On Wed, 9 Aug 2006, Ronald Huttner wrote:
> Can anyone give me an authoritative source for the quote, "It is better to
> die on your feet than to live on your knees." Some tell me that the saying is
> attributable to the Mexican revolutionary Zapata, but others attribute it to
> Albert Camus. One of our MPs used the expression in Parliament today, and I
> am trying to track its origin.
The Yale Book of Quotations, forthcoming in October and tracing pretty
much all famous quotations to their origins as far as is possible, has the
following for this quote:
It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!
Dolores Ibarruri, Radio broadcast, 18 July 1936
* It is often claimed that Emiliano Zapata used this expression earlier in
the century, but documentation for Zapata's usage is lacking. "Better to
die on your feet than live on your knees" is mentioned as a Mexican
aphorism in <i>Appleton</i> (Wis.) <i>Post Crescent,</i> 4 June 1925.
Fred Shapiro
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Fred R. Shapiro Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
Access and Lecturer in Legal Research Yale University Press,
Yale Law School forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro@yale.edu http://quotationdictionary.com
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