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From: John H Meyers on 23 Dec 2007 21:39
The quotation was written as:

> They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security,
> deserve neither liberty or security (Benjamin Franklin)

Slightly different (probably more authentic):
"Those who would give up essential Liberty,
to purchase a little temporary Safety,
deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/quotable/quote04.htm

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
(this reference, which appears well researched,
casts doubt, however, on Franklin's actual authorship)

The above quote, whether Franklin's or someone else's,
still appears to be on a lower plane than this one:

"Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's,
and unto God the things that are God's"
http://www.bartleby.com/59/3/renderuntoc2.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Render_unto_Caesar...

The word "liberty" also seems to be on a lower plane
than a similar word "liberation," which is used
to describe a state of absolute freedom (of the soul)
from all boundaries of material life, and could,
if appreciated through experience, come to be recognized
as a level of experience from which *all* religions originally sprouted,
which gets distorted and lost when interpreted only through eyes
which have never known any experience of its nature
(see a later quote from Franklin).

In the spiritual context, it has also been said that
those who give up attaining liberation,
in exchange for *anything*,
are in a state of spiritual loss.

It would be a most unifying thing for all people,
if that common level of awareness were cultured in all people,
rendering all differences and contentions moot.

More quotes of Benjamin Franklin
(from above-referenced Wikiquote page):

"There never was a good war or a bad peace."
[Letter to Josiah Quincy (1783-09-11)]

"I've lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live,
the more convincing Proofs I see of this Truth --
That God governs in the Affairs of Men.
And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his Notice,
is it probable that an Empire can rise without his Aid?
We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings,
that except the Lord build the House they labor in vain who build it.
I firmly believe this, -- and I also believe that without his concurring Aid,
we shall succeed in this political Building no better than the Builders of Babel:
We shall be divided by our little partial local interests;
our Projects will be confounded,
and we ourselves shall become a Reproach and Bye word down to future Ages."

[Speech to the Constitutional Convention (1787-06-28)
Manuscript notes by Franklin are preserved in the U. S. Library of Congress]

"As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire,
I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us,
the best the world ever saw or is likely to see;
but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes,
and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England,
some Doubts as to his divinity;
tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it,
and I think it needless to busy myself with it now,
when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble."

[As quoted in "Benjamin Franklin:
An Exploration of a Life of Science and Service" (1938)
by Carl Van Doren, p. 777]

"He that would live in peace and at ease,
Must not speak all he knows, nor judge all he sees."

--

Wishing silent nights and truly peaceful days to all.
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