Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 1940 |
| AUTHOR: | John Parker (1729–75) |
| QUOTATION: | Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Captain Parker said this to his Minutemen troops at Lexington, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775, as they prepared to meet the British in battle. Inscription on a marker at Lexington green. |
| SUBJECTS: | War |