"On this point some may think it is needless to say anything: they assume that everyone knows the value of freedom, and that to dwell on it is merely a waste of time. I don’t agree with such people at all. I believe that millions of our countrymen know nothing of the blessings which they enjoy in their own land: they have grown up from infancy to manhood in the midst of freedom. They don’t have the slightest idea of the state of things in other countries: they are ignorant of the two worst kinds of tyranny--the crushing tyranny of a cruel military dictator, and the intolerant tyranny of an unreasoning mob. In short, many of us know nothing of the value of liberty, just because we have been born in the middle of it, and have never been without it for a moment.
I call on every one of you to remember that liberty is one of the greatest earthly blessings that we can have on this side of the grave."
--- J.C. Ryle; Freedom
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