Franklin never said: "He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither"

Franklin never said: "He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither"

You probably should realize that he never said that, if you think about it. It's a moronic statement, and Franklin was no moron.

It is a paraphrase. It is what he would have said were he not a very smart man, because it removes all the qualifiers necessary to make it a valid argument. The very basis of civilization itself is people banding together to surrender some of their individual freedoms in order to achieve common security. Before civilization, freedom is absolute. Jealous because the guy in the next cave has a prettier mate? No problem. You have the freedom to kill him and take her if you succeed. Any civilized society takes away that level of freedom so that everyone can have a reasonable level of security. Franklin certainly understood that.

What Big Ben actually said was, "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

The common misquote is a flat-out incorrect statement. We do occasionally have to sacrifice some freedom for security. What Franklin ACTUALLY said, however, is indisputable. It continues to be as relevant as in his day, and will always be true in any society. Or so I believe.

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By the way, that may not be a legitimate Franklin quote at all. When Franklin wrote those words in 1775, he himself placed them inside of quotation marks. There's a long story behind that:

A very similar quote appeared in a book written 16 years earlier, "An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania From its Origin; So far as regards the several Points of Controversy, which have, from Time to Time, arisen between The several Governors of that Province and Their several Assemblies, founded on Authentic Documents." (Snappy title!) In its earlier form, the phrase was "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Although that 1759 book had another author, it was published by Franklin, and Franklin had been considered to be the author for many years. Google Books lists Richard Jackson and Franklin as co-authors.

When Franklin placed a highly similar phrase in quotation marks many years later, he may have been citing Richard Jackson. He may also have been citing himself. When I repeat my own original phrases, I do not place them in quotation marks, but I don't know what the custom was in that day. In fact, he may have placed the phrase within quotation marks to indicate that it was a commonly repeated piece of conventional folk wisdom. I don't think anyone knows for sure why he chose the quotation marks.