Tautosakos darbai 71, 2026, p. 80–113
ISSN 1392-2831 | eISSN 2783-6827
DOI: https://doi.org/10.51554/TD.26.71.05

Three Proverbial Triads: Sapiential Imperatives for a Peaceful Existence

Wolfgang Mieder
University of Vermont, USA
https://ror.org/0155zta11
Wolfgang.Mieder@uvm.edu
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4002-5304

ABSTRACT. The number three has played a major role in cultural, folkloric, and linguistic tradition. There are numerous proverbs based on a triadic structure in various languages dating back to antiquity and continuing to this day. But there are also so-called proverbial triads consisting of but a string of three words like “Veni, vidi, vici”, “Wein, Weib und Gesang”, “Liberté, égalité, fraternité”, and “Blood, sweat, and tears”. Many folk triads like “Ready, willing, and able” and “Signed, sealed, and delivered” also abound. Of special interest are three American triads based on the fundamental ideas of a free and democratic society, namely “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, “Government of the people, by the people, and for the people”, and the less well known and newer “Freedom, justice, and democracy”. The origin, history, dissemination, and meaning of these formulaic triads are discussed in considerable detail with contextualised references. They express the belief in and call for a democratic world based on peaceful, fair, and humane coexistence. Of course, these fundamental proverbial triads also show that there exists a natural inclination to state basic socio-political principles in an easy to remember triadic pattern.

KEYWORDS: American, democracy, politics, proverb, triad.

Trys patarliškos triados: išminties imperatyvai taikiam gyvenimui

SANTRAUKA. Skaičius trys svarbus daugelyje kultūrinių, folklorinių ir kalbinių tradicijų. Įvairiose kalbose esama daugybės trinarės struktūros patarlių, ištakomis siekiančių antikos laikus ir išlikusių iki šių dienų. Yra ir vadinamųjų patarliškų triadų, sudarytų vien iš trijų žodžių, kaip antai: Veni, vidi, vici, Wein, Weib und Gesang, Liberté, égalité, fraternité ir „Kraujas, prakaitas ir ašaros“. Taip pat gausu tokio tipo populiarių triadų – pavyzdžiui, „Pasirengęs, norintis ir galintis“ ir „Pasirašyta, užantspauduota ir įteikta“. Ypač įdomios trys amerikiečių triados, grįstos pagrindinėmis laisvos ir demokratinės visuomenės idėjomis: „Gyvenimas, laisvė ir laimės siekis“, „Valdžia iš žmonių, žmonių ir žmonėms“ ir mažiau žinoma, naujesnė, „Laisvė, teisingumas ir demokratija“. Straipsnyje, pasitelkiant kontekstines nuorodas, išsamiai pristatoma šių formulinių posakių kilmė, istorija, paplitimas ir reikšmė. Aptariamosios triados išsako tikėjimą demokratiniu pasauliu, kuris grindžiamas taikiu, teisingu ir humanišku sugyvenimu, ir ragina jį kurti. Be to, šios patarliškos triados, reiškiančios esmines demokratinio pasaulio nuostatas, liudija natūralų žmonių polinkį pagrindinius socialinius-politinius principus išdėstyti per lengvai įsimenamą trinarės struktūros modelį.

RAKTAŽODŽIAI: amerikietiškumas, demokratija, politika, patarlė, triada.

Received: 14/04/2024. Accepted: 22/04/2026

Copyright © Wolfgang Mieder, 2026. Published by the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

