I want anyone who believes in life, liberty, pursuit of happiness

The words of Rush Limbaugh — “I want anyone who believes in life, liberty, pursuit of happiness to succeed. And I want any force, any person, any element of an overarching Big Government that would stop your success, I want that organization, that element or that person to fail. I want you to succeed.” — resound like the call of an ancient herald, proclaiming not merely political conviction, but a creed of freedom and individual strength. In this utterance lies the echo of those who came before us, who carved nations from wilderness and dared to believe that man’s destiny is his own to shape.

This saying arises from the soil of the American spirit, that hallowed ground tilled by Jefferson’s hand when he wrote of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It is a defense of the eternal struggle between the individual and the power that would contain him — a struggle older than empires. For Limbaugh’s voice, though modern, speaks in the same strain as the philosophers of Athens and the prophets of old: that no man should be a servant to the designs of another, and that the vigor of a people lies in their freedom to strive, to create, to fail, and to rise again.

In these words there is both defiance and faith. Defiance — against the towering structure of Big Government, that vast and faceless machine which, when unchained, seeks to mold all souls into its image. And faith — faith that the human spirit, when left to its own light, will find its way toward success, innovation, and goodness. For just as a flame cannot grow under a glass dome, neither can liberty flourish beneath the heavy hand of control.

Consider, for example, the tale of the Wright brothers, who, with no patron but their own conviction, conquered the heavens. Had they waited for the sanction of bureaucracy or the permission of cautious minds, they would have lived and died as mere bicycle makers. But their belief in human potential — unbound, unregulated, unafraid — gave the world wings. Such is the spirit Limbaugh extols: the triumph of the self-determined over the self-defeated, the victory of vision over permission.

The quote is not a cry for anarchy, but a hymn for balance — a warning that the tools of power, if unchecked, may harden into chains. The ancients knew this truth well: Rome, once a republic of farmers and dreamers, became an empire of decrees and taxes. In its golden halls, men forgot the virtue of striving, and the flame of freedom grew dim. When the state becomes the parent and the citizen the child, greatness fades, and with it, the courage that builds worlds.

The lesson, then, is eternal: Freedom demands guardianship. It must be defended not by swords alone, but by the daily courage to think, to work, to build, and to resist the quiet lure of dependency. Those who cherish liberty must not only demand it but also prove themselves worthy of it — by living with honor, by taking responsibility for their own success, and by lifting others not through decree, but through example and compassion.

So let this teaching be carried forward: wherever you find a system that diminishes the will of the individual, speak against it; wherever you find a soul striving to create, stand beside it. Be as the farmer who tends his field through storm and drought — trusting not in distant rulers, but in his own two hands and the justice of his labor.

And when you hear these words — “I want you to succeed” — remember that success is not a gift, but a calling. It is the sacred duty of the free. To protect your liberty, to live it boldly, to guard it from those who would smother it in the name of safety — this is your inheritance, and your offering to the generations yet unborn.