better to die on your feet than live on your knees
- better to die on your feet than live on your knees
Cf. 1936 D. IBARRURI speech 3 Sept Il vaut mieux mourir debout que de vivre à genoux! The saying is also attributed to the Mexican revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata (1879–1919).
1941 Charleston Gazette 25 June 6/2 The president puts it in another way at Cambridge when he says: ‘We would rather die on our feet that live on our knees’.
1955 Evening Standard (Uniontown, Pennsylvania) 18 Aug. 4/1 We face the fact that it demoralizes concepts that have perennially ruled the minds of free men. ‘It is better to die on one’s feet that live on one’s knees’ is no longer bravely proclaimed. In an atomic war people neither die on their feet nor live on their knees.
1993 Washington Post 7 March (online) Better to die on your feet than live on your knees. Yeah. But what about sitting around in a Designated Smoking Area? Is that living?
2007 Times Magazine 1 Sept. 90 Few sights induce such ambivalence in me as a bird in a cage. [They] may live up to 15 years in captivity, as opposed to three or four in the wild, a classic quality versus quantity dilemma... Better to die on your feet, surely, or, er, talons, or wings, I suppose, than live on your knees... If owls have knees.
Proverbs new dictionary.
Look at other dictionaries:
better — see better a century of tyranny than one day of chaos better a dinner of herbs than a stalled ox where hate is better a good cow than a cow of a good kind better are small fish than an empty dish better be an old man’s darling, than a young man’s … Proverbs new dictionary
live — adjective see a live dog is better than a dead lion verb see live and learn live and let live if you have to live in the river, it is best to be friends with the crocodile if you want to live and thrive, let the spider run alive … Proverbs new dictionary
die — see you can only die once good Americans when they die go to Paris better to die on your feet than live on your knees cowards die many times before their death we must eat a peck of dirt before we die eat, drink … Proverbs new dictionary
Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, Thematic Index — absence absence makes the heart grow fonder he who is absent is always in the wrong the best of friends must part blue are the hills that are far away distance lends enchantment to the view out of sight, out of mind … Proverbs new dictionary
Midnight Oil — at Manly Leagues Club, 2005 Background information Origin Sydney, Australia … Wikipedia
Hollywood blacklist — Hollywood Ten redirects here. For the 1950 short documentary film, see The Hollywood Ten. thumb|right|300px|Protestors opposing the jailing of the Hollywood Ten in 1950 (from the 1987 documentary Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist ).The Hollywood… … Wikipedia
Mexican Revolution — This article is about the Mexican Revolution of 1910. For the war of independence from Spain, see Mexican War of Independence. Mexican Revolution Revolución Mexicana Collage of the … Wikipedia
Enver Hoxha — Infobox President name = Enver Hoxha |300px nationality = Albanian order = First Secretary of the Albanian Party of Labour term start = November 1944 term end = April 1985 predecessor = successor = Ramiz Alia birth date = birth date|1908|10|16|df … Wikipedia
foot — see it is not spring until you can plant your foot upon twelve daisies one white foot, buy him; two white feet, try him; three white feet, look well about him; four white feet, go without him better to die on your feet than live on your knees the … Proverbs new dictionary
resistance — I (New American Roget s College Thesaurus) I n. recalcitrance (see resistance); impedance (see hindrance, electronics). II Active opposition Nouns 1. resistance, opposition, oppugnance, renitence, stand, front; recalcitrance, obstinacy; impeding … English dictionary for students