INTRODUCTION

Considering that the number three as the first plural indicator is pervasive in most languages and cultures throughout the world, it should come as no surprise that it plays a considerable role in proverbs and proverbial expressions (Doctor 1993; Williams 1988). Just as with three wishes in the fairy tales or the religious holy trinity of supreme gods in various religions, there exist many enumerative proverbs that speak of three items, as for example “There are three types of people in the world: those who have wishbones, those who have funny bones, and those who have backbones” and “There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the right side” (Mieder, Kingsbury, Harder 1992: 460, 539). Doubtlessly the medieval Latin anti-feministic proverb “Sunt tria damna domus: imber, mala femina, fumus” that appeared in English translation in the fourteenth century as “Three things drive a man out of his home: smoke, rain, and a scolding wife” is another revealing example that was widely disseminated (Taylor 1926). A truly international triad are the three monkeys holding their ears, eyes, and mouth closed exemplifying the proverb “Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil” (Mieder 1981, see also Mieder 2005a; Taylor 1957). Of course, there is also the German proverb “Wer nicht liebt Wein, Weib und Gesang, der bleibt ein Narr sein Leben lang” that was loan translated into other languages, appearing in English as “Who does not love wine, woman, and song, remains a fool his whole life long” (Mieder 1983, see also Mieder 2004b). Of importance is that the proverb has long been reduced to the triadic formula “Wine, women, and song” – a clear indication of verbalising matters as triadic formulas rather than complete proverbial sentences. Clearly Julius Caesar already knew this when he boasted “Veni, vidi, vici” after a quick and surprising military victory in 47 BC (Deutsch 1925; Mieder 2013: 350–374; Stutz, Finkbeiner 2022). Of course, Robespierre’s well-known revolutionary slogan “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” from 1790 comes to mind as well (Mieder 2016: 129–145; Shapiro 2021: 686), and from more modern times there is Winston Churchill’s rallying triad “Blood, sweat, and tears” with which he called the British people to arms against the Nazi menace (Mieder, Bryan 1995: 63–66).

Caesar’s and Churchill’s triadic quotations have long become proverbial, and as one would expect, there exist plenty of more mundane triads whose individual words more often than not are linked by alliteration, as for example in such book titles as “First, fast, and furious”, “Health, happiness, and harmony”, “Men, money, and motors”, and “Plays, players, and playhouses” (Collitz 1931–1932: 207–208). While these are not particularly proverbial, Alan Dundes includes numerous traditional folk triads in his seminal article “The Number Three in American Culture”. He points out that there is something like a “three-determinism” or what the Danish folklorist Axel Olrik has called the “law of three” in 1909 (Dundes 1968: 402). Trichotomic patterns are certainly present in folk speech, with Dundes including examples such as these:

But this list (for German examples see: Blei, Spaniel 2006; Mieder 1980), easy to be expanded, also includes the sociopolitical triple constructions “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” and “Government of the people, by the people, and for the people”, excluding the less popular triad “Freedom, justice, and democracy”. While insisting that the number three is pervasive in American culture, folklore, language, politics, religion, and any other domain, Dundes offers no explanatory comments as to the origin, dissemination, history, function, and meaning of the latter three triads grown on American soil. Since they deal with life and human rights in a free democratic society that is under siege today in various parts of the world, it is certainly worthwhile to take a closer look at them in the following three sections.

LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

The proverbs “All men are created equal” and “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” were both coined by Thomas Jefferson based on a number of precursors (Mieder 2019: 298–301). They are joined together at the beginning of Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence (1776) which can be a guidepost for humankind tied together globally in a network of mutuality. There certainly is no American who does not know that this claim of human equality occurs at the beginning of the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Continental Congress as the founding document of the United States of America on the evening of July 4, 1776, at Philadelphia. That day has been immortalised by declaring it “Independence Day”, which is celebrated every year with readings of the Declaration, parades, concerts, picnics, etc. Two days later, on July 6, the text was printed as an easily obtainable and distributable broadsheet for the residents in the colonies. This was the beginning of it being ingrained in the American mind and heart and it has remained part of the American cultural literacy ever since. It was crafted by Thomas Jefferson, who later became the third President of the United States (1801–1809):

What an incredible statement by Jefferson that expresses in just a few lines or in one long sentence the very basics of a democracy! But it must be remembered that the final wording was not created out of a vacuum, for Jefferson as a Virginian was well acquainted with a draft of Virginia’s Declaration of Rights, which begins as follows:

It should also be pointed out that for the by now proverbial triad “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” Jefferson was influenced by John Locke who in 1689

Both American proverbs are frequently cited in tandem in quotation dictionaries, with “All men are created equal” having been registered in proverb dictionaries (Mieder, Kingsbury, Harder 1992: 398) as well. However, “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” has appeared for the first time only very recently in the Dictionary of Authentic American Proverbs (Mieder 2021: 121) since such triads were usually ignored by paremiographers. Due to the wide dissemination of the Declaration of Independence, the two proverbs gained much popularity during the next decades as America established itself as a democratic nation plagued by the ills of slavery. It comes as no surprise then that Theodore Parker (1810–1860), one of the most influential preachers and abolitionists in Boston, cites both proverbs repeatedly in his sermons and pamphlets, to wit his severe condemnation of slavery in a sermon of July 6, 1851:

It is interesting to note that Parker also includes an allusion to the Bible proverb “In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread” (Genesis 3: 19), adding considerable authority to his argument that the white population is going against religious wisdom.

