Freedom and Unity

There is general agreement that Vermont's motto is about the idea of balancing two seemingly opposite ideals: the personal freedom and independence of the individual citizen, with the common good of the larger community.

Writer and Vermont resident Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1879–1958) wrote the following about her adopted state: "the Vermont idea grapples energetically with the basic problem of human conduct – how to reconcile the needs of the group, of which every man or woman is a member, with the craving for individual freedom to be what he really is."

Vermont's motto is believed to have been the inspiration for Daniel Webster's famous Liberty and Union speech before the United States Senate.

The left-center Social Democratic Party of Germany used the motto Freedom and Unity before World War II.

Tanzania's official motto is the Swahili phrase Uhuru na Umoja, which translates as "Freedom and Unity".