
“Death had to take him in his sleep, for if he was awake there'd have been a fight.”
Upon hearing the death of President Teddy Roosevelt, as quoted in F.D.R. : 1905-1928 (1947) by Elliott Roosevelt, p. 449.
My Life Before the World War, 1860--1917: A Memoir, p. 451 https://books.google.com/books?id=a74_JIbehzsC&pg=PA451
“Death had to take him in his sleep, for if he was awake there'd have been a fight.”
Upon hearing the death of President Teddy Roosevelt, as quoted in F.D.R. : 1905-1928 (1947) by Elliott Roosevelt, p. 449.
Journal of Discourses 3:224 (March 2, 1856)
1850s
Field Marshal von Manstein wrote in an appraisal of General Warlimont's military capabilities
From Country Life in Georgia in the Days of My Youth Felton, p. 86 http://www.google.com/books?id=gHsLIvQ_BN0C&dq=rebecca+latimer+felton&printsec=frontcover&source=in#PPA86,M1.
Modernized rendition: I had reasoned this out in my mind; there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty, or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive; I should fight for my liberty as long as my strength lasted, and when the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me.
The phrase "Liberty or Death" is a slogan made famous during the independence struggle of several countries.
1880s, Harriet, The Moses of Her People (1886)
Statement in an interview with a reporter for the London Daily Worker (November 1962), as quoted in Companero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara (1998), by Jorge G. Castaneda, p. 231, 1st Vintage Books ISBN 0679759409
La condition humaine [Man's Fate] (1933)