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), who would issue the “Emancipation Proclamation” on January 1, 1863, also argued vehemently against slavery on August 17, 1858:

In several other statements Lincoln returned to both proverbs of the Declaration of Independence to condemn the inhumanity of slavery (Mieder 2004a: 180–189). The same is true for Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) who as an escaped slave and abolitionist became a giant among civil rights leaders in the United States. With words and deeds he fought against slavery and championed civil rights for all citizens, regardless of race, gender, or creed. His very own proverbial motto “If there is no struggle, there is no progress” expresses his moral commitment to free the slaves and to fight for human rights for all and not just white males. Just as his contemporaries Parker and Lincoln, he too relied on the two proverbs at the beginning of the Declaration of Independence. The following two references from December 7, 1859, and the year 1892 may serve as examples of his powerful rhetoric. In the first forceful text he also cites the golden rule “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Matthew 7: 12):

Even though Douglass does not mention women in particular, he fought for women’s rights later in his life in support of the two early feminists Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) and Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906). It was Stanton who at the beginning of her famed “Declaration of Sentiments” of July 19, 1848 added the word “women” to the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence as a proverbial signal that the feminist movement had started:

Anthony joined her fellow feminist by declaring:

It must be remembered that while African American men obtained the right to vote with the 15^th Amendment of 1870, women gained that right considerably later by way of the 19^th Amendment of 1920. In any case, here are Stanton’s revolutionary arguments for women’s rights from a speech of March 20, 1860:

Several decades later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt used the well-known triad numerous times to argue for a socially and politically stable society. Reflecting on the year 1938, he wrote on June 16, 1941:

And in an address to labour organisations on May 17, 1944, he employed the triadic formula once again to declare that it forms the basis of a free and democratic society. In a way he is paraphrasing the beginning of the Declaration of Independence known to his entire audience:

A couple years later, Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) employed the triad with international intent in 1946 as Europe was beginning to rebuild after the Second World War: “An impartial Administration shall be set up to maintain the fundamental guarantees of ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ to the millions” (1974: 7417; see also Mieder, Bryan 1995: 287). Four years later, President Harry S. Truman in 1950 used the proverbial triad in a hopeful attempt to spread its democratic message throughout the world: “We are trying now to get that right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for everybody in this world” (1965: 705). It must also be remembered that George Marshall (1880–1959), as President Truman’s secretary of state, played a big role in rebuilding Western Europe by way of the so-called Marshall Plan, which gave Germany a chance to rejoin the international community. In his speech “On Reconstruction of Germany on a Democratic Basis” which he delivered on March 14, 1947, in Moscow, he did well in reminding the Russians what democracy means by including the proverbial triad:

It should come as no surprise that Martin Luther King (1929–1968) as one of the greatest social reformers of modern times made the proverb “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” into a leitmotif in his numerous sermons, speeches, and books. As a civil rights leader, defender of nonviolence in the desegregation struggle, champion of the poor, anti-war proponent, and broad-minded visionary of an interrelated world of free people, King included many Bible and folk proverbs in his communications, citing the proverbial triad numerous times as he argued for the basic human right of “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” for people everywhere. Here are but two examples of many such statements:

When President Jimmy Carter (1924–2024) gave his farewell address to the nation on January 14, 1981, he doubtlessly was aware that citing one of the great American declarations would bring forth an emotional and positive response from listeners, just as was the case in the speeches of Douglass and King. So he began by reminding his audience of the beginning of the Declaration of Independence, urging everybody to remember its basic message:

While Carter closed his presidency with the proverbial triad, President Bill Clinton (born 1946) cited it at the beginning of his inaugural address on January 20, 1993. Spring had just sprung in Washington, D.C., and this led Clinton to his idea of reinventing America while holding on to its basic principles:

His wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton (born 1947), also remembers the triad in her acclaimed book It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us (1996) in a most positive way:

