AMERICA QUOTES V

quotations about America

America quote

America is a lady rocking on a porch in an unpainted house on an unused road.

ANNE SEXTON

"Sixth Psalm", The Complete Poems

Tags: Anne Sexton


The real democratic American idea is, not that every man shall be on a level with every other man, but that every man shall have liberty to be what God made him, without hindrance.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit

Tags: democracy, liberty


What made America great was her ability to transform her own dream into hope for all mankind.

NICOLAS SARKOZY

address to joint session of Congress, Nov. 7, 2007

Tags: dreams


All colors and blends of Americans have somewhat the same tendencies. It's a breed -- selected out by accident. And so we're overbrave and overfearful -- we're kind and cruel as children. We're overfriendly and at the same time frightened of strangers. We boast and are impressed. We're oversentimental and realistic. We are mundane and materialistic -- and do you know of any other nation that acts for ideals? We eat too much. We have no taste, no sense of proportion. We throw our energy about like waste. In the old lands they say of us that we go from barbarism to decadence without an intervening culture.

JOHN STEINBECK

East of Eden

Tags: John Steinbeck


This is the story of America. Everybody's doing what they think they're supposed to do.

JACK KEROUAC

On the Road

Tags: Jack Kerouac


Americans, unhappily, have the most remarkable ability to alchemize all bitter truths into an innocuous but piquant confection and to transform their moral contradictions, or public discussion of such contradictions, into a proud decoration, such as are given for heroism on the field of battle.

JAMES BALDWIN

Notes of a Native Son

Tags: James Baldwin


Each time Donald Trump says he will make America great again, he's declaring without actually declaring out loud two very unAmerican things. One: America now stinks. Two: America was great when WASP white men were in charge before that black guy took over and women in sports jackets got involved. How not-great is it to bring that plate of hate to our table of thought?

LINDA STASI

"America is much greater than the GOP makes it seem", New York Daily News, March 8, 2016


Except for its worst inner-city slums, America is not the primitive capitalist jungle of European imagination, where human beings slink away like wounded animals to die in bloodstained holes.

TIMOTHY GARTON ASH

Free World: America, Europe, and the Surprising Future of the West

Tags: Timothy Garton Ash


America is suffering from an extended spiritual drought. While the social and moral decay of this hour may grieve us, discernment of the larger reason for this blight lies at the door of an all-but-prayerless church.

JACK HAYFORD

"America Is Suffering From a Spiritual Drought", Charisma News, March 7, 2016


Everything in America is big: the streets, skyscrapers, glasses of Coca-Cola, bags of popcorn, and glasses of beer. The one thing here that comes in small amounts is respect. The American does not have to respect anyone. He does what he wants, says what he wants, and moves around in the way he wants. I wonder whether it is an excessive respect for his individual freedom or a rejection of all the traditions of the Old World in the New World.

KARIMA KAMAL

"An Egyptian Girl in America", America in an Arab Mirror: Images of America in Arabic Travel Literature


In America there is not one single element of civilization that is not made to depend, in the end, upon public opinion.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit

Tags: Henry Ward Beecher, opinion


America was based on a big promise--a great big one: the Declaration of Independence. When you have to live with that in the house, that's quite a problem--particularly when you've got to make money and get ahead, open world markets, do all the things you have to, raise your children, and so forth. America is stuck with its self-definition put on paper in 1776, and that was just like putting a burr under the metaphysical saddle of America--you see, that saddle's going to jump now and then and it pricks.

ROBERT PENN WARREN

The Paris Review, spring/summer 1957

Tags: Robert Penn Warren


I sometimes think that the American story is the one about the reading of the will.

LEWIS H. LAPHAM

Money and Class in America


If we have learned anything in the past ten years, it is that these lovely things about America were never lovely. We have been expansionist and aggressive and mean to other people from the beginning. And we've been aggressive and mean to people in this country, and we've allocated the wealth of this country in a very unjust way. We've never had justice in our courts for the poor people, for black people, for radicals. Now how can we boast that America is a very special place? It's not that special. It really isn't.

HOWARD ZINN

Voices of a People's History of the United States

Tags: Howard Zinn


No People can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the Affairs of men more than the People of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.

GEORGE WASHINGTON

First Inaugural Address, Apr. 30, 1789

Tags: George Washington, God


There seems to be an alternative reality out there, from some of the political folks, that America's down in the dumps. It's not. America is pretty darn great right now and making strides.

BARACK OBAMA

"Obama touts job numbers: America is 'pretty darn great'", The Hill, March 4, 2016

Tags: Barack Obama


We should keep steadily before our minds the fact that Americanism is a question of principle, of purpose, of idealism, of character; that it is not a matter of birthplace, or creed, or line of descent.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

speech at the unveiling of the monument to General Sheridan, Nov. 25, 1908

Tags: Theodore Roosevelt, idealism


Although America loved its tough guys, they weren't ready to vote for leaders who exhibited no compassion for the downtrodden and miserable, for on any given day they might constitute a majority.

DAVID BALDACCI

Split Second

Tags: David Baldacci


America is the most grandiose experiment the world has seen ... but, I am afraid, it is not going to be a success.

SIGMUND FREUD

attributed, Freud: The Man and His Cause

Tags: Sigmund Freud


America's abundance was created not by public sacrifices to the common good, but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. They did not starve the people to pay for America's industrialization. They gave the people better jobs, higher wages, and cheaper goods with every new machine they invented, with every scientific discovery or technological advance -- and thus the whole country was moving forward and profiting, not suffering, every step of the way.

AYN RAND

Capitalism: The Unknown Deal

Tags: Ayn Rand, capitalism