4th Of July Week Quotes

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness....
- The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Concord Hymn." Sung at the completion of the battle monument, July 4, 1837.

The King's Majesty, by and with the consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons of Great Britain in Parliament assembled, had, hath, and of right ought to have full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America, subjects of the crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever. - The Declaratory Act (which repealed the Stamp Act), February, 1766.

Have we not been treated, formerly, with abominable insolence, by officers of the navy?.... Have not some generals from England treated us like servants, nay, more like slaves than Britons? Have we not been under the most ignominious contribution, the most abject submission, the most supercilious insults, of some custom-house officers? Have we not been trifled with, brow-beaten, and trampled on, by former governors, in a manner which no king of England since James the Second has dared to indulge toward his subjects? - John Adams, Dissertation on The Canon & The Feudal Law, 1765.

Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that in the beginning we aimed not at independence. But there's a divinity which shapes our ends.... Independence is now within our grasp. We have but to reach forth to it, and it is ours. - John Adams, speech favoring the Declaration of Independence, May, 1776.

But we shall not fail. The cause will raise up armies; the cause will raise up navies. The people, the people, if we are true to them, will carry us, and will carry themselves, gloriously through this struggle. - John Adams, speech favoring the Declaration of Independence, May, 1776.

Do we mean to submit, and consent that ourselves shall be ground to powder, and our country and its rights trodden down in the dust? I know we do not mean to submit. We shall never submit. - John Adams, speech favoring the Declaration of Independence, May, 1776.

The die was now cast; I had passed the Rubicon. Swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish with my country was my unalterable determination. - John Adams.

Mr. Locke has often been quoted in the present dispute between Britain and her colonies, and very much to our own purpose. - Samuel Adams.

Those who won our independence by revolution were not cowards. They did not fear political change. They did not exalt order at the cost of Liberty. - Justice Louis D. Brandeis, The Employer and Trade Unions.

Our revolution was mainly directed against the mere theory of tyranny. We had suffered but comparatively little; we had, in some respects, been kindly treated; but our intrepid and intelligent fathers saw, in the usurpation of the power to levy an inconsiderable tax, the long train of oppressive acts that were to follow. They rose; they breasted the storm; they achieved our freedom. - Henry Clay, speech in the U.S. Senate, January 19, 1819.

England is marked by a natural avarice of freedom, which she is studious to engross and accumulate, but most unwilling to impart; whether from any necessity of her policy, or from her weakness, or from her pride, I will not presume to say; but so is the fact... If it required additional confirmation I should state the case of the invaded American, and the subjugated Indian, to prove that the policy of England has ever been to govern her connections more as colonies than as allies; and it must be owing to the great spirit, indeed, of Ireland if she shall continue free. - John Philpot Curran, Court of The King's Bench, Ireland, January 29, 1794.

Our cause is just, our union is perfect. - John Dickinson, Declaration on taking up Arms in l775.

One hundred and eighty-one years ago our forefathers started a revolution that still goes on. - Dwight D. Eisenhower, address, April 19, 1956.

The ministry at London, in the unforseen result of their policy, with their own hands dug the grave of British supremacy on this continent upon the heights of Abraham, and buried it, never to rise again, beneath the monument of Wolfe and Montcalm. The ill-starred plan of new taxation, matured at London while the old colonial ties were strained to bursting, brought on the crisis; and in twelve years from the signature of the treaty of 1763, blood was shed Lexington Green. - Edward Everett, Eulogy of George Washington, February 22, 1856.

You and I were long friends: you are now my enemy, and I am yours. - Benjamin Franklin, Letter to William Strahan, July 5, 1775.

We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately. - Benjamin Franklin, At the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.

Libra Nos, Domine. — Deliver Us, O Lord,
Not only from British dependence, but also
From a junto that labor with absolute power,
Whose schemes disappointed have made them look sour,
From the lords of the council, who fight against freedom,
Who follow on where delusion shall lead them....
From a kingdom that bullies, and hectors, and swears,
We send up to heaven our wishes and prayers
That we, disunited, may freemen be still,
And Britain go on — to be damned if she will.
- Philip Freneau, “A Political Litany,” 1775.

You will march with the utmost expedition and secrecy to Concord, where you will seize all the artillery and ammunition you can find... - Orders to LTC Francis Smith from British General Gage.

It was a thing hardly to be expected, that in a popular revolution the minds of men should stop at that happy mean, which marks the salutary boundary between Power and Privilege, and combines the energy of government with the security of private rights. - Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist #26, December 22, 1787.

Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George III may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it. - Patrick Henry, “Call to Arms” speech, 2d Virgina Convention, St. Johns Church, Richmond, Virginia, 1775.

Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has more. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have so long been forging. - Patrick Henry, “Call to Arms” speech, 2d Virgina Convention, St. Johns Church, Richmond, Virginia, 1775.

Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjection; the last arguments to which kings resort. - Patrick Henry, “Call to Arms” speech, 2d Virgina Convention, St. Johns Church, Richmond, Virginia, 1775.

If we wish to be free – if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending – if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us. - Patrick Henry, “Call to Arms” speech, 2d Virginia Convention, St. Johns Church, Richmond, Virginia, 1775.

Gentlemen may cry peace, peace – but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the North will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms. - Patrick Henry, “Call to Arms” speech, 2d Virginia Convention, St. Johns Church, Richmond, Virginia, 1775.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentleman may cry “Peace, peace” — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! - Patrick Henry, “Call to Arms” speech, 2d Virginia Convention, St. Johns Church, Richmond, Virginia, 1775.

Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free — if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have so long been contending — if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon, until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained — we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is al that is eft us! - Patrick Henry, “Call to Arms” speech, 2d Virginia Convention, St. Johns Church, Richmond, Virginia, 1775.

The people seem to have laid aside the monarchial, and taken up the republican form of government, with as much ease as would have attended their throwing off an old, and putting on a new suit of clothes. Not a single throe has attended this important transformation. - Thomas Jefferson, letter to Ben Franklin.

The memory of the American Revolution will be immortal, and immortalize those who record it. - Thomas Jefferson, to D’Auberteuil, 1786.

They [Americans] are a rare race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging. - Samuel Johnson, March 27, 1775.

If there is any true fear respecting independence, it is because no plan is yet laid down. Men do not see their way. - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, January 10, 1776.

If they cannot conquer us, they cannot govern us. - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, January 10, 1776.

Examine the passions and feelings of mankind: Bring the doctrine of reconciliation to the touchstone of nature, and then tell me whether you can hereafter love, honor, and faithfully serve the power that hath carried fire and sword into your land? - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, January 10, 1776.

There are injuries which nature cannot forgive; she would cease to be nature if she did. As well can the lover forgive the ravisher of his mistress, as the continent forgive the murders of Britain. - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, January 10, 1776.

Britain is the parent country, say some. Then the more shame upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war on their families; wherefore, the assertion, if true, turns to her reproach. - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, January 10, 1776.

Though I would carefully avoid giving unnecessary offense, yet I am inclined to believe, that those who espouse the doctrine of reconciliation, may be included in the following descriptions.
Interested men, who are not to be trusted, weak men who cannot see, prejudiced men who will not see, and a certain set of moderate men who think better of the european world than it deserves; and this last class, by an ill-judged deliberation, will be the cause of more calamities to this continent than all the other three. - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, January 10, 1776.

Where is our redress? No going to law with nations; cannon are the barristers of crowns; and the sword, not of justice, but of war, decides the suit. - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, January 10, 1776.

Everything that is right or reasonable pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, ‘Tis Time to part.’ - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, January 10, 1776.

The taking up of arms, merely to enforce the repeal of a pecuniary law, seems as unwarrantable by divine law, and as repugnant to human feeling, as the taking up of arms to enforce obedience thereto. The object, on either side, doth not justify the means; for the lives of men are too valuable to be cast away on such trifles. It is the violence which is done and threatened to our persons; the destruction of our property by an armed force; the invasion of our country by fire and sword, which conscientiously qualifies the use of arms. - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, January 10, 1776.

A line of distinction should be drawn between English soldiers taken in battle, and inhabitants of America taken in arms [on the side of the English]. The first are prisoners, but the latter traitors. The one forfeits his liberty, the other his head. - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, January 10, 1776.

The present state of America is truly alarming to every man who is capable of reflection. Without law, without government, without any other mode of power than what is founded on, and granted by, courtesy. Held together by an unexampled occurrence of sentiment, which every secret enemy is endeavoring to dissolve. Our present conditions is, legislation without law; wisdom without a plan; a constitution without a name; and, what is strangely astonishing, perfect independence contending for dependence. - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, January 10, 1776.

The inhabitants of heaven long to see the ark finished, in which all the liberty and true religion of the world are to be deposited. The day in which the colonies declare their independence will be a jubilee to Hampden — Sidney — Russell — Warren — Gardiner — MacPherson — Cheesman, and all the other heroes who have offered themselves as sacrifices upon the alter of liberty. - Thomas Paine, “A Dialogue,” 1776.

We fight neither for revenge nor conquest; neither from pride nor passion; we are not insulting the world with our fleets and armies, nor ravaging the globe for plunder. Beneath the shade of our own vines are we attacked; in our own houses, and on our own lands, is the violence committed against us. We view our enemies in the character s of highwaymen and housebreakers, and having no defense for ourselves in the civil law, are obliged to punish them by the military one, and apply the sword. - Thomas Paine, "Epistle to the Quakers," 1776.

These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and women. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, 1776-1783.

If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country I never would lay down my arms, — never! never! never! - William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, Speech, Nov. 18, 1777.

Blandishments will not fascinate us, nor will threats of a “halter” intimidate. For, under God, we are determined that wheresoever, whensoever, or howsoever we shall be called to make our exit, we will die free men. - Josiah Quincy, American orator speaking in response to the Boston Port Bill, Boston, MA, 1774.

Since the beginning of our American history we have been engaged in change, in a perpetual, peaceful revolution, a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly, adjusting itself to changing conditions without the concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch. - Franklin D. Roosevelt, State of the Union Speech, January 6, 1941.

The Americans, it has been said, indeed, have no gold or silver money; the interior commerce of the country being carried on by a paper currency, and the gold and silver which occasionally come among them being all sent to Great Britain in return for the commodities which they receive from us. But without gold and silver, it is added, there is no possibility of paying taxes. We already get all the gold and silver which they have. How is it possible to draw from them what they have not?
The present scarcity of gold and silver money in America is not the effect of the poverty of that country, or of the inability of the people there to purchase those metals. In a country where the wages of labor are so much higher, and the price of provisions so much lower than in England, the greater part of the people must surely have wherewithal to purchase a greater quantity if it were either necessary or convenient for them to do so. The scarcity of those metals, therefore, must be the effect of choice, and not of necessity.
It is for transacting either domestic or foreign business that gold and silver money is either necessary or convenient. - Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776.

If the colonies, notwithstanding their refusal to submit to British taxes, are still to be considered as provinces of the British empire, their defense in some future war may cost Great Britain as great an expense as it ever has done in any former war. The rulers of Great Britain have, for more than a century past, amused the people with the imagination that they possessed a great empire on the west side of the Atlantic. This empire, however, has hitherto existed in imagination only.... It is surely now time that our rulers should either realize this golden dream, in which they have been indulging themselves, perhaps, as well as the people, or that they should awake from it themselves, and endeavor to awaken the people. If the project cannot be completed, it ought to be given up. If any of the provinces of the British empire cannot be made to contribute towards the support of the whole empire, it is surely time that Great Britain should free herself from the expense of defending those provinces in time of war, and of supporting any part of their civil or military establishments in time of peace, and endeavor to accommodate her future views and designs to the real mediocrity of her circumstances. - Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776.

The Revolution of the United States was the result of mature and reflecting preference of freedom, and not of a vague or ill-defined craving for independence. - Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835.

The time is now at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unknown millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this Army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of a brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have therefore, to resolve to conquer or to die. - George Washington, address to the troops before the battle of Long Island, 1776.

To see men without clothes to cover their nakedness, without blankets to lay on, without shoes, by which their marches might be traced by the blood from their feet, and almost as often without provisions as with; marching through frost and snow, and at Christmas taking up their winter quarters within a days march of the enemy, without a house or hut to cover them till they could be built, and submitting to it without a murmur, is a mark of patience and obedience which in my opinion can scarce be paralleled. - General George Washington, about Valley Forge.

Sir, I have the Honor to inform Congress, that a reduction of the British Army under the Command of Lord Cornwallis is happily affected. The unremitting Ardor which actuated every Officer and Soldier in the combined Army in this occasion, has principally led to this Important event, at an earlier period than my most sanguine hope had induced me to expect. - General George Washington.

When men are irritated and their passions inflamed, they fly hastily and cheerfully to arms: but, after the first emotions are over... a soldier reasoned with upon the goodness of the cause he is engaged in and the inestimable rights he is contending for, hears you with patience and acknowledges the truth of our observations, but adds that it is of no more importance to him than others. The officer makes you the same reply, with this further remark, that his pay will not support him, and he cannot ruin himself and his family to serve his country, when every member of the community is equally interested and benefitted by his labors. - General George Washington.

Venerable men! You have come down to us from a former generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened out your lives, that you might behold this joyous day. - Daniel Webster, Address on laying the Corner-Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, 1825.

On this question of principle, while actual suffering was yet afar off, they [the Colonies] raised their flag against a power to which, for purposes of foreign conquest and subjugation, Rome in the height of her glory is not to be compared, — a power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts, whose morning drum-beat, following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England. - Daniel Webster, Speech, May 7, 1834.

As for America, it is the ideal fruit of all of your youthful hopes and dreams. - Henry Adams.

It is the will of heaven that the two countries should be sundered forever. It may be the will of heaven that America shall suffer calamities still more wasting and distresses yet more dreadful. If this is to be the case, it will have this good effect, at least: it will inspire us with many virtues which we have not, and correct many errors, follies and vices, which threaten to disturb, dishonor and destroy us... The furnace of affliction produces refinements in states, as well as individuals. - John Adams,

Let us read and recollect and impress upon our souls the views and ends of our more immediate forefathers, in exchanging their native country for a dreary, inhospitable wilderness. Let us examine into the nature of that power, and the cruelty of that oppression, which drove them from their homes. Recollect their amazing fortitude, their bitter sufferings — the hunger, the nakedness, the cold, which they patiently endured — the severe labor of clearing their grounds, building their houses, raising their provisions, amidst dangers from wild beasts and savage men, before they had time or money or materials for commerce.... Let us recollect it was liberty, the hope of liberty for themselves and us and ours, which conquered all discouragements, dangers and trials. - John Adams, Dissertation on The Canon & Feudal Law, 1765.

