Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 641 |
| AUTHOR: | Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) |
| QUOTATION: | For what avail the plough or sail, Or land or life, if freedom fail? |
| ATTRIBUTION: | These words were also inscribed on a plaque in the stairwell of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. |
| SUBJECTS: | Freedom |