This comment on the three basic rights of all human beings is a proverbial reminder of the important role that government must play in making certain that they are achieved and maintained. Of course, her at times liberal rival Senator Bernie Sanders (born 1941) from Vermont, also defines what his vision of democracy entails by conjuring up Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence with its proverbs that “All men are created equal” and the proverbial triad of “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, which are part of American cultural literacy (Burrell 1997: 29–32; Aron 2008: 89–96):

Later on in his book Our Revolution: A Future to Believe in Sanders returns to this proverbial passage by explaining that these ideals are undermined by the economic inequality that is tearing the American society apart:

Another reference to the two proverbs “All men are created equal” and “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” appears in Sanders’ fellow US Senator John Lewis (1940–2020), who was one of the nation’s major African Americans fighting for civil rights with Martin Luther King. In the final chapter of his book Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change (2012), John Lewis reminds his readers that the proverb “All men are created equal” and the proverbial triad “Life liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” from the Declaration of Independence should forever be the social compass with its message deeply ingrained in the minds and hearts of citizens:

Towards the end of his autobiography Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (1998), Lewis says something quite similar, stressing that the country must pay special attention to instil in its young poor and often black people the belief in a better existence for all. As he continues, he broadens his uplifting little “sermon” to include the disadvantaged of all age groups, urging them proverbially that they must think about how their lives can improve “in the long run”:

President Barack Obama (born 1961) might well have thought of Douglass, King, and Lewis (Mieder 2020) when he gave his inaugural address on January 20, 2009, as the 44^th President of the United States:

To be sure, Obama merely alludes to the two well-known proverbs that his audience for the most part recognised as proverbial wisdom coined by one of his predecessors, namely the country’s 3rd president Thomas Jefferson. It behoves not only Americans but people everywhere to uphold this democratic triad par excellence!

GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE

Abraham Lincoln’s closing remarks of his short yet famous “Gettysburg Address” of November 19, 1863, have become proverbial as “Government of the people, by the people, and for the people”. Yet, as is the case with some other famous utterances of Lincoln, he relied on the wisdom and insights of others to create his memorable phrase that provides a most succinct definition of democracy. The earliest statement that has at least some resemblance to Abraham Lincoln’s powerful triad is contained in an epistolary description of the new American government and society for a British friend that Thomas Cooper (1759–1839) includes in his book entitled Some Information Respecting America:

Even though Cooper uses but two elements of the triadic structure, he is already expressing the fundamental idea that a democratic government consists of the members of that society. While this particular formulation gained no currency in the public sphere, it serves as an indication that the underlying idea of the phrase is in the air at this time. This is very well shown by a comment that Chief Justice John Marshall (1755–1835) made in his “McCulloch v. Maryland” opinion of March 6, 1819:

About ten years later the rhetorically gifted Daniel Webster (1782–1852) included his definition and characterisation of the American government in a famous speech in the Senate of January 26, 1830 that dealt with the so-called Missouri Compromise of 1820 that admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state while prohibiting slavery in territories that later became Kansas and Nebraska:

This is an extremely important argument for the singleness of the nation that is governed by laws that go beyond those of individual states. His argument for a national “people’s government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people” is quite close to Lincoln’s statement at the end of the Gettysburg Address some thirty years later, but it does not yet have the ‘proverbial ring’ to it which Lincoln the masterful rhetorical craftsman was able to give to it.

In a speech of May 25, 1850, at a meeting of the citizens of Boston, the clergyman, social reformer, and abolitionist Theodore Parker addressed the vexing problem that slavery presented to the nation; his words mark the beginning of a constant flow of attempts by him to find the best wording for a short definition of the nature of the American government. In these early remarks, he has not yet found a concise triadic structure:

But then, two months later on July 29, 1850, Parker found truly compelling words in his speech on “Slave Power in America” at a New England anti-slavery convention in Boston. Here he defines the American government in exactly the same way that Abraham Lincoln would thirteen years later, although there is one considerable difference in that Parker includes the inclusive adjective “all” three times before the noun “people”, clearly signalling that he means to include the hopefully soon to be freed slaves of the nation as well. His remarks belong to the most impressive statements of that period in American history, and they certainly deserve to stand next to those of Lincoln, whose important utterances could obtain wider currency due to his leadership position:

Quite certainly Lincoln was influenced by Theodore Parker’s use of the triadic structure of his government definition. When Lincoln concluded his “Gettysburg Address” on November 19, 1863, with the claim that the “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”, he gave it the concise and perfect form in which it survives. He can hardly be called the originator of this phrasal definition, but it was he who implanted it in the minds and worldview of his contemporaries and generations of Americans to come. Interestingly enough, Lincoln dropped the inclusive word “all”, and that is exactly where the historical, cultural, social, and political problem arises with Lincoln’s proverb. Did he even include the African American population and women in his thoughts when he spoke of a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people”? After all, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, had not yet brought suffrage to the former slaves, and women’s right to vote was also not established yet. Thus the proverb appears as a privileged statement for white males, with Theodore Parker’s more liberal statement proving the exception to the rule.

There is no doubt that Lincoln “conned the texts of speeches made by Webster” (Crocker 1968: 19), Parker, and others, and it is only natural that such careful studies led to rhetorical borrowings ranging from direct quotations to paraphrases and indirect allusions. As Lincoln prepared his numerous speeches, he would gather material from many sources and spend days “reading, listening, rephrasing, refocusing, and strengthening his arguments” (Braden 1988: 51). Clearly no person works in absolute isolation, and as Byron D. Murray aptly and not at all defensively has pointed out,

To suggest even the thought of plagiarism is utterly absurd, and the interrogatively phrased title of a journalistic essay “Lincoln: Rhetorical Copycat?” not only misses the point but intimates a modus operandi on the part of Lincoln which does not hold water. One might, however, be inclined to agree with its author Thoburn V. Barker that in certain instances, including some of his famed utterances, “what he [Lincoln] said was customary rather than original, universal rather than unique” (Barker 1967: 30). But it was he, Lincoln, who said what he said, when he said it, and how he said it. That cannot possibly be argued away or diminished in any way.

These considerations lead quite naturally to one of the most famous phrases attributed to Lincoln, namely that included in the closing remarks of his short yet famous “Gettysburg Address” of November 19, 1863:

When Lincoln added at the very end that a democratic government “shall not perish from the earth,” he might well have had a passage from the Bible in mind: “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he” (Proverbs 29: 18). But regarding the precise wording of “government of the people, by the people, for the people”, the phrase is indeed Lincoln’s. Bi- and tripartite variants of it were in considerable oral and written circulation. However, if there was any direct influence, it most likely was by Daniel Webster or even more obviously by Theodore Parker. Except for the word “all”, Parker’s phrase is absolutely identical to that of Lincoln, and the latter can hardly be considered the originator of this triadic formulation. This does not mean, of course, that Lincoln did not popularise his version through his masterful “Gettysburg Address” so that it now has become a proverbial definition of a free and democratic government. In the precise wording of “Government of the people, by the people, [and] for the people” this statement became a memorable quotation and eventually having become a well-known proverb belongs to Abraham Lincoln – no doubt about it.

In all of his work for the steady improvement of the black race, Lincoln’s contemporary and friend, the former slave and subsequent abolitionist and sociopolitical reformer Frederick Douglass, never lost sight of his goal of fighting for the civil rights of all people. On May 11, 1857, at New York, he speaks of “the people” and the Constitution by directly alluding to its preamble:

In his essay on “The Work of the Future” that appeared in November 1862 in Douglass’ Monthly, he put all of this quite succinctly into the formulaic statement: “The Government is not enthroned above the people but is of, by and through the people” (Douglass 1952 3: 291).

This almost proverbial statement precedes Lincoln’s quite similar conclusion “government of the people, by the people, for the people” from the Gettysburg Address of November 19, 1863, by about a year. However, once Douglass learned of Lincoln’s formulation in the “Gettysburg Address”, he too started using it in that precise wording in numerous speeches, thus in fact adding to its popularity, which resulted in its eventual proverbial status. In his major speech on the “Sources of Danger to the Republic”, delivered on February 7, 1867, at St. Louis, he used it for the first time:

What a statement barely two years after the Civil War! What a vision for a positive Reconstruction of the nation “for all the people, each for all and all for each”, without any discrimination by race or gender! He is clearly years ahead of major constitutional amendments in this ideal view of a new republic. It must never be forgotten that “next to Abolition and the battle for equal rights for the Negro people, the cause closest to Douglass’ heart was woman’s rights” (Mieder 2001: 91).