I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant, and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth. - John Adams, in his notes for, Dissertation on The Canon & Feudal Law, 1765.

America is a great, unwieldy body. Its progress must be slow. It is like a large fleet sailing under convoy. The Fleetest sailors.... must wait for the dullest and slowest. - John Adams, Letter to Abigail Adams, June 17, 1775.

While other states are desolated with foreign war or convulsed with intestine divisions, the United States present the pleasing prospect of a nation governed by mild and equal laws, generally satisfied with the possession of the rights, neither envying the advantages nor fearing the power of other nations, solicitous only for the maintenance of order and justice and the preservation of liberty, increasing daily in their attachment to a system of government in proportion to their experience of its utility, yielding a ready and general obedience to laws flowing from the reason and resting on the only solid foundation - the affections of the people. - President John Adams, speech to Congress on the XYZ Affair, Philadelphia, PA, May 16, 1797.

Whenever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will be America’s heart, her benedictions and her prayers. But she does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. - John Quincy Adams, Address, July 4, 1821.

driven from every other corner of the earth, Freedom of Thought and The Right of Private Judgement in matters of conscience direct their course to this happy country as their last asylum. - Samuel Adams, speech, 1776.

So at last I was going to America! Really, really going, at last! The boundaries burst. The arch of heaven soared. A million suns shone out of every star. The winds rushed into outerspace, roaring in my ears, "America! America!" - Mary Antin, The Promised Land, 1912.

I like it here because it is the great void where you have to balance without handholds. - W. H. Auden.

America, thou half-brother of the world; With something good and bad of every land. - Philip James Baily.

I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. - James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son.

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shinning sea!
- Katherine Lee Bates, America The Beautiful.

America has never forgotten – and will never forget – the nobler things that brought her into being and that light her path.... - Bernard Baruch.

It is a noble land that God has given us: a land that can feed and clothe the world; a land whose coastlines would enclose half the countries of Europe; a land set like a sentinel between two imperial oceans of the globe. - Albert J. Beveridge.

Un-American, adj. Wicked, intolerable, heathenish. - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1911.

America has believed that in differentiation, not in uniformity, lies the path of progress. It acted on this belief; it has advanced human happiness, and it has prospered. - Louis D. Brandeis.

Anglo-Saxon civilization has taught the individual to protect his own rights; American civilization will teach him to respect the rights of others. - William Jennings Bryan.

America excites an admiration which must be felt on the spot to be understood. - James Bryce.

Almighty god, the American people render thanksgiving and praise for the new era of civilization brought forth upon this continent.
Centuries of tyrannical oppression sent to these shores, God-fearing men to seek in freedom the guidance of the benevolent hand in the progress toward wisdom, goodness toward men, and piety toward god. - William Andrew Burkett, America’s Glorious History.

Holding no fear of the economic and political, chaotic clouds hovering over the earth, the consecrated Americans dedicate this nation before God, to exalt righteousness and to maintain mankind’s constituted liberties so long as the earth shall endure. - William Andrew Burkett, America’s Glorious History.

There is America, which at this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories of savage men and uncouth manners, yet shall, before you taste of death, show itself equal to the whole of that commerce which now attracts the envy of the world. - Edmund Burke, Conciliation With America, 1775.

This is America: the knights of Columbus, the Grange, Hadassah, the Disabled American Veterans, the Order of Ahepa, the Business and professional Women of America, the union hall, the Bible study group, LULAC, Holy Name — a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky. - George Bush.

I see America as the leader, a unique nation with a special role in the world. - George Bush, Acceptance speech, Republican National Convention, August 18, 1988.

America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world. - George Bush, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1989.

History has called America and our allies to action, and it is both our responsibility and our privilege to fight freedom's fight. - President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 29, 2002.

September the 11th brought out the best in America, and the best in this Congress. And I join the American people in applauding your unity and resolve. Now Americans deserve to have this same spirit directed toward addressing problems here at home. I'm a proud member of my party -- yet as we act to win the war, protect our people, and create jobs in America, we must act, first and foremost, not as Republicans, not as Democrats, but as Americans. - President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 29, 2002.

America will lead by defending liberty and justice because they are right and true and unchanging for all people everywhere. - President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 29, 2002.

For many Americans, these four months have brought sorrow, and pain that will never completely go away. Every day a retired firefighter returns to Ground Zero, to feel closer to his two sons who died there. At a memorial in New York, a little boy left his football with a note for his lost father: Dear Daddy, please take this to heaven. I don't want to play football until I can play with you again some day. - President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 29, 2002.

The American flag flies again over our embassy in Kabul. - President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 29, 2002.

During these last few months, I've been humbled and privileged to see the true character of this country in a time of testing. Our enemies believed America was weak and materialistic, that we would splinter in fear and selfishness. They were as wrong as they are evil. The American people have responded magnificently, with courage and compassion, strength and resolve. As I have met the heroes, hugged the families, and looked into the tired faces of rescuers, I have stood in awe of the American people. - President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 29, 2002.

As we gather tonight, our nation is at war, our economy is in recession, and the civilized world faces unprecedented dangers. Yet the state of our Union has never been stronger. - President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 29, 2002.

For too long our culture has said, "If it feels good, do it." Now America is embracing a new ethic and a new creed: "Let's roll." In the sacrifice of soldiers, the fierce brotherhood of firefighters, and the bravery and generosity of ordinary citizens, we have glimpsed what a new culture of responsibility could look like. We want to be a nation that serves goals larger than self. We've been offered a unique opportunity, and we must not let this moment pass. - President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 29, 2002.

None of us would ever wish the evil that was done on September the 11th. Yet after America was attacked, it was as if our entire country looked into a mirror and saw our better selves. We were reminded that we are citizens, with obligations to each other, to our country, and to history. - President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 29, 2002.

Homeland security will make America not only stronger, but, in many ways, better. Knowledge gained from bioterrorism research will improve public health. Stronger police and fire departments will mean safer neighborhoods. Stricter border enforcement will help combat illegal drugs. (Applause.) And as government works to better secure our homeland, America will continue to depend on the eyes and ears of alert citizens. - President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 29, 2002.

Every nation should know that, for America, the war on terror is not just a policy, it's a pledge. I will not relent in this struggle for the freedom and security of my country and the civilized world. - President George W. Bush, Remarks by the President on the Six-Month Anniversary of the September 11th Attacks The South Lawn, March 11, 2002.

Yet we are a different nation today -- sadder and stronger, less innocent and more courageous, more appreciative of life, and for many who serve our country, more willing to risk life in a great cause. - President George W. Bush, Address to the Nation, The Cross Hall, June 6, 2002.

History has called our nation into action. History has placed a great challenge before us: Will America -- with our unique position and power -- blink in the face of terror, or will we lead to a freer, more civilized world? There's only one answer: This great country will lead the world to safety, security, peace and freedom. - President George W. Bush, Address to the Nation, The Cross Hall, June 6, 2002.

Our American values are not luxuries but necessities — not the salt in our bread but the bread itself. Our common vision of a free and just society is our greatest source of cohesion at home and strength abroad – greater than the bounty our material blessings. - Jimmy Carter, Farewell Address, January 14, 1981.

Silly people, and there were many, not only in enemy countries, might discount the force of the United States. Some said they were soft, others that they would never be United. - Winston Churchill.

Never again let us hear the taunt that money is the ruling thought or power in the hearts of the American democracy. The Lend and Lease Bill must be regarded without question as the most unsordid act in the whole of recorded history. - Winston Churchill, speech, Mansion House, London, November 10, 1941.

The price of Greatness is responsibility. If the people of the United States had continued in a mediocre station, struggling with the wilderness, absorbed in their own affairs and a factor of no consequence in the movement of the world, they might have remained forgotten and undisturbed beyond their own protecting oceans: but one cannot rise to be in many ways the leading community in the civilized world without being involved in its problems, without being convulsed by its agonies and inspired by its causes. - Winston Churchill, speech, Guildhall, London,June 30, 1943.

Nor should it be supposed as you would imagine, to read some of the Left-wing newspaper, that all Americans are multi-millionaires of Wall Street. If they were all multi-millionaires that would be no reason for condemning a system which has produced such material results. - Winston Churchill, speech, Royal Albert Hall, London, April 21, 1948.

We have reached a hillside from whose top the future of America may be viewed. But who can ascend it without a feeling of doubt and terror? Is it to be the America which all of us loved to paint in our boyish days — free, happy and prosperous, inculcating by its precepts, and enforcing by its example, a deep love of law and order; offering a refuge and asylum to the fugitive from oppression; cultivating with assiduous care the arts of peace, and illustrating all the mild beauties of Christianity? Or is it to be that America which "progress," "manifest destiny," and "overruling necessity," are now seeking to make it, where freedom will be lost amid the clash of arms, and the wail of every good spirit will rise above the crushed and broken hope of man's capacity to govern himself?.... Our country is at the stake, and he who loves it as he ought should pause and ponder long and well before tampering, in any way, with so high and holy a trust. - Jeremiah Clemens, Speech in the U.S. Senate, February 7, 1853.

Sir: As I know you will be rejoiced at the glorious success that our Lord has given me in my voyage, I write this to tell you how the illustrious King and Queen, our sovereigns, gave me, where I discovered a great many islands, inhabited by numberless people; and of all I have taken possession for their Highness by proclamation and display of the Royal Standard without opposition. To the first island I discovered I gave the name of San Salvador, in commemoration of His Divine Majesty, who has wonderfully granted all this.... The second I named the Island of Santa Maria de Concepcion; the third, Fernandina; the fourth, Isabella; the fifth, Juana; and thus to each one I gave a new name.... I found no towns or villages on the sea-coast, except a few small settlements, where it was impossible to speak to the people, because they fled at once.... I sent two men to find out whether there was any king or large city. They explored for three days, and found countless small communities and people, without number, but with no kind of government, so they returned....
At every point where I landed, and succeeded in talking to them, I gave them some of everything I had—cloth and many other things—without receiving anything in return, but they are hopelessly timid people. It is true that since they have gained more confidence and are losing their fear, they are so unsuspicious and so generous with what they possess, that no one who had not seen it would believe it. They never refuse anything that is asked for. They even offer it themselves, and show so much love that they would give their very hearts. - Christopher Columbus, letter to Luis de Sant Angel announcing his discovery of the Americas, 1493.

Our tradition is one of protest and revolt, and it is stultifying to celebrate the rebels of the past... while we silence the rebels of the present. - Henry Steele Commager, Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent, 1959.

There are nobler things in life than wealth and power; there are far richer treasures for the citizen than lie hidden in the mine, for neither the vast outlines of our domain, nor the illimitable wealth within its borders, neither the grandeur of our encircling mountains, nor the beauty of our silver streams, neither rapidly multiplying States, populous cities, nor the unrivaled expanse of rural cultivation, can awaken in the breast such emotions of pride and patriotism as the unfaltering belief that, through all, and over all this glorious land, are established such laws and such institutions as will preserve forever, as the irreversible inheritance of the American people, “the absolute equality of manhood, and the universal enjoyment of equal rights.” - Omar D. Conger, speech, House of Representatives, January 11, 1876.

The church needed by the American future must be scientific, biblical, and practical. - Joseph Cook, address in NYC, July 4, 1884.

God's plans for the future are as majestic as those for the past; and so it ought to be worth something now to foresee what can be in America, and, therefore, probably will be, and to go out far in the dark beneath the wing under which infinities and eternities brood; for we know that the wing is there even in the dark. - Joseph Cook, address in NYC, July 4, 1884.

The Roman eagles, when their wings were strongest, never flew so far as from Plymouth Rock to the Golden Gate. The longest straight line that can be drawn inside the limits of the old Roman Empire will not reach from Boston to San Francisco.
Neither Caesar's empire nor Alexander's had the vast and multiplex physical opportunities possessed by America. - Joseph Cook, address in NYC, July 4, 1884.

Once in the blue midnight, in my study on Beacon Hill, in Boston, I fell into long thought as I looked out on the land and on the sea; and passing through the gate of dreams, I saw the angel having charge of America stand in the air, above the continent, and his wings shadowed either shore. Around him were gathered all who at Valley Forge and at Andersonville and other sacred places suffered for the preservation of a virtuous Republic; and they conversed of what was and is to be. There was about the angel a multitude whom no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and tribes and tongues; and their voices were as the sound of many waters. And I heard thunderings and saw lightnings; but the face of the angel was above the brightness of the lightnings and the majesty of his words above that of the thunders. - Joseph Cook, address in NYC. July 4, 1884.

One is a distincter man if he can root himself somewhere and grow with the neighborhood; he gains in depth, significance, flavor, absorbs a local tradition and spirit, sees himself as part of a continuing whole. If this is no longer possible to our shifting life perhaps we can make America itself a neighborhood and absorb that. - Charles Horton Cooley, Life and The Student.

This country would not be a land of opportunity, America would not be America, if the people were shackled with government monopolies. - Calvin Coolidge, speech, August 14, 1924.

Is the American spirit so degenerated, notwithstanding these advantages, that the love of liberty is more predominant and warm in the breast of a Briton than in that of an American? When liberty is on a more solid foundation here than in Britain, will Americans be less ready to maintain and defend it than Britons? No, sir; the spirit of liberty and independence of the people of this country, at present, is such that they could not be enslaved under any government that could be described. What danger is there, then, to be apprehended from a government which is theoretically perfect, and the possible blemishes of which can only be demonstrated by actual experience? - Francis Corbin, Virginia Constitutional Convention, June 7, 1788.

Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. - Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crevecoer.

We believe we must be the heart of America, recognizing that at the heart of the matter we are bound one to another. - Mario Cuomo.

Fifty-six years have ripened this confederated nation to a condition of unprecedented and uncontestable greatness; greatness in extent; greatness in resources; greatness in moral and intellectual character; greatness in political structure and jurisprudence; greatness in the renown which follows just and successful wars; and greatness which results from the acquisition of a before unknown sum of human contentment and freedom. Providence has smiled upon the work of our progenitors, and has blessed its progress....
Who is there, sir, that seeing this great result of our councils and forecasts can desire a change in the organic structure or practical legislation by which it has been effected. - George M. Dallas, speech in Senate. February 27, 1832.

Long live the United States of America! Filled with the free, magnanimous spirit, crowned by the wisdom, blessed by the moderation, hovered over by the guardian angel of washington’s example, may they be ever worthy in all things to be defended by the blood of the brave who know the rights of man and shrink not from their assertion; may they be each a column, and all together, under the Constitution, a perpetual Temple of Peace, unshadowed by a Caesar’s palace, at whose alter may freely commune all who seek the union of liberty and brotherhood. - John W. Daniel, speech, House of Representatives, February 21, 1885.

