to.

American and Israel share a special bond. Our relationship is unique among all nations. Like America Israel is a strong democracy a symbol of freedom and an oasis of liberty a home to the oppressed and persecuted.

The wisest use of American strength is to advance freedom.

Personal identity seems like it's just such an American archetype from Holly Golightly re-inventing herself in 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' to Jay Gatsby in 'The Great Gatsby.' It seems like the sort of archetypal American issue. If you're given the freedom to be anything or be anyone what do you do with it?

I begin to feel like most Americans don't understand the First Amendment don't understand the idea of freedom of speech and don't understand that it's the responsibility of the citizen to speak out.

Americans admire a people who can scratch a desert and produce a garden. The Israelis have shown qualities that Americans identify with: guts patriotism idealism a passion for freedom. I have seen it. I know. I believe that.