Fifteen years later, in an address on May 30, 1882, at Rochester, New York, Douglass incorporated the proverb into a global vision, indicating that he went far beyond the purely American interpretation of its wisdom. The breadth and depth of Douglass’s thoughts on race, gender, and politics are indeed astounding in such statements that are as fitting today as they were in the nineteenth century:

All of these citations show that Douglass’s work as agitator and reformer was never done, and he dedicated much of his energy in his later life to the cause of women’s suffrage. Once again Lincoln’s proverb served him extremely well to agitate for this basic right:

As is generally known, the nineteenth amendment giving women the right to vote was not passed until 1920, but Douglass deserves much credit for having supported women of all races in their struggle for universal suffrage.

The last words of this review of 19^th century appearances of Lincoln’s proverb belongs to the women’s suffrage leader and social reformer Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who included the following remarks in her “Address of Welcome to the International Council of Women” of March 25, 1888, at Washington, D.C. There is a good chance that Frederick Douglass might have been there for this memorable event, and if so, he would have been most pleased to hear his friend use Abraham Lincoln’s proverbial words in this fashion and context:

This is indeed effective rhetoric, quoting a well-known Lincoln phrase turned proverb in a most positive way and then adding an unexpected twist to it that places it right in the middle of women’s rights and the whole problem of voting by women and the masses in general. Abraham Lincoln’s proverbial definition of a democratic government has established itself well, and it will be made use of in whatever way to comment on the positive and negative sides of the American government.

The revealing contextualised texts of the proverb during the 19th century recount the struggle of American society towards a meaningful and sincere interpretation of this democratic wisdom. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the proverb has lost its limited male orientation and can in fact be understood as a piece of folk wisdom describing democratic principles where race and gender should not make a difference.

On October 31, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) made the following Thanksgiving Proclamation, proudly quoting the words of Lincoln without having to name the former president. His fellow citizens knew very well whom he was citing:

Lincoln’s words also reappeared in the mass media of the turbulent years of the first half of the twentieth century with its two world wars, prohibition, stock market crash, and many social problems. At times, the famed proverb is parodied to add satirical bite to the critical comments:

The last paragraph shows how Abraham Lincoln’s words became a rallying cry in America’s war with Nazi Germany. It was indeed a very positive propagandistic use of the proverb, one that helped to convince the American population that the menace and horror of the Hitler regime had to be eliminated.

Both Winston S. Churchill and Harry S. Truman made repeated use of Abraham Lincoln’s proverbial triad. Two days after the end of World War II, Churchill rose on August 16, 1945, in the House of Commons to deliver his prophetic speech “The Iron Curtain Begins to Fall (Final Review of the War)” which looked into the future of a Europe divided into East and West. With clear understanding of the political challenges that were facing western Europe, he returned one more time to the proverbial triad that had served him so well before:

It is, of course, an impressive tribute to American values for Winston S. Churchill, as Prime Minister of Great Britain and an Americanophile, to cite this special proverb in his key speech on world politics.

On the American side of the World War II struggle and its aftermath, it was Harry S. Truman who repeatedly drew on Lincoln’s wisdom to underscore the ideals of a democratic government (Mieder, Bryan 1997: 137–138), as in his “Remarks to Members of the Associated Church Press” on March 28, 1951, challenging the other side to be open and forthcoming:

One is reminded of President Ronald Reagan’s remark some forty years later on June 12, 1987 at the Berlin Wall: “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” (1989: 635).

During the past seven decades, Lincoln’s proverb has found continued use as a well-known verbal symbol of democracy. At times the name of Abraham Lincoln is mentioned in order to add his authoritative voice to an argument or observation, but perhaps more often than not it suffices to state the entire phrase by itself or even just to allude to it.