Long live the Republic of Washington! Respected by mankind, beloved of all its sons, long may it be the asylum of the poor and oppressed of all lands and religions — long may it be the citadel of that liberty which writes beneath the eagle’s folded wings, “We will sell to no man, we will deny to no man, right and justice.” - John W. Daniel, speech, House of Representatives, February 21, 1885.

The United States of America — the greatest potential force, material, moral, and spiritual, in the world. - Goldsworthy L. Dickenson.

The United States came into being when much of the world was ruled by alien despots. That was a fact we hoped to change. We wanted our example to stimulate liberating forces throughout the world and create a climate in which despotism would shrink. In fact, we did just that. - John Foster Dulles. Secretary of Defense, April 22, 1957.

Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion. – Dwight David Eisenhower.

The occasion has come for us to manifest again our national unity in support of freedom and to show our deep respect for the rights and independence of every nation – however great, however small. We seek not violence, but peace. To this purpose we must now devote our energies, our determination, ourselves. - Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America. - Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1st Inaugural Address. January 20, 1953.

Throughout America’s adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. - Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address, January 17, 1961.

We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of them involved our own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. - Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address, January 17, 1961.

Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect. - Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address, January 17, 1961.

America is woven of many strands; I would recognize them and let them so remain.... Our fate is to become one and yet many... - Ralph Ellison.

The office of America is to liberate, to abolish kingcraft, priestcraft, caste, monopoly, to pull down the gallows, to burn up the bloody statute book, to take in the immigrant, to open the doors of the sea and the fields of the earth. - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Our voyage is on a well known sea, the course laid down on faithful charts, and the shores and the heavens pointed out and described by those who have preceded us; but Washington and the men of his age were compelled against adverse tempests, to sound their way along the unvisited coasts of republican government and constitutional liberty. - Edward Everett, eulogy of George Washington, February 22, 1856.

Years pass by; the august plan of providence ripens; the beloved and revered chieftain [Washington], aided by his patriotic associates, carries the bleeding country through another seven years’ war — hard apprenticeship of freedom; the great European antagonist [France] and rival of England, revenging the loss of her American colonies, and moved by the personal ardor of Lafayette throws her sword into the scale — thirteen independent State governments succeed to as many colonies — peace crowns the work — the wounds of the Revolution are slowly healed — America takes her place in the family of nations — and a Constitution of Confederate Union, the bright consummate flower of our political growth, is formed. - Edward Everett, eulogy of George Washington, February 22, 1856.

America's a hard school, I know, but hard schools make excellent graduates. - Priana Fallaci, Penelope at War, 1966.

The American cause seemed our own; we were proud of their victories, we cried at their defeats, we tore down bulletins and read them in our houses. None of us reflected on the danger that the New World could give the old. - Vicomtesse de Fars-Fausselandry.

The difference in America is that the women have always gone along. When you read the history of France you're peeking through a bedroom keyhole. The history of England is a joust. The Womenfolk were always Elaineish and anemic, it seems.... But here in this land... the women, they've been the real hewers of wood and drawers of water. You'll want to remember that. - Edna Ferber, Cimarron, 1929.

I have no hostility to foreigners.... Having witnessed their deplorable condition in the old country, God forbid I should add to their sufferings by refusing them an asylum in this. - Milard Filmore, speech in New York, 1856.

The United States — bounded on the north by the Aurora Borealis, on the south by the procession of the equinoxes, on the east by the primeval chaos, and on the west by the Day of Judgement. - John Fiske.

France was a land, England was a people, but America, having about it still that quality of the idea, was harder to utter — it was the graves at Shilo and the tired, drawn, nervous faces of its great men, and the country boys dying in the Argonne for a phrase that was empty before their bodies withered. It was a willingness of the heart. - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-Up.

Our country is still young and its potential is still enormous. We should remember, as we look toward the future, that the more fully we believe in and achieve freedom and equal opportunity — not simply for ourselves but for others — the greater our accomplishments as a nation will be. - Henry Ford II.

America is rather like life. You can usually find in it what you look for.... It will probably be interesting, and it is sure to be large. - E. M. Forester.

We go forth all to seek America. And in the seeking we create her. In the quality of our search shall be the nature of the America that we created. - Waldo Frank.

What distinguishes America is not its greater or lesser goodness, but simply its unrivaled power to do that which is good or bad. - Mark Frankland.

We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately. - Benjamin Franklin after signing the Declaration of Independence, 1776.

COLUMBIA, hail! Immortal be thy reign:
Without a king, we till the smiling plain;
Without a king, we trace the unbounded sea,
And traffic round the globe, through each degree;
Each foreign clime our honored flag reveres,
Which asks no monarch, to support the STARS:
Without a KING, the laws maintain their sway,
While honor bids each generous heart obey.
- Philip Freneau, “On Mr. Paines Rights of Man,” 1795.

Tallyrand once said to the first Napoleon that “the United States is a giant without bones.” Since that time our gristle has been rapidly hardening. - James A. Garfield, speech, July 2, 1873.

It is in the heart of this new born republic [America] that the true treasures that will enrich the world will lie. - Abbe' Gentil.

Whatever the arguments this remains a country of unparalleled possibilities. I was talking the other day to a fellow who does business in Europe. He said what impresses people overseas is that the U.S. can change faster than anybody. That's why we're competitive once again in the world. We as a people have the natural ability to respond to change. That is what we do best when the government is not in the way. Our potential is as great and prosperous as it's ever been in our history. From now on all roads lead forward. - House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Address to the Nation, April 7, 1995.

If I had one message for this country on this day when we celebrate the act of keeping our word, it would be a simple message: Idealism is American. To be romantic is American. It's okay to be a skeptic, but don't be a cynic. It's okay to raise good questions, but don't assume the worst. It's okay to report difficulties, but it's equally good to report victories. - House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Address to the Nation, April 7, 1995.

I am here tonight to say that we're going to open a dialogue, because we want to create a new partnership with the American people, a plan to remake the government and balance the budget that is the American peoples' plan — not the House Republican plan, not the Gingrich plan, but the plan of the American people. And it is in that spirit of committing ourselves idealistically, committing ourselves romantically, believing in America, that we celebrate having kept our word. And we promise to begin a new partnership, so that together we and the American people can give our children and our country a new birth of freedom. - House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Address to the Nation, April 7, 1995.

It is my firm conviction that the civilized world is tending toward republicanism, or government by the people, through their chosen representatives, and that our own great Republic is destined to be the guiding star to all others. - Ulysses S. Grant, inaugural address, March 4, 1873.

The United States is like a gigantic boiler. Once the fire is lighted under it there is no limit to the power it can generate. - Edward Gray, Attributed by Churchill.

This is America today:
A country where children play;
A land of men and women free
To speak their thoughts, whate’er they be,
Who need not fear, if voices rise,
The telltale tongues of tyrant spies.
This is America I sing:
A land of gardens in the spring;
Of streams to troll and hills to climb
And two weeks, called “vacation time”;
A land where men and women find
Both self-respect and peace of mind.
This is America:
A spot
Where ancient hatreds flourish not.
A land of merriment and song
Despite whatever may be wrong,
Which at its worst if better far
Than states totalitarian are.
- Edgar Guest, America, 1939.

A certain sesquipedalianism [use of long words] is natural to Americans: witness our press editorials, our Fourth of July orations, and the public messages of all our Presidents since Lincoln. - Louise Imogen Guiney.

Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America, then I discovered that the immigrants were American history. - Oscar Handlin.

Ideals are the "incentive payment" of practical men. The opportunity to strive for them is the currency that has enriched America through the centuries. - Robert E. Hannegan.

America’s present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not surgery but serenity; not the dramatic but the dispassionate; not experiment but equipoise; not submergence in internationality but sustainment in triumphant nationality. - Warren G. Harding, speech in Boston, May 14, 1920.

The Yankee intermingles with the Illinoisian, the Hoossier with the Sucker, and the people of the South with them all; and it is this commingling which gives that unity which marks the American nation. - Benjamin Harrison, speech in San Diego, April 23, 1891.

In the darkest period of the war, when our country stood single-handed against "the conqueror of the conquerors of the world," when all about and around was dark and dreary, disastrous and discouraging, they stood, a Spartan band in that narrow pass, where the honor of their country was to be defended, or to find its grave. - Robert Young Hayne, speech in the U.S. Senate, January 26, 1830.

The breaking waves dashed high
On a stern and rock-bound coast,
And the woods against a stormy sky
Their giant branches tossed.
- Felicia D. Hemans, Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers.

Ay, call it holy ground,
The soil where first they trod:
They have left unstained what there they found, —
Freedom to worship God.
- Felicia D. Hemans, Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers.

America... a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far reaching in purpose. - Herbert Hoover.

Hail, Columbia! happy land!
Hail, ye heroes! heaven-born band!
Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause,
And when the storm of war was gone,
Enjoyed the peace your valor won.
Let independence be our boast,
Ever mindful what it cost;
Ever grateful for the prize,
Let its altar reach the skies!
- Joseph Hopkinson, Hail, Columbia! 1798.

American Religion: Work, play, breathe, bathe, study, live, laugh, and love. - Elbert Hubbard.

I am certain that, however great the hardships and the trails which loom ahead, our America will endure and the cause of human freedom will triumph. - Cordell Hull.

Our federal Union: it must be preserved. - Andrew Jackson, toast given at the Jefferson Birthday Celebration, 1830.

At every hazard, and by every sacrifice, this Union must be preserved. - Andrew Jackson, farewell address, 1840.

Under our free institutions the citizens in every quarter of our country are capable of attaining a high degree of prosperity and happiness, without seeking to profit themselves at the expense of others. - Andrew Jackson, farewell address, 1840.

This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence. - John Jay, The Federalist #2, October 31, 1787.

As a nation we have made peace and war – as a nation we have vanquished our common enemies.... - John Jay, The Federalist #2, October 31, 1787.

I do believe we shall continue to grow, to multiply and prosper until we exhibit an association powerful, wise, and happy beyond what has bee seen by man. - Thomas Jefferson.

I much prefer the climate of the United States to that of Europe. I think it a more cheerful one. It is our cloudless sky which has eradicated from our constitutions all disposition to hang ourselves, which we might otherwise have inherited from our English ancestors. - Thomas Jefferson.

My God! how little do my countrymen know what precious blessings that they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy. - Thomas Jefferson, Letter to James Monroe. June 17, 1785.

And shall we refuse the unhappy fugitives from distress that hospitality which the savages of the wilderness extended to our fathers arriving in this land? Shall oppressed humanity find no asylum on this globe? The Constitution, indeed, has wisely provided that, for admission to certain offices of important trust, a residence shall be required sufficient to develop character and design. But might not the general character and capabilities of a citizen be safely communicated to every one manifesting a bona fide purpose of embarking his life and fortune permanently with us? - Thomas Jefferson, first annual message, 1801.

A rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas with the rich productions of their industry, engaged in commerce with nations who feel power and forget right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of the mortal eye — then I contemplate these transcendent objects, and see the honor, the happiness, and the hopes of this beloved country committed to the issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking. - Thomas Jefferson, first inaugural address. March 4, 1801.

The station which we occupy among the nations of the earth is honorable, but awful. Trusted with the destinies of this solitary republic of the world, the only monument of human rights, and the sole depository of the sacred fire of freedom and self-government, from hence it is to be lighted. - Thomas Jefferson, to the citizens of Washington. March 4, 1809.

Our lot has been cast, by the favor of heaven, in a country and under circumstances, highly auspicious to our peace and prosperity, and where no pretence can arise for the degrading and oppressive establishments of Europe. - Thomas Jefferson, to the Republican delegates of Washington County, Pennsylvania, 1809.

We of the United States, you know, are constitutionally and conscientiously democrats. - Thomas Jefferson, to Dupont de Nemours, 1816,

We exist, and are quoted, as standing proofs that a government, so modelled as to rest continually on the will of the whole society, is a practicable government. Were we to break to pieces, it would damp the hopes and efforts of the good, and give triumph to those of the bad through the whole enslaved world. - Thomas Jefferson, Letter R. Rush. 1820.

Forgetting the past, let us return to the first principles of the government, and, unfurling the banner of our country, inscribe upon it, in ineffaceable characters, “The Constitution and the Union, one and inseparable.” - Andrew Johnson, March 4, 1869.

America has meant to the world a land in which the common man who means well and is willing to do his part has access to all the necessary means of a good life. - Alvin Saunders Johnson.

If there is one word that describes our form of society in America, it may be the word – voluntary. - Lyndon B. Johnson.

This, then, is the state of the union: free and restless, growing and full of hope. So it was in the beginning. So it shall always be, while God is willing, and we are strong enough to keep the faith. - Lyndon B. Johnson.

We are a nation of lovers and not a nation of haters. We are a land of good homes, decent wages and decent medical care for the aged. Yes, we want a land of hope and happiness, but never a land of harshness and hate. - Lyndon B. Johnson, speech in Harrisburg Penn, September 10, 1964.

Our own freedom and growth have never been the final goal of the American dream. We were never meant to be an oasis of liberty and abundance in a worldwide desert of disappointed dreams. Our Nation was created to help strike away the chains of ignorance and misery and tyranny wherever they keep man less than God wants him to be. - Lyndon B. Johnson, State of The Union Address, January 4, 1965.

For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the un-climbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground. - Lyndon B. Johnson, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1965.

Our enemies have always made the same mistake. In my lifetime – in depression and in war – they have awaited our defeat. Each time, from the secret places of the American heart, came forth the faith they could not see or that they could not imagine. It brought us victory. And it will again. - Lyndon B. Johnson, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1965.

The promise of America is a simple promise: Every person shall share in the blessings of this land. And they shall share on the basis of their merits as a person. They shall not be judged by their color or by their beliefs, or by their religion, or by where they were born, or the neighborhood in which they live. - Lyndon B. Johnson, White House News conference, March 13, 1965.

Over the years the ancestors of all of us--some 42 million human beings--have migrated to these shores. The fundamental, long-time American attitude has been to ask not where a person comes from but what are his personal qualities. On this basis men and women migrated from every quarter of the globe. By their hard work and their enormously varied talents they hewed a great nation out of a wilderness. By their dedication to liberty and equality, they created a society reflecting man’s most cherished ideas. - Lyndon B. Johnson, Message to Congress, January 13, 1965.

What the people want is very simple - they want an America as good as its promise. - Barbara Jordan.

America is not only the cauldron of democracy, but the incubator of democratic principles. - Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, speech, U.S. House of Representatives, February 18, 1943.

[America is] a practical country with small respect for the dark side of the moon. - Younghill Kang, East Goes West, 1937.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.
- Francis Scott Key, The Star-Spangled Banner, 1814.

And the star-spangled banner, oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
- Francis Scott Key, The Star-Spangled Banner, September 14, 1814.

