The Revolution Continues: The American Revolution is still going on—not because we ourselves are wise and good but because it embodies an idea that reaches everybody and will never lose its force. (Bruce Catton, June 1976, American Heritage)
The bell is old and it is badly cracked and it has not been rung for years, nor will it ever be rung again. But although it is quite useless from a practical standpoint, it is perhaps the most prized possession we have. It carries words about proclaiming liberty to all the people, and when it spoke it set off long echoes that have never stopped reverberating. The Liberty Bell announced that the American people were in fact making a revolution and not just demonstrating for a redress of grievances, and few announcements in the history of the human race have been more momentous.