As one would expect, presidential candidates as well as presidents continue to be aware of the emotional power of Lincoln’s democratic proverb that resonates so well in the minds of Americans. Thus John F. Kennedy (1917–1963), shortly before becoming president, uttered the following words in a campaign speech of October 31, 1960:

When Barack Obama stopped at Philadelphia and Baltimore on January 17, 2009, on the way to his historic inauguration as the first African American president of the United States on January 20, he made the following statement:

That is eloquent proverbial rhetoric by a sincere, courageous, and admired person. Quite different from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who more recently saw himself as the people’s candidate for the presidency. Not surprisingly his website for campaign volunteers was innovative. And when opening the site, one found at the very top in white letters on a blue background the message:

In a way, the definition of democracy was reduced to a campaign slogan. Most likely Hillary Clinton was aware of this, which probably led her to the following statement on July 12, 2016, at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, after Bernie Sanders had just endorsed her for the nomination to become president:

And Donald Trump (born 1946), in his remarks on “Creating a New and Better Future for America’s Inner Cities” on August 16, 2016, at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, followed suit with a mere self-serving allusion to the triad:

President Joe Biden (born 1942), in his address “Standing up for Democracy” of November 2, 2022, did much better by citing the entire proverbial triad with explanatory comments added for rhetorical effect:

These last references might not equal the rhetorical prowess of people like Daniel Webster, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Harry S. Truman, and others. But times are clearly different for presidential candidates and future presidents, when every word is recorded and together with pictures is broadcast instantly around the world. That being the case, it behoves modern politicians to pay close attention to their rhetoric once again as their predecessors most assuredly practiced it. The words and phrases of spontaneous utterances as well as of formal addresses need to be chosen with considerable care, and a good dose of pride in the English language ought to be added to it. With such proper respect for the power of words, modern presidents as well can formulate statements that will be entered into the annals of American political and social history. In the meantime, Americans and people of other nations have Abraham Lincoln’s proverb “Government of the people, by the people, for the people” to guide them in their attempt to make democracy work. It certainly is a piece of wisdom that might lead humankind with the assistance of the United Nations to a free and democratic world.

FREEDOM, JUSTICE, AND DEMOCRACY

Strangely enough, the triad “Freedom, justice, and democracy” has not found its way into quotation dictionaries and proverb collections although it is widely disseminated with such introductory terms as ideas, ideals, principles, and values that draw special attention to the triad. That it is in fact well known can be seen from the following reference that refers to it as a generally known phrase among the American population:

It is indeed correct that the human rights of “freedom, justice, and democracy” are not only applicable to American politics but rather to all walks of life throughout the world. In fact, the earliest reference found thus far dates from 1852 accusing the Supreme Court of negating these social ideals:

The early variant of “Liberty, justice, and democracy” did not gain a wide currency once the word “liberty” was replaced by “freedom” – more or less equivalent terms – towards the end of the nineteenth century.

The earliest reference of “Freedom, justice, and democracy” thus far found appears in Morrison Swift’s book on Anti-Imperialism where it serves as an ideal for international politics based on democratic principles:

Some twenty years later the triad was popularised by appearing in 1918 at the end of the First World War in various labour union magazines. It became somewhat of an American slogan for a new world order during the last months of the war to end all wars:

At the same time The Shoe Workers’ Journal employed the triad for its claim that the United States entered the war as a crusade for “freedom, justice, and democracy”:

And shortly before the end of the war, the American Federationist, “devoted to the interests and voicing the demands of the trade union movement”, proclaimed optimistically:

During the year after the war, the by now proverbial slogan of “Freedom, justice, and democracy” continued to appear in labour publications reaching thousands of readers and thus establishing itself as a commonly known triad with solid footing in the American worldview:

In fact, some statements employing the triad were reprinted in various magazines far beyond those specifically addressing the labour force, with the following proclamation having played its part in the continued dissemination of its basic idealism during 1919:

Six years later, the American Federationist continued to insist that the labour movement is playing a major role in safeguarding and spreading the fundamental rights of “Freedom, justice, and democracy”:

Of course, the sociopolitical aspirations and ideals expressed in the by now solidly established triad found their way into the political realm, as can be seen from Edward Sait’s comment in his analysis of American Parties and Elections:

And here are a few excerpts from various government records during the 1930s and 1940s, illustrating the repeated employment of the triadic principles of a democratic society. It is of interest that President Franklin D. Roosevelt mixed up the order of the three nouns for once in a heartfelt statement on September 13, 1937:

Importantly, the well-established triad also appeared during the hearings of the North Atlantic Treaty of April and May 1949 in the US Senate recalling the “Moral Principles Behind World War II”. The following comment clearly underscores that “Freedom, justice, and democracy” had become a motto to be adhered to in international relations:

Little wonder that the United States saw itself as the champion of the triadic principles during the Cold War, to wit the following comment in Congress:

In this regard, what the chairperson of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee had to say in 1973 at a hearing in Congress regarding soldiers who voiced their opposition to the war in Vietnam is of considerable interest:

This was quite a slap in the face for a self-righteous America that claims at times too quickly to be “synonymous with freedom, justice and democracy” (Military Intelligence 12 (2), 1987, p. 7). To declare that “The Founding Fathers are always [seen as] the champions of freedom, justice, and democracy” (Fresia 1988: 3) also does not quite express the truth when considering the fact that many of them were slave holders.