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto, "In God is our trust!"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
- Francis Scott Key, The Star-Spangled Banner, September 14, 1814.

Much of the world now bears the imprint of the creative American spirit. We have achieved great things, and even greater achievement is needed to master the future. In a world of new complexities and high hopes, Americans can show once again that we will meet our challenges. - Henry Kissenger, address at Georgetown University, June 28, 1977.

America's economic vitality is our greatest asset. It is the product of the creative spirit of a free and industrious people and of an economic system that gives opportunity to private incentive. It is the foundation of our prosperity, our military strength, and constructive relationships in a world of peace. - Henry Kissenger, address at Georgetown University. June 28, 1977.

We are not just any nation. - Henry Kissenger, lecture, New York University, September 19, 1977.

Simplicity of manners, willingness to oblige, love of country and of liberty and an easy equality prevail here. - Marquis de Lafayette.

If the liberties of the American people are ever destroyed, they will fall by the hands of the clergy. - Marquis de Lafayette.

May this great monument, raised to Liberty, serve as a lesson to the oppressor, and as an example to the oppressed! - Marquis de Lafayette.

My countrymen, know one another, and you will Love one another. - Lucius Q. C. Lamar, House of Representatives. April 27, 1874.

The heroic message of the American future. It is the inspiration of thousands of Americans today, the best souls of today, man and women. And it is a message that only in America can be fully understood, finally accepted. - D. H. Lawrence, Studies in Classic American Literature.

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
- Emma Lazarus, "The New Colossus." inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, 1886.

We are a nation of immigrants. It is immigrants who brought to this land the skill of their hands and brains to make of it a beacon of opportunity and of hope for all men. - Herbert H. Lehman.

Intellectually I know that America is no better than any other country; emotionally I know she is better than every other country. - Sinclair Lewis.

Although America is a melting-pot, its citizens will blend together and live harmoniously only if they are willing, not to discard their heritage, but to recognize that they are first and foremost Americans. - Rush Limbaugh, See I Told You So, 1993.

Don't believe the doomsayers. Don't believe the negativity mongers. Don't believe the America-bashers — even if one of them is the president of the United States. Don't buy into the lie that punishing high achievers will bring you happiness. Your own success — born of your own ingenuity and industry —is what will make you happy.
This is still America. And America is not over. - Rush Limbaugh, See I Told You So, 1993.

Whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some transatlantic giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River, or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author. As a nation of free men we shall live forever or die by suicide. - Abraham Lincoln, 1837.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we must live through all time or die by suicide. - Abraham Lincoln, address on the “Perpetuation of our Political Institution.”

A nation may be said to consist of its territory, its people, and its laws. The territory is the only part which is of certain durability. Laws change, people die; the land remains. - Abraham Lincoln, Message to Congress, December 1, 1862.

That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. - Abraham Lincoln, Speech at Gettysburg, Nov. 19, 1863.

Thus, in the beginning, all the world was America, and more so than that is now. - John Locke, The True End of Civil Government, 1690.

I would rather see the United States respected than loved by other nations. - Henry Cabot Lodge.

True Americanism is opposed utterly to any political divisions resting on race and religion. To the race or to the sect which as such attempts to take possession of the politics or the public education of the country true Americanism says, “Hands off!” - Henry Cabot Lodge, Americanism.

That nation has not lived in vain which has given the world Washington and Lincoln, The best great men and the greatest good men whom history can show. - Henry Cabot Lodge, address before the Massachusetts legislature, 1909.

To me Americanism means... an imperative duty to be nobler than the rest of the world. - Meyer London.

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! Sail on, O Union, strong and great! - Longfellow, The Building of the Ship.

We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind of self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God. - James Madison.

America, united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition, than America disunited, with an hundred-thousand veterans ready for combat. - James Madison, The Federalist #41, January 19, 1788.

There is one thing that America knows well, and that she teaches as a great and precious lesson to those who come into contact with her amazing adventure: that is the value and dignity of the man of common humanity, the value and dignity of the people. - Jacques Maritan. Christianity & Democracy.

If there is any country on earth where the course of true love may be expected to run smooth, it is America. - Harriet Martineau, Society in America, 1837.

Yes, we have a good many poor tired people here already, but we have plenty of mountains, rivers, woods, lots of sunshine and air, for tired people to rest in. We have Kansas wheat and Iowa corn and Wisconsin cheese for them to eat. Texas cotton for them to wear. So give us as many as come — we can take it, and take care of them. - Mary Margaret McBride, America For Me, 1941.

In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereigne Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britaine, France, and Ireland king, Defender of the faith, etc., having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christain faith, and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northerne parts of Virginia, doe, by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politick, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the aforesaid.... - The Mayflower Compact, 1620, From the History of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford, second governor of Plymouth.

For two centuries we have asserted the propositions of human equality, the sanctity of life, the blessing of liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These liberating ideas not only fueled a revolution; they raised the standards of national measurement so high that they are not likely to be fully realized. Thus, we live in a continuing, unfinished revolution that challenges each succeeding generation. - George McGovern, The Nation, July 19, 1975.

The United States is not a country to which peace is necessary. - William McKinley, on the coming war with Spain. 1895.

America is the only country ever founded on the printed word. - Marshall McLuhan, Harvard Today, Spring, 1976.

The American Republic, the envy and despair of all other nations... - H.L. Mencken, Treatise on the Gods, 1930.

If the American people really tire of democracy and want to make a trial of Fascism, I shall be the last person to object. But if that is their mood, then they had better proceed toward their aim by changing the Constitution and not by forgetting it. - H.L. Mencken, A Carnival of Buncombe: Writings on Politics, 1956, edited by Malcolm Moos.

In time, however, a democratic republic came to occupy a large portion of the earth's surface, and made itself felt as one of the most powerful members of the community of nations; and elective and responsible government became subject to the observations and criticisms which wait upon a great existing fact. - John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859.

Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks. Methinks I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam. - John Milton.

Most Nations derive from a single tribe or a single race. They practice a single religion. Common racial, ethnic, and religious heritages are the glue of nationhood for many. The United States is different. We have all races, all religions, a limited common heritage. The glue of nationhood for us is the American ideal of individual liberty and equal justice. - George J. Mitchell, Iran-Contra hearings, July 13, 1987.

If the American Revolution had produced nothing but the declaration of Independence, it would have been worthwhile. - Samuel Eliot Morison.

We are standing on the broad platform of the Declaration of Independence, that "All men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." We say, that these are not given by laws; are not given by the constitution; but they are the gift of God to every man born into the world. Oh, sir, how glorious is this principle compared with the inhuman — I might say heathenish appeal to the prejudice of race against race; the endeavor further to excite the strong against the weak; the endeavor further to deprive the weak of their rights of protection against the strong. - Oliver P. Morton, speech in the U.S. Senate. 1867.

The United States is the single greatest achievement of European civilization. - Robert Balmain Mowat.

The forests of America, however slighted by man, must have been a great delight to God, because they were the best He ever planted. - John Muir.

If you think the United States has stood still, who built the largest shopping center in the world? - Richard M. Nixon.

The American dream does not come to those who fall asleep. - Richard M. Nixon, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1969.

I know America. I know the heart of America is good. - Richard M. Nixon, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1969.

We have endured a long night of the American spirit. But as our eyes catch the dimness of the first rays of dawn, let us not curse the remaining dark. Let us gather the light. Our destiny offers, not the cup of despair, but the chalice of opportunity. So let us seize it, not in fear, but in gladness—and, "riders on the earth together," let us go forward, firm in our faith, steadfast in our purpose, cautious of the dangers; but sustained by our confidence in the will of God and the promise of man. - Richard M. Nixon, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1969.

Standing in this same place a third of a century ago, Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed a Nation ravaged by depression and gripped in fear. He could say in surveying the Nation's troubles: "They concern, thank God, only material things."
    Our crisis today is the reverse.
    We have found ourselves rich in goods, but ragged in spirit; reaching with magnificent precision for the moon, but falling into raucous discord on earth.
    We are caught in war, wanting peace. We are torn by division, wanting unity. We see around us empty lives, wanting fulfillment. We see tasks that need doing, waiting for hands to do them.
    To a crisis of the spirit, we need an answer of the spirit.
    To find that answer, we need only look within ourselves. - Richard M. Nixon, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1969.

The time has come for us to renew our faith in ourselves and in America.
    In recent years, that faith has been challenged.
    Our children have been taught to be ashamed of their country, ashamed of their parents, ashamed of America's record at home and of its role in the world.
    At every turn, we have been beset by those who find everything wrong with America and little that is right. But I am confident that this will not be the judgment of history on these remarkable times in which we are privileged to live.
    America's record in this century has been unparalleled in the world's history for its responsibility, for its generosity, for its creativity and for its progress.
    Let us be proud that our system has produced and provided more freedom and more abundance, more widely shared, than any other system in the history of the world.
    Let us be proud that in each of the four wars in which we have been engaged in this century, including the one we are now bringing to an end, we have fought not for our selfish advantage, but to help others resist aggression.
    Let us be proud that by our bold, new initiatives, and by our steadfastness for peace with honor, we have made a break-through toward creating in the world what the world has not known before—a structure of peace that can last, not merely for our time, but for generations to come.- Richard M. Nixon, Second Inaugural Address, January 20, 1973.

Let us remember that America was built not by government, but by people—not by welfare, but by work—not by shirking responsibility, but by seeking responsibility. - Richard M. Nixon, Second Inaugural Address, January 20, 1973.

America is made up of people of many nationalities who came here voluntarily. Whole nations were absorbed into the Russian empire and are kept there by force. We have Armenians and Lithuanians; they have Armenia and Lithuania. - Richard Nixon, The Real War, 1980.

I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect Union, one and inseparable, established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American Patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies. - William Tyler Page, “America’s Creed,” April 3, 1918, in the Congressional Record.

If there is a country in the world where concord, according to common calculation, would be least expected, it is America. - Thomas Paine.

America yet inherits a large portion of her first imported virtue. Degeneracy is here almost a useless word. Those who are conversant with Europe would be tempted to believe that even the air of the Atlantic disagrees with the constitution of foreign vices; if they survive the voyage, they either expire on their arrival, or linger away in an incurable consumption. There is a happy something in the climate of America, which disarms them of their power both of infection and attraction. - Thomas Paine, Pennsylvania Magazine. January 24, 1775.

[America] will rise with new glories from the conflict, and her fame be established in every corner of the globe; while it will be remembered to her eternal honor that she has not sought the quarrel, but has been driven into it. - Thomas Paine, "The Dream Interpreted," Pennsylvania Magazine. 1775.

Our strength is continental, not provincial. - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, January 10, 1776.

Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of a mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still. - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, January 10, 1776.

The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances have, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all lovers of mankind are affected, and in the event of which their affections are interested. - Thomas Paine, Common Sense. January 10, 1776.

The Reformation was proceeded by the discovery of America: As if the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in future years, when home should afford neither friendship nor safety. - Thomas Paine, Common Sense. January 10, 1776.

But where, say some, is the king of America? I'll tell you, friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the royal brute of Great Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the Word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America the law is king. - Thomas Paine, Common Sense. January 10, 1776.

America doth not yet know what opulence is; and although the progress which she hath made stands unparalleled in the history of other nations, it is but childhood compared with what she would be capable of arriving at, had she, as she ought to have, the legislative powers in her own hands. - Thomas Paine, Common Sense. January 10, 1776.

America is the theater where human nature will soon receive its greatest military, civil, and literary honors. - Thomas Paine, "A Dialogue." 1776.

I still love liberty and America, and the contemplation of the future greatness of this continent now forms a large share of my present happiness. - Thomas Paine, "A Dialogue." 1776.

"THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA," will sound as pompously in the world or in history, as "The kingdom of Great Britain"; the character of General Washington will fill a page with as much lustre as that of Lord Howe: and the Congress have as much right to command the King and Parliament in London to desist from legislation, as they or you have to command Congress. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, #2, January 13, 1777.

All we want to know in America is simply this, who is for independence, and who is not? - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, #3. April 19, 1777.

America has surmounted a greater variety and combination of difficulties, than I believe, ever fell to the share of any one people, in the same space of time, and has replenished the world with more useful knowledge and sounder maxims of civil government than were ever produced in any age before. Had it not been for America, there had been no such thing as freedom left throughout the whole universe. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis #5. March 21, 1778.

America, on her part, has exhibited a character of firmness to the world. Unprepared and unarmed, without form or government, she singly opposed a nation that domineered over half the globe. The greatness of the deed demands respect; and though you may feel resentment, you are compelled both to wonder and admire. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis #7. November 21, 1778.

America ever is what she thinks herself to be, governed by sentiment, and acting her own mind, she becomes, as she pleases, the victor or victim. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis #9. June 9, 1780.

Our first days were our days of honor. They have marked the character of America wherever the story of her wars are told; and convinced of this, we have nothing to do but wisely and unitedly to tread the well known track. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis #9. June 9, 1780.

America, rich in patriotism and produce, can want neither men nor supplies, when a serious necessity calls them forth. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis #9. June 9, 1780.

America need never be ashamed to tell her birth, nor relate the stages by which she rose to empire. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis #13. April 19, 1783.

A thousand years hence, those who shall live in America, or in France, will look back with contemplative pride on the origin of their governments, and say, This was the work of our glorious ancestors. - Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man. 1791.

I see in America, a government extending over a country ten times as large as England, and conducted with regularity for a fortieth part of the expense which government costs England. If I ask a man in America, if he wants a king, he retorts, and asks me if I take him for an idiot. How is it that this difference happens? Are we more or less wise than others? I see in America, the generality of the people living in a style of plenty unknown in monarchial countries; and I see that the principle of its government, which is the equal Rights of Man, is making a rapid progress in the world. - Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man. 1791.

From a small spark kindled in America, a flame has arisen not to be extinguished. Without consuming, like the ultima ratio regum, it winds its progress from nation to nation, and conquers by a silent operation. Man finds himself changed, he scarcely perceives how. He acquires a knowledge of his rights by attending justly to his interest, and discovers in the event that the strength and powers of despotism consist wholly in the fear of resisting it, and that in order, “to be free, it is sufficient that he wills it.” - Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man, Pt.II. 1792.

Government in America is what it ought to be, a matter of honor and trust, and not made a trade of for the purpose of lucre. - Thomas Paine, letter to #British Statesman henry Dundas, June 6, 1792.

Ahead are the children of the next generation. We are to carry to them the Spirit of America. We must show them what went before, what lies ahead. We must lead them to seek through the dimness of centuries, a gleaming line of silver white. It is the line of the Crusaders, steady, straight and strong, the quest for the Holy Grail, the search for Freedom. - Angelo Patri, The Spirit of America.

