AMERICA QUOTES VII

quotations about America

America quote

I know this about the American people: We welcome competition. We'll match our ingenuity, our energy, our experience and technology, our spirit and enterprise against anyone.

GEORGE H. W. BUSH

State of the Union Address, Jan. 31, 1990

Tags: George H. W. Bush, competition


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


The American dream does not come to those who fall asleep.

RICHARD NIXON

Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1969

Tags: Richard Nixon


The American Government calls itself a Government of the supreme people; but at a quick crisis, the time when a sovereign power is most needed, you cannot FIND the supreme people. You have got a Congress elected for one fixed period, going out perhaps by fixed instalments, which cannot be accelerated or retarded--you have a President chosen for a fixed period, and immovable during that period: all the arrangements are for STATED times. There is no ELASTIC element, everything is rigid, specified, dated. Come what may, you can quicken nothing, and can retard nothing. You have bespoken your Government in advance, and whether it suits you or not, whether it works well or works ill, whether it is what you want or not, by law you must keep it.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution

Tags: Walter Bagehot


America has never quite forgiven Europe for having been discovered somewhat earlier in history than itself.

OSCAR WILDE

The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde

Tags: Oscar Wilde


Our nation is the enduring dream of every immigrant who ever set foot on these shores, and the millions still struggling to be free. This nation, this idea called America, was and always will be a new world -- our new world.

GEORGE H. W. BUSH

State of the Union Address, Jan. 31, 1990

Tags: George H. W. Bush


It's an election year, and candidates can't stop speaking about our country's problems (which, of course, only they can solve). As a result of this negative drumbeat, many Americans now believe that their children will not live as well as they themselves do. That view is dead wrong: The babies being born in America today are the luckiest crop in history. American GDP per capita is now about $56,000.... That -- in real terms -- is a staggering six times the amount in 1930, the year I was born, a leap far beyond the wildest dreams of my parents or their contemporaries. U. S. citizens are not intrinsically more intelligent today, nor do they work harder than did Americans in 1930. Rather, they work far more efficiently and thereby produce more. This all-powerful trend is certain to continue: America's economic magic remains alive and well.

WARREN BUFFETT

annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, February 2016

Tags: Warren Buffett


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


I've always felt that my relationship to the United States is analogous to a marriage. I love this country. I hate it. I get angry at it. I feel close to it. I'm charmed by it. I'm repelled by it. And it's a marriage that's gone on for let's say at least 50 years of my writing life, and in the course of that, what's happened? It's gotten worse. It's not what it used to be.

NORMAN MAILER

The New York Times, Oct. 4, 2000

Tags: Norman Mailer


Generations from now, when historians write about these times, they might note that, in the early decades of the twenty-first century, the United States succeeded in its great and historic mission--it globalized the world. But along the way, they might write, it forgot to globalize itself.

FAREED ZAKARIA

The Post-American World: Release 2.0

Tags: Fareed Zakaria


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


Traveling across the United States, it's easy to see why Americans are often thought of as stupid. At the San Diego Zoo, right near the primate habitats, there's a display featuring half a dozen life-size gorillas made out of bronze. Posted nearby is a sign reading CAUTION: GORILLA STATUES MAY BE HOT. Everywhere you turn, the obvious is being stated. CANNON MAY BE LOUD. MOVING SIDEWALK IS ABOUT TO END. To people who don't run around suing one another, such signs suggest a crippling lack of intelligence.

DAVID SEDARIS

Me Talk Pretty One Day

Tags: David Sedaris, stupidity


Americans could open doors to almost all that was admirable--it was their misfortune, not their fault, that movies and victrolas and advertisements squeezed in when they opened the door.

STELLA BENSON

Pipers and a Dancer

Tags: Stella Benson


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


It is sometimes said that you Americans are devoid of sentiment; that in affairs of the heart you are like birds who come in early spring and sing while the trees are in blossom, but who leave with no sign of regret at the first touch of Autumn. I do not believe that. Your sentiment is of another kind. You are younger than we as a race, you are perhaps barbaric, but what of it? You are still in the moulding. Your spirit is superb.

SARAH BERNHARDT

"Bernhardt Triumphs in New Role", Theatre Magazine, 1920

Tags: Sarah Bernhardt


If you're thinking seriously about the future of America, you know that right now all bets are off. Face it: America is going down. It's full of enemy combatants ready to strike. It's a nuclear time bomb. It's the tallest buildings crumbling to dust. It's a corporate-controlled surveillance state. It's ghettos, graffiti, and the abandoned shell of industry. It's endless ugly chain stores, transient strip-mall architecture, cheaply built McMansions, and shoddy imported goods no one is proud of. It's the glamorous, Golden Age of Hollywood transformed into a raunchy, foul-mouthed, violent beast. It's the Titanic about to test her might upon an iceberg. It's a catastrophe right out of a 70s disaster film.

MICHAEL STUTZ

"America is a 70s Disaster Film Starring Donald Trump", The Daily Caller, February 16, 2016


America is a nation of underdogs.

MARCO RUBIO

"For Marco Rubio, Is It Too Late to Be the Underdog?", ABC News, March 7, 2016

Tags: Marco Rubio


That is the true genius of America, a faith in the simple dreams of its people, the insistence on small miracles. That we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door. That we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe or hiring somebody's son. That we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution, and that our votes will be counted -- or at least, most of the time.

BARACK OBAMA

speech at 2004 Democratic Convention

Tags: Barack Obama, dreams


Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it, "all men are created equal except negroes." When the Know-nothings get control, it will read, "all men are created equal except negroes and foreigners and Catholics." When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty--to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

letter to Joshua F. Speed, Aug. 24, 1855

Tags: Abraham Lincoln, hypocrisy


How does the rest of the world feel about the United States? They are fans, according to a survey of [checks notes] Americans.

MARK BERMAN

"America is popular, according to Americans", Washington Post, February 25, 2016