As is the case with proverbial phrases in general, this triad is also applicable to a multitude of contexts. In his book on The Field of Social Investment, Severyn Bruyn applies its “human values” to the world of economics:

The triad also came in handy in a message released at the end of the ministerial meeting of the North Atlantic Council in June of 1990 after the historic breeching of the Berlin Wall that would also a year later see the collapse of the Soviet Union:

A year later, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) also seized on the triad in her remarks after having been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George Bush on March 7, 1991, at Washington, D.C.:

In a speech delivered on April 25, 1993, Eric Rofes employed the triad in his speech entitled “Unashamed, We Embrace the Traditions of the Broad Civil Rights Movement in America” to argue that the fight for true democracy in America must go on:

Vincent Harding, Robin Kelley, and Earl Lewis have something similar to say in their book We Changed the World: African Americans 1945–1970. They too stress that the triad “Freedom, justice, and democracy” must apply to the entire population without neglecting black people:

In South Africa it was Nelson Mandela (1918–2013), who after the first democratic election in 1994 exhibited “an extraordinary feat of human resolve, dedication and bold spirit borne out of the passion to deliver freedom, justice and democracy to the entire nation” (Muthien, Khosa, Magubane 2000: 365). No wonder that the triad was introduced as expressing “human rights”, “liberal values”, and more generally “principles”:

The various references above have shown that the triad “Freedom, justice, and democracy” is of American origin with considerable distribution in sociopolitical writings and speeches. While it does not have the frequency of occurrence of the two other triads “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” and “Government of the people, by the people, for the people”, it is established and known enough that it should be registered in phraseological dictionaries. And yet, it behoves Americans to heed the following observation:

Such hubris is unwanted in an interconnected world. But nevertheless, with proper humility, “the United States must stand for the promotion of freedom, justice, and democracy across the world” (O’Driscoll 2008: 69) as a beacon of hope for humanity everywhere. While all three proverbial triads originated in the United States, their democratic messages are most certainly applicable internationally as ideals for a peaceful existence based on moral values.

NOTE FROM THE EDITORS

The author prepared the current article based on a plenary presentation delivered at the international conference “Small Genres of Folklore: Local Contexts and Comparative Parallels”, held in Vilnius, Lithuania, on 28 February – 1 March 2024, in honour of the 100^th anniversary of Kazys Grigas, dedicating it to his long-time friend and colleague.

For more on the triads featured in this article, see also, among others:

Mieder Wolfgang 2014. “‘Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness’: Martin Luther King’s Proverbial Struggle for Equality”, in: Behold the Proverbs of a People: Proverbial Wisdom in Culture, Literature, and Politics, University Press of Mississippi, p. 133–171.

Mieder Wolfgang 2025. “‘Freedom, Justice, and Democracy’. A Proverbial Triad for a World of Peace”, in: Obras hablen, palabras callen. André Gallego y la paremiología, (Biblioteca fraseológica y paremiológica 10), Madrid: Instituto Cervantes (https://cvc.cervantes.es/lengua/biblioteca_fraseologica/n10_estreder/indice.htm).

Mieder Wolfgang 2026. Proverbial Democracy: Government of the People, by the People, for the People, New York, Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, Oxford: Peter Lang.

INTERNET SOURCES

[1] Bernie (https://berniesanders.com/forthepeople/).

[2] Katie Reilly, “Read Bernie Sanders’ and Hillary Clinton’s Remarks From the Endorsement Rally”, Time, 2016 (https://time.com/4403264/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-endorsement-full-transcript).

[3] “Full text: Donald Trump campaign speech in Wisconsin”, Politico, 2016 (https://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/full-text-donald-trumps-speech-on-227095).

[4] The White House (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/11/03/remarks-by-president-biden-on-standing-up-for-democracy/).

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