Anyone, in any walk of life, who is content with mediocrity is untrue to himself and to American tradition. - General George S. Patton, War as I Knew It. 1947.

In America, Public opinion is the leader. - Frances Perkins, People at Work. 1934.

The stars upon your banner have become nearly threefold their original number; your densely populated possessions skirt the shores of the two great oceans. - Franklin Pierce, Inaugural Address. March 4, 1853.

If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms – never – never –never! You cannot conquer America. - William Pitt.

The glistening hope of that lamp is still ours. Every promise every opportunity is still golden in this land. And through that golden door our children can walk into tomorrow with the knowledge that no one can be denied the promise that is America.. - President Ronald Reagan.

I would like to be president, because I would like to see this country become once again a country where a little six-year old girl can grow up knowing the same freedom that I knew when I was six years old, growing up in America. If this is the America you want for yourself and your children; if you want to restore government not only of and for but by the people; to see the American spirit unleashed once again; to make this land a shining, golden hope God intended it to be… - President Ronald Reagan.

I, in my own mind, have always thought of America as a place in the divine scheme of things that was set aside as a promised land. It was set here and the price of admission was very simple: the means of selection was very simple as to how this land should be populated. Any place in the world and any person from those places; any person with the courage, with the desire to tear up their roots, to strive for freedom, to attempt and dare to live in a strange and foreign place, to travel halfway across the world was welcome here. - President Ronald Reagan, commencement address at Williams Woods College, June 1952.

The American dream is not that every man must be level with every other man. The American dream is that every man must be free to become whatever God intends he should become. - President Ronald Reagan, The Creative Society, 1968.

I don’t believe that the people I’ve met in almost every state in the union are ready to consign this, the last island of freedom, to the dustbin of history. - Ronald Reagan, campaign speech. 1976.

[The Democrats] say that the United States has had its days in the sun, that our nation has passed its zenith.… My fellow citizens, I utterly reject that view. - President Ronald Reagan, his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, July 17, 1980.

It is time for us to realize that we are too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We’re not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I Do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. - Ronald Reagan, 1st inaugural address, January 20, 1981.

If we look to the answer as to why, for so many years, we achieved so much, prospered as no other people on Earth, it was because here, in this land, we unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before. Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on Earth. The price for this freedom at times has been high, but we have never been unwilling to pay that price. - Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981.

We are a nation that has a government—not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our Government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed. - Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981.

There's a new spirit, I can tell you, sweeping America, and you're part of it. The Navy's pride and professionalism campaign is part of it. The push for quality by American workers is part of it. That young Marine sergeant, Jimmy Lopez, and the naval aviator, Commander Don Scherer, who wouldn't bend to their Iranian captors during the days of the hostages, were part of it. Maybe some of you don't know that Sergeant Jimmy Lopez, before he left his place of confinement in Iran, wrote on the wall in Spanish -- which evidently they could not understand, ``Long live the red, white, and blue.'' - Ronald Reagan, Remarks on Board the U.S.S. Constellation, August 20, 1981.

The volunteer spirit is still alive and well in America. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 26, 1982.

Let it be said of us that we, too, did not fail; that we, too, worked together to bring America through difficult times. Let us so conduct ourselves that two centuries from now, another Congress and another President, meeting in this Chamber as we are meeting, will speak of us with pride, saying that we met the test and preserved for them in their day the sacred flame of liberty -- this last, best hope of man on Earth. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 26, 1982.

Faith in God, patriotism, freedom, the love of freedom, family, work, neighborhood -- the heart and soul of America's past and the promise of her future. If we stand together and live up to these principles, we will not fail. - Ronald Reagan, Address Before a Joint Session of the Alabama State Legislature in Montgomery, March 15, 1982.

I know here that you will agree with me that standing up for America also means standing up for the God who has so blessed our land. I believe this country hungers for a spiritual revival. I believe it longs to see traditional values reflected in public policy again. To those who cite the first amendment as reason for excluding God from more and more of our institutions and everyday life, may I just say: The first amendment of the Constitution was not written to protect the people of this country from religious values; it was written to protect religious values from government tyranny. - Ronald Reagan, Address Before a Joint Session of the Alabama State Legislature in Montgomery, March 15, 1982.

I’ve always believed that this land was set aside in an uncommon way, that a divine plan placed this great continent between the oceans to be found by a people from every corner of the earth who had a special love of faith, freedom and peace. - Ronald Reagan, speech in Washington D.C. November 11, 1982.

We have a long way to go, but thanks to the courage, patience, and strength of our people, America is on the mend. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 25, 1983.

Back over the years, citizens like ourselves have gathered within these walls when our nation was threatened, sometimes when its very existence was at stake. Always, with courage and common sense they met the crisis of their time and lived to see a stronger, better and more prosperous country.... Yes we still have problems – plenty of them. But it is just plain wrong – unjust to our country and unjust to our people – to let those problems stand in the way of the most important truth of all: America is on the mend. - Ronald Reagan, State of The Union Address, January 25, 1983.

From coast to coast, on the job and in classrooms and laboratories, at new construction sites and in churches and community groups, neighbors are helping neighbors. And they've already begun the building, the research, the work, and the giving that will make our country great again.
I believe this, because I believe in them -- in the strength of their hearts and minds, in the commitment that each one of them brings to their daily lives, be they high or humble. The challenge for us in government is to be worthy of them -- to make government a help, not a hindrance to our people in the challenging but promising days ahead.
If we do that, if we care what our children and our children's children will say of us, if we want them one day to be thankful for what we did here in these temples of freedom, we will work together to make America better for our having been here -- not just in this year or this decade but in the next century and beyond. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 25, 1983.

America is on the mend. - Ronald Reagan, Radio Address to the Nation on the 1984 Budget, January 29, 1983.

America is too great for small dreams. - Ronald Reagan, speech to Congress. January 1, 1984.

For a time we forgot the American dream isn't one of making government bigger; it's keeping faith with the mighty spirit of free people under God. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 25, 1984.

A society bursting with opportunities, reaching for its future with confidence, sustained by faith, fair play, and a conviction that good and courageous people will flourish when they're free -- these are the secrets of a strong and prosperous America at peace with itself and the world. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 25, 1984.

The heart of America is strong; it's good and true. The cynics were wrong; America never was a sick society. We're seeing rededication to bedrock values of faith, family, work, neighborhood, peace, and freedom -- values that help bring us together as one people, from the youngest child to the most senior citizen. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 25, 1984.

America is too great for small dreams. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 25, 1984.

America has always been greatest when we dared to be great. We can reach for greatness again. We can follow our dreams to distant stars, living and working in space for peaceful, economic, and scientific gain. Tonight, I am directing NASA to develop a permanently manned space station and to do it within a decade. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 25, 1984.

We dare not shirk our responsibility to keep America free, secure, and at peace. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 25, 1984.

We can develop America's next frontier. We can strengthen our traditional values. And we can build a meaningful peace to protect our loved ones and this shining star of faith that has guided millions from tyranny to the safe harbor of freedom, progress, and hope. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 25, 1984.

How can we not believe in the greatness of America? How can we not do what is right and needed to preserve this last best hope of man on Earth? After all our struggles to restore America, to revive confidence in our country, hope for our future, after all our hard-won victories earned through the patience and courage of every citizen, we cannot, must not, and will not turn back. We will finish our job. How could we do less? We're Americans. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 25, 1984.

I've never felt more strongly that America's best days and democracy's best days lie ahead. We're a powerful force for good. With faith and courage, we can perform great deeds and take freedom's next step. And we will. We will carry on the tradition of a good and worthy people who have brought light where there was darkness, warmth where there was cold, medicine where there was disease, food where there was hunger, and peace where there was only bloodshed.
Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 25, 1984.

In this springtime of hope, some lights seem eternal; America's is. - President Ronald Reagan, RNC speech, August 23, 1984.

The poet called Miss Liberty's torch 'the lamp beside the golden door.' Well, that was the entrance to America, and it still is. And now you really know why we're here tonight. - President Ronald Reagan, RNC speech, August 23, 1984.

The glistening hope of that lamp is still ours. Every promise, every opportunity, is still golden in this land. And through that golden door our children can walk into tomorrow with the knowledge that no one can be denied the promise that is America. Her heart is full; her torch is still golden, her future bright. She has arms big enough to comfort and strong enough to support, for the strength in her arms is the strength of her people. She will carry on in the '80s unafraid, unashamed, and unsurpassed. In this springtime of hope, some lights seem eternal; America's is. - President Ronald Reagan, RNC speech, August 23, 1984.

There must be no wavering by us, nor any doubts by others, that America will meet her responsibilities to remain free, secure, and at peace. - Ronald Reagan, Second Inaugural Address, January 21, 1985.

History is a ribbon, always unfurling; history is a journey. And as we continue our journey, we think of those who traveled before us.... Now we hear again the echoes of our past: a general falls to his knees in the hard snow of Valley Forge; a lonely President paces the darkened halls, and ponders his struggle to preserve the Union; the men of the Alamo call out encouragement to each other; a settler pushes west and sings a song, and the song echoes out forever and fills the unknowing air. It is the American sound. It is hopeful, big-hearted, idealistic, daring, decent, and fair. That's our heritage; that is our song. We sing it still. - Ronald Reagan, Second Inaugural Address, January 21, 1985.

America must remain freedom's staunchest friend, for freedom is our best ally. - Ronald Reagan, Second Inaugural Address, January 21, 1985.

My fellow citizens, our Nation is poised for greatness. We must do what we know is right and do it with all our might. Let history say of us, "These were golden years—when the American Revolution was reborn, when freedom gained new life, when America reached for her best." - Ronald Reagan, Second Inaugural Address, January 21, 1985.

In this storm-tossed world of terrorists and totalitarians, America must always champion freedom, for freedom is the one tide that will lead us to the safe and open harbor of peace. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 25, 1986.

... a trait no other nation seems to possess in quite the same degree that we do — namely, a feeling of almost childish injury and resentment unless the world as a whole recognizes how innocent we are of anything but the most generous and harmless intentions. - Eleanor Roosevelt, "My Day," November 11, 1946.

This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper.... - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1st inaugural address. March 4, 1933.

It will never be possible for any length of time for any group of the American people, either by reason of wealth or learning or inheritance or economic power, to retain any mandate, any permanent authority to arrogate itself the permanent political control of American public life. - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Address, June, 1936.

I see a great nation, upon a great continent, blessed with a great wealth of natural resources. Its hundred and thirty million people are at peace among themselves; they are making their country a good neighbor among the nations. I see a United States which can demonstrate that, under democratic methods of government, national wealth can be translated into a spreading volume of human comforts hitherto unknown, and the lowest standard of living can be raised far above the level of mere subsistence. - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 2nd inaugural address, January 20, 1937.

Lives of nations are determined not by the count of years, but by the lifetime of the human spirit. The life of a man is threescore years and ten: a little more, a little less. The life of a nation is the fullness of the measure of its will to live. - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 3d inaugural address, January 20, 1941.

America is new. It is in the process of change and development. It has the great potentialities of youth. - Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The proposal of the war department to organize a combat team consisting of loyal American citizens of Japanese descent has my full approval. The principle on which this country was founded and by which it has always been governed is that Americanism is a matter of the mind and heart; Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry. - Franklin D. Roosevelt, order authorizing the formation of the 442nd regimental combat team during WWII.

We stand on the threshold of a new century, big with the fate of mighty nations. Glorious in youth and strength, our nation looks into the future with eager eyes and rejoices as a strong man to run a race. - Theodore Roosevelt.

Americanism is a question of principle, of purpose, of Idealism, or Character; it is not a matter of birthplace or creed or line of descent. - Theodore Roosevelt, speech in Washington D.C. 1909.

We stand for the cause of the uplift of humanity and the betterment of mankind. We are pledged to eternal war against wrong, whether by the few or the many, by a plutocracy or by a mob. We believe that this country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to live in, unless we make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in. - Theodore Roosevelt, speech on the eve of the Republican Convention, 1912.

The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life. - Theodore Roosevelt, letter to S.S. Mencken, January 10, 1917.

There can be no fifty-fifty Americanism in this country. There is room here for only one hundred percent Americanism, only for those who are Americans and nothing else. - Theodore Roosevelt, speech in Saratoga. July 19, 1918.

Never, my son, condescend to braggadocio. Do not say great words that you cannot support by great deeds. But love America because she has borne sons whose words were ultimatums and battle cries, and who's deeds were swords that dared what the bugle-notes proclaimed. Remember always that you move proudly friended by those who dared to be the Yea-sayers of their country, whose words walked tall in consonance with their deeds, who said what they meant and meant what they said and marched to great music to a great goal. Remember and love the major great who were suns flaming over history; remember also the minor great, the humble men who were the quiet loam whence grow the corn and rose of freedom and sanity. - E. Merrill Root.

I see America not in the setting sun of a black night of despair... I see America in the crimson light of a rising sun fresh from the burning, creative hand of God... I see great days ahead for men and women of will and vision. - Carl Sandburg.

Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right. - Carl Schurz.

Is not this the great Republic of the New World which marches in the very vanguard of modern civilization, and which, when and example of wisdom is set by other nations, should not only rise to its level, but far above it? - Carl Schurz, speech in the U.S Senate. January 30, 1872.

In America, getting on in the world means getting out of the world we have known before. - Ellery Sedgewick.

There are no colonies of which the progress has been more rapid than that of the English in North America.
Plenty of good land, and the liberty to manage their own affairs their own way, seem to be the two great causes of the prosperity of all new colonies. - Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776.

There is nothing in the world so sound as American society, with its intimate union of all classes, its general diffusion of property, its common schools, and its free religion. - Goldwin Smith.

My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the Pilgrims' pride,
From every mountain side
Let freedom ring.
- Samuel Francis Smith, America, 1832.

In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book, or goes to an American play, or looks at an American picture or statue? - Sydney Smith, Review of Seybert's, Annals of the United States, 1820.

Magnificent spectacle of human happiness. - Sydney Smith, “America,” Edinburgh Review, July, 1824.

In the United States there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is. That is what makes America what it is. - Gertrude Stein, The Geographical History of America. 1936.

I do not know why but Arkansas touched me particularly, anything touches me particularly now that is American. There is something in this native land business and you cannot get away from it, in peace time you do not seem to notice it much particularly when you live in foreign parts but when there is a war and you are all alone and completely cut off from knowing about your country well then there it is, your native land is your native land, it certainly is. - Gertrude Stein, Wars I have Seen.

Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem.... - Saul Steinberg.

It is impossible to understand America without a thorough knowledge of baseball. - Saul Steinberg.

There is a New America every morning when we wake up. It is upon us whether we will it or not. - Adlai E. Stevenson.

The American destiny is what our fathers dreamed, a land of the free, and the home of the brave; but only the brave can be free. Science has made the dream today's reality for all the earth if we have the courage to build it. American Democracy must furnish the engineers of world plenty. - Marian Le Sueur, The Builders of World Peace & Freedom. c.1950.

The reason American cities are so prosperous is that there is no place to sit down. - Alfred J. Talley.

The United States is not a nation of people which in the long run allows itself to be pushed around. - Dorothy Thompson, On The Record.

The United States is the only great and populous nation-state and world power whose people are not cemented by ties of blood, race or original language. It is the only world power which recognizes but one nationality of its citizens — American.... How can such a union be maintained except through some idea which involves loyalty? - Dorothy Thompson, Ladies Home Journal. October 1954.

America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. 1835.

In the United States, as soon as a man has acquired some education and pecuniary resources, he either endeavors to get rich by commerce or industry, or he buys land in the bush and turns pioneer. All that he asks of the state is, not to be disturbed in his toil, and to be secure of his earnings. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. 1835.

I confess that, in America, I saw more than America; I saw there the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in order to learn what we have to fear or to hope from its progress. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. 1835.

America is a land of wonders, in which everything is in constant motion and every change seems an improvement. the idea of novelty is there indissolubly connected with the idea of amelioration. No natural boundary seems to be set to the efforts of man; and in his eyes what is not y et done is only what he has not yet attempted to do. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. 1835.

In my opinion, the main evil of the present democratic institutions of the United States does not arise, as is often asserted in Europe, from their weakness, but from their irresistible strength. I am not so much alarmed at the excessive liberty which reigns in that country as at the inadequate securities which one finds there against tyranny. - Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America. 1835.

I have said enough to put the character of Anglo-American civilization in its true light. It is the result (and this should be constantly present to the mind) of two distinct elements, which in other places have been in frequent hostility, but which in America have been admirably incorporated and combined with one another. I allude to the spirit of Religion and the spirit of Liberty. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. 1835.

Such is the admirable position of the New World, that man has no other enemy than himself; and that, in order to be happy and to be free, he has only to determine that he will be so. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. 1835.

I never met in America with any citizen so poor as not to cast a glance of hope and envy on the enjoyments of the rich, or whose imagination did not possess itself by anticipation of those good things which fate still obstinately withheld from him.
On the other hand, I never perceived amongst the wealthier inhabitants of the United States that proud contempt of physical gratifications which is sometimes to be met with even in the most opulent and dissolute aristocracies. Most of these wealthy persons were once poor: they have felt the sting of want. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. 1835.

America is a large, friendly dog in a very small room. Every time it wags its tail, it knocks over a chair. - Arnold Joseph Toynbee.

America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand. - Harry S. Truman, message to Congress. January 8, 1947.

A citizen of America will cross an ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election. - Bill Vaughan.

Happily the government of the United States, which gives bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support. - George Washington.

Let our object be our country, our whole country and nothing but our country. And, by the blessing of God, May that country itself become a vast and splendid monument, not of oppression and terror, but of wisdom, of peace and of liberty.... - Daniel Webster.

We wish that this column, rising towards heaven among the pointed spires of so many temples dedicated to God, may contribute also to produce in all minds a pious feeling of dependence and gratitude. We wish, finally, that the last object to the sight of him who leaves his native shore, and the first to gladden his who revisits it, may be something which shall remind him of the liberty and the glory of his country. Let it rise! let it rise, till it meet the sun in his coming; let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and the parting day linger and play on its summit! - Daniel Webster, Address on laying the Corner-Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, 1825.

Although no sculptured marble should rise to their memory, nor engraved stone bear record of their deeds, yet will their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honored. - Daniel Webster, Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, Aug. 2, 1826.

I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts; she needs none. There she is. Behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston and Concord and Lexington and Bunker Hill; and there they will remain forever. - Daniel Webster, Second Speech on Foot's Resolution, Jan. 26, 1830.

When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood. - Daniel Webster, Second Speech on Foot's Resolution, Jan. 26, 1830.

I profess, sir, in my career hitherto to have kept steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole country and the preservation of our federal Union. It is to that Union we owe our safety at home and our consideration and dignity abroad. It is to that Union that we are chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most proud of our country. That Union we reached only by the discipline of our virtues in the severe school of adversity. It had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under its benign influence those great interests immediately awoke, as from the dead, and sprang forth with the newness of life. Every year of its duration has teemed with fresh proofs of its utility and its blessings; and although our territory has stretched out wider and wider and our population spread farther and farther, they have not outrun its protection or its benefits. It has been to us all a copious fountain of national, social, and personal happiness. - Daniel Webster, speech in the Senate in reply to Robert Young Hayne’s support of the doctrine of nullification, 1830.

One country, one constitution, one destiny. - Daniel Webster, Speech, March 15, 1837.

America has furnished to the world the character of Washington. And if our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind. - Daniel Webster, Completion of Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1843.

For not only every democracy, but certainly every republic, bears within itself the seeds of its own destruction. The difference is that for a soundly conceived and solidly endowed republic it takes a great deal longer for those seeds to germinate and the plants to grow. The American Republic was bound — is still bound — to follow in the centuries to come the same course to destruction as did Rome. But our real ground of complaint is that we have been pushed down the demagogic road to disaster by conspiratorial hands, far sooner and far faster than would have been the results of natural political evolution....
So, from the very beginning the whole drive to convert our republic into a democracy was in two parts. One part was to make our people come to believe that we had, and were supposed to have, a democracy. The second part was actually and insidiously to be changing the republic into a democracy. - Robert Welch, speech, “Republics and Democracies,” Chicago, September 17, 1961.

Our republic has offered the greatest opportunity and encouragement to social democracy the world has ever known. Just as the Greeks found that obedience to law made them free, so Americans found that social democracy flourished best in the absence of political democracy. And for sound reasons. For the safeguards to person and property afforded by a republic, the stable framework which it supplied for life and labor at all levels, and the resulting constant flux of individuals from one class into another, made caste impossible and snobbery a joke. - Robert Welch, speech, “Republics and Democracies,” Chicago, September 17, 1961.

In the best days of our republic Americans were fiercely proud of the fact that rich and poor met on such equal terms in so many ways, and without the slightest trace of hostility. The whole thought expressed by Burns in his famous line, "a man's a man for a' that," has never been accepted more unquestioningly, nor lived up to more truly, than in America in those wonderful decades before the intellectual snobs and power-drunk bureaucrats of our recent years set out to make everybody theoretically equal (except to themselves) by legislation and coercion. And I can tell you this. When you begin to find that Jew and Gentile, White and Colored, rich and poor, scholar and laborer, are genuinely and almost universally friendly to one another again – instead of going through all the silly motions of a phony equality forced upon them by increasing political democracy – you can be sure that we have already made great strides in the restoration of our once glorious republic. - Robert Welch, speech, “Republics and Democracies,” Chicago, September 17, 1961.

Let me point out what seems to me to be something about the underlying principles of the American Republic which really was new in the whole philosophy of government. In man's earlier history, and especially in the Asiatic civilizations, all authority rested in the king or the conqueror by virtue of sheer military power. The subjects of the king had absolutely no rights except those given them by the king....
In the meantime the truly western current of thought, which had begun in Greece, was recurrently, intermittently, and haltingly gaining strength. It was that the people of any nation owed their rights to the government which they themselves had established and which owed its power ultimately to their consent. Just what rights any individual citizen had was properly determined by the government which all of the citizens had established, and those rights were subject to a great deal of variations in different times and places under different regimes....
Then both of these basic theories of government, the eastern and the western, were really amended for all time by certain principles enunciated in the American Declaration of Independence. Those principles became a part of the very foundation of our republic. And they said that man has certain unalienable rights which do not derive from government at all. Under this theory not only the Sovereign Conqueror, but the Sovereign People, are restricted in their power and authority by man's natural rights, or by the divine rights of the individual man. And those certain unalienable and divine rights cannot be abrogated by the vote of a majority any more than they can by the decree of a conqueror. - Robert Welch, speech, “Republics and Democracies,” Chicago, September 17, 1961.

All other nations had come into being among people whose families had lived for time out of mind on the same land where they were born. Englishmen are English, Frenchmen are French, Chinese are Chinese, while their governments come and go; their national states can be torn apart and remade without losing their nationhood. But Americans are a nation born of an idea; not the place, but the idea, created the United States Government. - Theodore H. White, New York Times Magazine. May 1986.

I shall use the words America and democracy as convertible terms. - Walt Whitman, Democratic Vistas, 1881.

I see not America only, not only Liberty's nation but other nations preparing, I see tremendous entrances and exits, new combinations, the solidarity of races. - Walt Whitman.

For we cannot tarry here, We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger, We the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, Pioneers! O Pioneers! - Walt Whitman.

Her children shall rise up to bless her name,
And wish her harmless length of days
The mighty mother of a mighty brood,
Blessed in all tongues and dear to every blood,
The Beautiful, the strong, and, best of all, the good.
- Oscar Wilde.

I am lost in wonder and amazement. It is not a country, but a world. - Oscar Wilde.

If the American dream is for Americans only, it will remain our dream and never our destiny. - Rene de Visme Williamson.

The interesting and inspiring thought about America is that she asks nothing for herself except what she has a right to ask for humanity itself. - Woodrow Wilson.

America is not anything if it consists of each of us. It is something only if it consists of all of us. - Woodrow Wilson.

America lives in the heart of every man everywhere who wishes to find a region where he will be free to work out his destiny as he chooses. - Woodrow Wilson.

Just what is it that America stands for? If she stands for one thing more than another, it is for the sovereignty of Self-governing people. - Woodrow Wilson.

America is not a mere body of traders; it is a body of free men. Our greatness is built upon our freedom – is moral, not material. We have a great ardor for gain; but we have a deep passion for the rights of man. - Woodrow Wilson, speech in New York, January 29, 1911.

When I survey the genesis of America, I see this written over every page: that the nations are renewed from the bottom, not from the top; that the genius which springs up from the ranks of unknown men is the genius which renews the youth and energy of the people. - Woodrow Wilson, speech, “The New Freedom,” 1912.

It is the great body of toilers that constitutes the might of America. It is one of the glories of our land that nobody is able to predict from what family, from what region, from what race, even, the leaders of the country are going to come. The great leaders of this country have not come very often from the established, “successful” families. - Woodrow Wilson, speech, “The New Freedom,” 1912.

The hope of the United States in the present and in the future is the same that it has always been: it is the hope and confidence that out of unknown homes will come men who will constitute themselves the masters of industry and of politics. - Woodrow Wilson, speech, “The New Freedom,” 1912.

The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it. The man who is in the melee knows what blows are being struck and what blood is being drawn. The man who is on the make is the judge of what is happening in America, not the man who has made good; not the man who has emerged from the flood; not the man who is standing on the bank looking on, but the man who is struggling for his life and for the lives of those who are dearer to him than himself. That is the man whose judgement will tell you what is going on in America. - Woodrow Wilson, speech, “The New Freedom,” 1912.

Our whole duty, for the present at any rate, is summed up in the motto: America First. - Woodrow Wilson, speech in New York, 20 April, 1915.

These therefore, are the things we shall stand for, whether in war or in peace:
That all nations are equally interested in the peace of the world and in the political stability of free peoples, and equally responsible for their maintenance; that the essential principle of peace is the actual equality of nations in all matters of right or privilege; that peace cannot securely or justly rest upon an armed balance of power; that governments derive all their just powers from the consent of the governed and that no other powers should be supported by the common thought, purposes or power of the family of nations; that the seas should be equally free and safe for the use of all peoples, under rules set up by common agreement and consent, and that, so far as practicable, they should be accessible to all upon equal terms; that national armaments shall be limited to the necessities of national order and domestic safety; that the community of interest and of power upon which peace must henceforth depend imposes upon each nation the duty of seeing to it that all influences proceeding from its own citizens meant to encourage or assist revolution in other states should be sternly and effectually suppressed and prevented. - Woodrow Wilson, 2nd inaugural address, March 5, 1917.

They saw this star of the west rising over the peoples of the world, and they said, “That is the star of hope and the star of salvation. We will set our footsteps towards the West, and join that body of men whom God has blessed with the vision of liberty,” - Woodrow Wilson, speech in Des Moines, Iowa, September 6, 1919.

Some people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealist nation in the world. - Woodrow Wilson, speech in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Sept. 8, 1919.

Ours is become a nation too great to offend the least, too mighty to be unjust to the weakest, too lofty and noble to be ungenerous to the poorest and lowliest. - Stephen Wise.

Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles. - Frank Lloyd Wright.

America is God’s Crucible, the great Melting Pot where all the races of Europe are meting and reforming!... God is making the American. - Isreal Zangwill, The Melting Pot, 1908.

Think of your forefathers! Think of your posterity! - John Quincy Adams, Speech at Plymouth, Dec. 22, 1802.

The whole course of an American's life, civil, social and religious, has become one continued scene of intellectual and of moral improvement. - Thomas H. Benton, speech in the U.S. Senate, 1824.

Alien, n. An American sovereign in his probationary state. - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1911.

Yankee, n. In Europe, an American. In the Northern States of our Union, a New-Englander. In the Southern States the word is unknown [see DamYank]. - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary. 1911.

We are a people whose energy and drive have fueled our rise to greatness. we’re a forward looking nation, generous, yes, but ambitious as well, not for ourselves but for the world. Complacency is not in our character, not before, not now, not ever! - George Bush, speech to joint session of Congress. February 9, 1989.

For Americans war is almost all of the time a nuisance, and military skill a luxury like Mah-Jongg. But when the issue is brought home to them, war becomes as important, for the necessary period, as business or sport. And it is hard to decide which is likely to be the more ominous for the Axis – an American decision that this is sport, or that this is business. - D. W. Brogan, The American Character.

Great has been the Greek, the Latin, the Slav, the Celt, the Teuton, and the Anglo-Saxon, but greater than any of these is the American, in which are blended the virtues of them all. - William Jennings Bryant.

A people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood. - Edmund Burke, Conciliation with America, 1775.

We Americans have courage. Americans have always been on the cutting edge of change. We’ve always looked forward with anticipation and confidence. - Jimmy Carter, Acceptance speech, Democratic National Convention, N.Y. August 14, 1980.

Of all nationalities, Americans are the best in adapting themselves. With them, to see is to know — and to know is to conquer. - Jennie Jerome Churchill, New York World, October 13, 1908.

It cannot be in the interest of Russia to go on irritating the United States. There are no people in the world who are so slow to develop hostile feelings against a foreign country as the Americans, and there are no people who, once estranged, are more difficult to win back. The American eagle sits on his perch, a large, strong bird with formidable beak and claws. There he sits motionless, and M. Gromyko is sent day after day to prod him with a sharp pointed stick — now his neck, now under his wings, now his tail feathers. All the time the eagle keeps quite still. But it would be a great mistake to suppose that nothing is going on inside the breast of the eagle. - Winston Churchill, House of Commons. June 5, 1946.

The able American citizen, however, except on great occasions, is absorbed in his personal business, and leaves that of the public to the political machines. - Joseph Cook, address in New York City, July 4, 1884.

Let America open her arms to the hungry and the hopeless, and bid the homeless come over sea and land. Let them delve in our mines, plow in our soil. We have air, and water, and bread, and gold and silver, riches, happiness, and labor, for all who come. - Samuel S. Cox, speech, House of Representatives, November 10, 1877.

Then join in hand, brave Americans all!
By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.
- John Dickinson, The Liberty Song, 1768.

Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves. - Albert Einstein.

He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Almer Mater. Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. - J. Hector St. John De Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer, 1782.

The American is a new man who acts upon new principles; he must therefor entertain new ideas, and form new opinions. From involuntary idleness, servile dependency, penury, and useless labor, he has passed to toils of a very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence — this is an American. - J. Hector St. John De Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer, 1782.

The real American type can never be a ballet dancer. The legs are too long, the body too supple and the spirit too free for this school of affected grace and toe walking. - Isadora Duncan, My Life, 1927.

Americans see history as a straight line and themselves standing at the cutting edge of it as representatives for all mankind. They believe in the future as if it were a religion; they believe that there is nothing they cannot accomplish, that solutions wait somewhere for all problems, like brides. - F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fire in The Lake, 1972.

We are not as we like to claim in the Fourth of July speeches, the most truly revolutionary nation on earth; we are, on the contrary, much closer to being the most unrevolutionary nation on earth. We are sober and satisfied and comfortable and rich; our institutions are stable and old and even venerable; and our revolution of 1776, for that matter, was not much of an upheaval compared to the French and Russian revolutions and to current and impending revolutions.... - Senator Fulbright, Sept. 15, 1965.

We Americans wake up every morning, go to work, take our kids to school, fix dinner, do all the things we expect of ourselves and yet something isn't quite right. There is no confidence that government understands the values and realities of our lives. The government is out of touch and out of control. It is in need of deep and deliberate change. Now when that change is accomplished, then perhaps Americans will be able to sleep a little better at night and wake up feeling less anxious about their futures. - House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Address to the Nation, April 7, 1995.

Within a half mile of this capital, drugs, violence & despair threaten the lives of our citizens. We cannot ignore our fellow Americans in such desperate straits by thinking that huge amounts of tax dollars release us from our moral responsibility to help these parents and children. There is no reason the federal government must keep an allegiance to failure. With goodwill, with common sense, with the courage to change, we can do better for all Americans. - House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Address to the Nation, April 7, 1995.

We are determined to remake this government until every child of every racial background, in every neighborhood in America, knows that he or she has all the opportunities of an American. - House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Address to the Nation, April 7, 1995.

Some of us have chosen America as the land of our adoption; the rest have come from those who did the same. For this reason we have some right to consider ourselves a picked group, a group of those who had the courage to break from the past and brave the dangers and the loneliness of a strange land. - Judge Learned Hand, address in New York, May 21, 1944.

What sought they thus afar?
Bright jewels of the mine,
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war?
They sought a faith's pure shrine.
- Felicia D. Hemans, Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers.

I am not a Virginian, but an American. - Patrick Henry, Speech in the Virginia Convention, September, 1774.

We want to be a nation, and you can’t have a great, grand, splendid people, without a great, grand, splendid country. The great plains, the sublime mountains, the great rushing, roaring rivers, shores lashed by two oceans, and the grand anthem of Niagra, mingle and enter, as it were, in the character of every American citizen, and make him, or tend to make him, a great and a grand character. - Robert G. Ingersoll, Speech in Indianapolis, 1876.

The cement of this Union is the heart blood of every American. - Thomas Jefferson.

Let this be the distinctive mark of an American that in cases of commotion, he enlists himself under no man's banner, inquires for no man's name, but repairs to the standard of the laws. Do this, and you need never fear anarchy or tyranny. Your government will be perpetual. – Thomas Jefferson.

Our ancestors who migrated hither were laborers, not lawyers. - Thomas Jefferson, Rights of British Americas, 1774.

These are the United States – a united people with a varied purpose. Our American unity does not depend upon unanimity. We have differences, but now, as in the past, we derive from those differences strength not weakness; wisdom, not despair. - Lyndon B. Johnson.

They [Americans] are a rare race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging. - Samuel Johnson, March 27, 1775.

German prisoners, asked to assess their various enemies, have said that the British attacked singing, and the French attacked shouting, but that the American attacked in silence. They liked better the men who attacked singing or shouting than the men who kept coming on stubbornly without a sound. - James Jones, WW2.

Someone we didn't know asked how it was that everything goes so well with the Americans, though they swear at every second word. - Franz Kafka, The Diaries of....

The American, by nature, is optimistic. He is experimental, an inventor and a builder who builds best when called upon to build greatly. - John F. Kennedy, speech in Washington D.C., January 1, 1960.

Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe. - John F. Kennedy, inaugural address, January 20, 1961.

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans – born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage – and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. - John F. Kennedy, inaugural address, January 20, 1961.

From the time of the declaration of Independence, Americans have believed that this country has a moral significance for the world. The United States was created as a conscious act by men and women dedicated to a set of political and ethical principles they held to be of universal meaning. - Henry Kissenger, lecture, New York University, September 19, 1977.

The American people have not been the hope of mankind through their history by subordinating moral values to tactical experience. - Henry Kissenger, November 13, 1977.

You can always tell the Irish,
You can always tell the Dutch
You can always tell a Yankee;
But you cannot tell him much.
- Eric Knight.

These [country women] are women of the American soil. They are a hardy stock. They are the roots of our country.... They are not our well-advertised women of beauty and fashion.... These women represent a different mode of life. They are themselves a very great American style. They live with courage and purpose, a part of our tradition. - Dorothea Lange.

The American idea is a free church on a free state, and a free and unsectarian public school in every ward and in every village, with its doors wide open to the children of all races and of every creed. It goes still further and frowns upon the constant attempt to divide our people according to origin or extraction. Let every man honor and love the land of his birth and the race from which he springs and keep their memory green. It is a pious and honorable duty. But let us have done with British-Americans and Irish-Americans and German-Americans, and all be Americans — nothing more and nothing less. If a man os going to be an American at all, let him be so without any qualifying adjectives, and if he is going to be something else, let him drop the word American form his personal description. - Henry Cabot Lodge, Americanism.

We can do all that can be done to solve the social problems and fulfill the hopes of mankind. Failure would be a disaster unequaled in history. The first step to success is pride of country, simple, honest, frank, and ever present, and thus is the Americanism that I would have. If we have this pride and faith, we shall appreciate our mighty responsibilities. Then, if we live up to them, we shall keep the words “an American citizen” what they now are — the noblest title any man can bear. - Henry Cabot Lodge, Americanism.

I really think that American gentlemen are the best after all, because... kissing your hand may make you feel very, very good, but a diamond and sapphire bracelet lasts forever. - Anita Loos, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 1925.

The kindred blood which flows in the veins of American citizens, the mingled blood which they have shed in defence of their scared rights, consecrate their union, and excite horror at the idea of their becoming aliens, rivals, enemies. - James Madison, The Federalist #14, November 30, 1787.

Is it not the glory of the people of America, that whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other nations, they have not suffered blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience? - James Madison, The Federalist #14, November 30, 1787.

No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. - H. L. Mencken.

The thing which sets off the American from all other men, and gives peculiar colour not only to the pattern of his daily life but also adds to the play of his inner ideas, is what, for want of a more exact term, may be called social aspiration. - H.L. Mencken, preface to The American Credo: A Contribution toward the Interpretation of the National Mind, 1920.

There is no American who cannot hope to lift himself another notch or two, if he is good; there is absolutely no hard and fast impediment to his progress. But neither is there any American who doesn't have to keep on fighting for whatever position he has; no wall of caste is there to protect him if he slips. .... The older societies of Europe, as everyone knows, protect their caste lines a great deal more resolutely. - H.L. Mencken, preface to The American Credo: A Contribution toward the Interpretation of the National Mind, 1920.

No sane man, employing an American plumber to repair a leaky drain, would expect him to do it at the first trial, and in precisely the same way no sane man, observing an American Secretary of State in negotiation with Englishmen and Japs, would expect him to come off better than second best. Third-rate men, of course, exist in all countries, but it is only here that they are in full control of the state, and with it of all the national standards. - H.L. Mencken, Prejudices: Third Series, 1922.

Every American is in some sense a patriot and a person of cultivated intelligence. No such wide diffusion of the ideas, tastes, and sentiments of educated minds has ever been seen elsewhere or even conceived of as attainable. - John Stuart Mill.

The genius of you Americans is that you never make clear-cut stupid moves, only complicated stupid moves which make us wonder at the possibility that there may be something to them [which] we are missing. - Gamel Nasser.

Americans have often improvised the means to do what nobody had done before. - Richard E. Neustadt.

We see the hope of tomorrow in the youth of today. I know America's youth. I believe in them. We can be proud that they are better educated, more committed, more passionately driven by conscience than any generation in our history. - Richard M. Nixon, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1969.

No people has ever been so close to the achievement of a just and abundant society, or so possessed of the will to achieve it. - Richard M. Nixon, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1969.

We have no sense of arrogance – we honestly, almost naively, like people and want to get along with them. We lack often a sense of subtlety but that will come after a few hundred more years of civilization. - Richard M. Nixon, Diary, 1972.

Our citizenship in the United States is our national character. Our citizenship in any particular state is only our local distinction. By the latter we are known at home, by the former to the world. Our great title is AMERICANS – our inferior one varies with the place. - Thomas Paine.

We have always been masters at the last push, and always shall be while we do our duty. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis #4, September 12, 1777.

I ever feel myself hurt when I hear the union, that great palladium of our liberty and safety, the least irreverently spoken of. It is the most sacred thing in the Constitution of America, and that of which every man should be most proud and tender. Our citizenship in the United State is our national character. Our citizenship in any particular state is only our local distinction. By the latter we are known at home, by the former to the world. Our great title is AMERICANS — our inferior one varies with the place. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis #13, April 19, 1783.

The Americans, as a race, are the foremost mechanics in the world. America, as a nation, has the greatest ability for mass production of machines. It therefore behooves us to devise methods of war which exploit our inherent superiority. We must fight the war by machines on the ground, and in the air, to the maximum of our ability, particularly in view of the fact that the two races left which we may have to fight are both poor mechanics but have ample manpower. While we have ample manpower, it is to valuable to be thrown away. - General George S. Patton, Jr., War as I Knew It, 1947.

I love the Americans because they love liberty, and I love them for the noble efforts they made in the last war. - William Pitt.

An American is brought up with the huge burning phrases of great revolutionaries. . . . forever ringing in his ears. To forget them, to act against their hope and faith in men, is to take an axe to his own roots. There is in the American mind, just because it is an American mind, an idealism that cannot be quenched, a small voice of conscience that all the hokum in the world cannot drown. - J.B. Priestly, October 1947.

With God's help, we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us.... And, after all, why shouldn't we believe that? We are Americans. - Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981.

I believe we, the Americans of today, are ready to act worthy of ourselves, ready to do what must be done to ensure happiness and liberty for ourselves, our children and our children's children. - Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981.

We hear much of special interest groups. Our concern must be for a special interest group that has been too long neglected. It knows no sectional boundaries or ethnic and racial divisions, and it crosses political party lines. It is made up of men and women who raise our food, patrol our streets, man our mines and our factories, teach our children, keep our homes, and heal us when we are sick — professionals, industrialists, shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truckdrivers. They are, in short, "We the people," this breed called Americans. - Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981.

We must not be timid. We will restore the freedom of all men and women to excel and to create. We will unleash the energy and genius of the American people, traits which have never failed us. - Ronald Reagan, Address to the Nation on the Economy, February 5, 1981.

I don't know about you but I'm getting tired of whining voices telling us we can't do this and we can't do that.... Don't tell Americans what they can't do, just tell them what needs doing and then let them surprise you with their ingenuity. - Ronald Reagan. Speech on recession, Jan. 1982.

And then there are countless, quiet, everyday heroes of American life -- parents who sacrifice long and hard so their children will know a better life than they've known; church and civic volunteers who help to feed, clothe, nurse, and teach the needy; millions who've made our nation and our nation's destiny so very special -- unsung heroes who may not have realized their own dreams themselves but then who reinvest those dreams in their children. Don't let anyone tell you that America's best days are behind her, that the American spirit has been vanquished. We've seen it triumph too often in our lives to stop believing in it now. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 26, 1982.

We speak with pride and admiration of that little band of Americans who overcame insuperable odds to set this nation on course 200 years ago. But our glory didn't end with them. Americans ever since have emulated their deeds. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 26, 1982.

Together we have made a New Beginning, but we have only begun. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 26, 1982.

We're the most generous people on Earth. But how about having a little compassion left over for those Americans who sit around the table at night after dinner, trying to figure out how to pay their own bills, keep the kids in school, and keep up with higher inflation and higher taxes year after year? - Ronald Reagan, Address Before a Joint Session of the Alabama State Legislature in Montgomery, March 15, 1982.

A State that can produce giants like George Washington Carver, Helen Keller, Joe Louis, Bear Bryant, Jim Allen teaches us a valuable lesson....
You know, when you think of those ancestors who settled your State, they were willing to hitch up their wagons, venture across mountains, and sometimes bet the house, the farm, and all the family on the outcome. They didn't have much more than their hands, their heads, their hearts, and their friends. And they made it work without an area redevelopment plan, a subsidy from HUD, or even a go-ahead from OSHA. They did it the same way that Bear Bryant won more games than any college coach, the same way that Alabama set a record last year of attracting new industrial investment, the same way that Jeremiah Denton endured an eternity inside hell. They did it the old-fashioned way -- they earned it. Dreams, drive, courage, refusing to quit made the difference then, and they make the difference now. - Ronald Reagan, Address Before a Joint Session of the Alabama State Legislature in Montgomery, March 15, 1982.

But the big story about America today is the way that millions of confident, caring people -- those extraordinary ``ordinary'' Americans who never make the headlines and will never be interviewed -- are laying the foundation, not just for recovery from our present problems but for a better tomorrow for all our people. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 25, 1983.

Our country is a special place, because we Americans have always been sustained, through good times and bad, by a noble vision -- a vision not only of what the world around us is today but what we as a free people can make it be tomorrow. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 25, 1983.

Back over the years, citizens like ourselves have gathered within these walls when our nation was threatened; sometimes when its very existence was at stake. Always with courage and common sense, they met the crises of their time and lived to see a stronger, better, and more prosperous country. The present situation is no worse and, in fact, is not as bad as some of those they faced. Time and again, they proved that there is nothing we Americans cannot achieve as free men and women. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 25, 1983.

Americans are people of peace. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 25, 1984.

We have no territorial ambitions. We occupy no countries. We build no walls to lock people in. Americans build the future. And our vision of a better life for farmers, merchants, and working people, from the Americas to Asia, begins with a simple premise: The future is best decided by ballots, not bullets. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 25, 1984.

Nowhere do we so effectively demonstrate our technological leadership and ability to make life better on Earth. The Space Age is barely a quarter of a century old. But already we've pushed civilization forward with our advances in science and technology. Opportunities and jobs will multiply as we cross new thresholds of knowledge and reach deeper into the unknown. Our progress in space -- taking giant steps for all mankind -- is a tribute to American teamwork and excellence. Our finest minds in government, industry, and academia have all pulled together. And we can be proud to say: We are first; we are the best; and we are so because we're free. - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address, January 25, 1984.

Americans, are not given to looking backward. In this blessed land, there is always a better tomorrow. - Ronald Reagan, Second Inaugural Address, January 21, 1985.

As an older American, I remember a time when people of different race, creed, or ethnic origin in our land found hatred and prejudice installed in social custom and, yes, in law. There is no story more heartening in our history than the progress that we have made toward the "brotherhood of man" that God intended for us. Let us resolve there will be no turning back or hesitation on the road to an America rich in dignity and abundant with opportunity for all our citizens. - Ronald Reagan, Second Inaugural Address, January 21, 1985.

We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them -- this morning, as they prepared for their journey, and waved good-bye, and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God." - President Ronald Reagan, Speech about the Challenger disaster, January 28, 1986.

We Americans make no secret of our belief in freedom. In fact, it’s something of a national pastime. - Ronald Reagan, speech at Moscow State University, May 31, 1988.

Americans are getting like a Ford car – they all have the same parts, the same upholstery and make exactly the same noises. - Will Rogers.

This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny. - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Acceptance speech, Philadelphia, June 27, 1936.

We are determined to make every American citizen the subject of his country’s interest and concern; and we will never regard any faithful law-abiding group within our borders as superfluous. - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 2nd inaugural address, January 20, 1937.

My fellow immigrants.... Remember always that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists. - Franklin D. Roosevelt, address to the Daughters of the American Revolution, April 22, 1938.

The overwhelming majority of Americans are possessed of two great qualities – a sense of humor and a sense of proportion. - Franklin D. Roosevelt, speech in Georgia, Nov. 18, 1945.

We, here in America, hold in our hands the hope of the world, the fate of the coming years. - Theodore Roosevelt.

The American people are slow to wrath, but when their wrath is once kindled it burns like a consuming flame. - Theodore Roosevelt, 1st annual message to Congress, Dec. 3, 1901.

A hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts “native” before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely in the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance. - Theodore Roosevelt, speech in New York, October 12, 1915.

There can be no fifty-fifty Americanism in this country. There is room here for only 100 percent Americanism, only for those who are Americans and nothing else. - Theodore Roosevelt, speech at the Republican Convention, Saratoga, NY.

The soil of which such men as he are made is good to be born on, good to live on, good to die for and to be buried in. - James Russell.

All his life he [the American] jumps into the train after it has started and jumps out before it has stopped; and he never once gets left behind or breaks a leg. - George Santayana.

[The American] dreams of helping to carry on and to accelerate the movement of a vast, seething, progressive society, and he actually does so. Ideals clinging so close to nature are almost sure of fulfillment. - George Santayana.

American statesmen will understand and appreciate human nature as it has developed itself under the influence of free institutions. We know that if we want any class of people to overcome their prejudices in respecting the political rights and privileges of any other class, the very first thing we have to do is to accord the same rights and privileges to them.
No American was ever inclined to recognize in others public rights and privileges from which he himself was excluded; and, for aught I know, in this very feeling, although it may take an objectionable form, we find one of the safeguards of popular liberty. - Carl Schurz, speech to the Senate, January 30, 1872.

More great Americans were failures than they were successes. They mostly spent their lives in not having a buyer for what they had for sale. - Gertrude Stein, Everybody's Autobiography, 1937.

As citizens of this democracy, you are the rulers and the ruled, the lawgivers and the law-abiding, the beginning and the end. - Adlai Stevenson.

The citizen of the United States is taught from infancy to rely upon his own exertions, in order to resist the evils and difficulties of life; he looks upon the social authority with an eye of mistrust and anxiety, and he claims its assistance only when he is unable to do without it. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835.

They [the Americans] have all a lively faith in the perfectibility of man.... - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835.

If an American were condemned to confine his activity to his own affairs, he would be robbed of one half of his activity; he would be robbed of one half of his existence; he would feel an immense void in the life which he is accustomed to lead, and his wretchedness would be unbearable. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835.

The temper of the Americans is vindictive, like that of all serious and reflecting nations. They hardly ever forget an offense, but it is not easy to offend them; and their resentment is as slow to kindle as it is to abate. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835.

The Americans are a very old and a very enlightened people, who have fallen upon a new and unbounded country, where they may extend themselves at pleasure, and which they may fertilize without difficulty. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835.

The Americans have applied to the sexes the great principle of political economy which governs the manufactures of our age, by carefully dividing the duties of man from those of women, in order that the great work of society may be the better carried on. - Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835.

You know that being an American is more than a matter of where your parents came from. It is a belief that all men are created free and equal and that everyone deserves an even break. It is respect for the dignity of men and women without race, creed, or color. That is our creed. - Harry S. Truman, remarks in Ohio, October 26, 1948.

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.... We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained. - George Washington, first Inaugural Address.

The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. - George Washington, farewell address, September 17, 1796.

Thank God! I — I also — am an American! - Daniel Webster, Completion of Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1843.

I shall know but one country. The ends I aim at shall be my country's, my God's, and Truth's. I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American. - Daniel Webster, Speech, July 17, 1850.

Americans have a long and proud tradition of irreverence toward and distrust of their military. - General Fred C. Weyand.

Whatever else an American believes or disbelieves about himself, he is absolutely sure he has a sense of humor. - E. B. White.

As a people we have never encountered any obstacle that we could not overcome. - Walt Whitman.

The Americans are going to be the most fluent and melodious-voiced people in the world – and the most perfect users of words. - Walt Whitman.

There exists in the world today a gigantic reservoir of good will toward us, the American people. - Wendell Wilkie.

There are a great many hyphens left in America. For my part I think the most un-American thing in the world is a hyphen. - Woodrow Wilson, speech, St. Paul, 1919.

Independence forever! - John Quincy Adams, comment on his deathbed, August 7, 1818.

Without moral and intellectual independence, there is no anchor for national independence. - David Ben-Gurion.

If ever there was a holy war, it was that which saved our liberties and gave us independence. - Thomas Jefferson, 1813.

Our forefathers brought with them the germ of independence in the principle of self-taxation. - James Madison, letter to John Adams, August 7, 1818.

Call it independence or what you will, if it is the cause of God and humanity it will go on.
And when the Almighty shall have blest us, and made us a people dependent only upon Him, then may our first gratitude be shown by an act of continental legislation, which shall put a stop to the importation of negroes for sale, soften the hard fate of those already here, and in time procure their freedom. - Thomas Paine, "A Serious Thought," Pennsylvania Journal, October 18, 1775.

Nothing but independence, i.e. a continental form of government, can keep the peace of the continent and preserve it inviolate from civil wars. - Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776.

Our independence with God's blessing we will maintain against all the world. But as we wish to avoid evil ourselves, we wish not to inflict it on others. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis #2, January 13, 1777.

Honor and Commerce is Independence. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis #3, April 19, 1777.

The principal causes why independence has not been so universally supported as it ought, are fear and indolence, and the causes why it has been opposed, are, avarice, down-right villainy, and lust of personal power. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis #3, April 19, 1777.

Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good. - Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man, Pt.II, 1792.

Nothing short of independence, it appears to me, can possibly do. A peace on other terms would, if I may be allowed the expression, be a peace of war. - George Washington, letter to John Banister. April 21, 1778.

It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment, — Independence now and Independence forever. - Daniel Webster, Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, Aug. 2, 1826.

A Patriot without religion in my estimation is as great a paradox as an honest Man without fear of God. Is it possible that he whom no moral obligations bind, can have any real Good Will towards men? Can he be a patriot who, by an openly vicious conduct, is undermining the very bonds of society? ...The Scriptures tell us “righteousness exalteth a Nation.” - Abigail Adams, Letter to Mercy Warren, November 5, 1775.

If national pride is ever justifiable or excusable it is when it springs, not from power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national innocence, information, and benevolence. - President John Adams, Inaugural Address, Philadelphia, March 4, 1797.

It must not be permitted to be doubted whether the people of the United States will support the government established by their voluntary consent and appointed by their free choice, or whether, by surrendering themselves to the direction of foreign and domestic factions, in opposition to their own government, they will forfeit the honorable station they have hitherto maintained. - President John Adams, speech to Congress on the XYZ Affair, Philadelphia, PA, May 16, 1797.

If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready, at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But while I do live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a country, and that a free country. - John Adams, speech favoring the Declaration of Independence. May 1776.

Unless our conception of patriotism is progressive, it cannot hope to embody the real affection and the real interest of the nation. - Jane Addams, Newer Ideals of Peace, 1907.

Patriotism is a lively sense of collective responsibility. Nationalism is a silly cock crowing on its own dunghill. - Richard Addington, The Colonel’s Daughter, 1931.

There is no greater sign of a general decay of virtue in a nation, than a want of zeal in its inhabitants for the good of their country. - Joseph Addison.

What a pity is it That we can die but once to save our country! - Joseph Addison, Cato, 1713.

Love of country is like love of woman--he loves her best who seeks to bestow on her the highest good. - Felix Adler.

Anyone who by his nature and not simply by ill-luck has no state is either too bad or too good, either subhuman or superhuman — he is like the war-mad man condemned in Homer’s words as “having no family, no law, no home;” for he who is such by nature is mad on war; he is a non-cooperator like an isolated piece in a game of draughts. - Aristotle, Politics, c.334-23 b.c.

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine aabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shinning sea!
- Katherine Lee Bates, America The Beautiful.

Every man to his city, and every man to his own country. - The Bible: Old Testament, I Kings, 22:36.

They died to save their country and they only saved the world. - Hilaire Belloc.

A man does not have himself killed for a half-pence a day or for a petty distinction. You must speak to the soul in order to electrify him. - Napoleon Bonaparte.

Flag burning is wrong. Protection of the flag, a national symbol, will in no way limit the opportunity nor the breadth of protest available in the exercise of free speech rights. I believe the importance of this issue compels me to call for a constitutional amendment. - George Bush, speech. June 27, 1989.

He who loves not his country, can love nothing. - George Gordon Byron, The Two Foscari, 1821.

The patriot's blood's the seed of Freedom's tree. - Thomas Campbell, To The Spanish Patriots.

I realize that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone. - Edith Louisa Cavell, last words. 1915.

:et us therefore brace ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say: "This was their finest hour." - Winston Churchill, speech. June 18, 1940.

When I am abroad I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the Government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home. - Winston Churchill, House of Commons. April 18, 1947.

I admire men who stand up for their country in defeat, even though I am on the other side. - Winston Churchill, The Gathering Storm, 1948.

That patriotism, which, catching its inspirations from the immortal God, and leaving at an immeasurable distance below all lesser, groveling, personal interests and feelings, animates and prompts deeds of self-sacrifice, of valor, or devotion, and of death itself — that is public virtue; that is the noblest, the sublimest of all public virtues. - Henry Clay, speech in the Senate. August 19, 1841.

Personal or private courage is totally distinct from that higher and nobler courage which prompts the patriot to offer himself a voluntary sacrifice to his country's good. - Henry Clay, speech in the Senate. August 19, 1841.

He who takes the oath today to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States only assumes the solemn obligation which every patriotic citizen — on the farm, in the workshop, in the busy marts of trade, and everywhere — should share with him. - Grover Cleveland, inaugural address. March 4, 1885.

Loyalty... is a realization that America was born of revolt, flourishes in dissent, became great through experimentation. - Henry Steele Commager, Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent, 1959.

Patriotism is easy to understand in America. It means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country. - Calvin Coolidge, speech in Massachusetts. May 30, 1923.

The old word, patriotism, has almost lost its meaning. We have many persons ready to live for and on their country, but it is hard to find within the broad domain of this heaven-blessed land one who would die for it. To extract money deftly from the Treasury, in our new lexicon, that is real patriotism. - Samuel S. Cox, speech, House of Representatives. November 10, 1877.

I would rather I were in my grave than hinder you in anything that may be for the settlement of the nation. For the nation needs it, never needed it more! And therefore, out of the love and honor I bear you, I am forever bound, whatever becomes of me, to do what is best for that; — and I am forever bound to acknowledge you have dealt most honorably and worthily with me, and lovingly, and have had respect for one who deserves nothing. - Oliver Cromwell, speech at Whitehall. April 13, 1657.

A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle. - George William Curtis.

The proneness to exaggerate social evils is greatest with the most patriotic. Temporary embarrassment is sensitively apprehended to be permanent. Every day's experience teaches how apt we are to magnify partial into universal distress, and with what difficulty an excited imagination rescues itself from despondency. - George M. Dallas, speech in the Senate. February 27, 1832.

Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong! - Stephan Decatur, toast given by him at a dinner in his honor, Norfolk, VA, April, 1816.

The last refuge of a patriot is somewhere without extradition. - Nelson Demille, Word of Honor.

True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else. - Clarence Darrow.

And they who for their country die
Shall find an honored grave,
For glory lights the soldier's tomb,
And beauty weeps the brave.
- J.R. Drake, To The Defenders of New Orleans.

Patriotism means equipped forces and a prepared citizenry. - Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Any relation to the land, the habit of tilling it, or mining it, or even hunting on it, generates the feeling of patriotism. - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Patriotism has its roots deep in the instincts and the affections. Love of country is the expansion of filial love. - D. D. Field.

Let us put an end to self-inflicted wounds. Let us remember that our national unity is a most priceless asset. - Gerald Ford, address to Congress. April 10, 1975.

I offer neither pay nor quarters nor provisions; I offer hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death. Let him who loves his country in his heart, and not his lips only, follow me. - Giuseppe Garibaldi.

Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam, —
His first, best country ever is at home.
- Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller, 1764.

Remember... that behind all these men you have to do with, behind officer and Government and people, even, there is the Country Herself, your country, and that you belong to Her as you belong to your own mother. - Edward Everett Hale.

I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country. - Capt. Nathan Hale, to his British executioners before being hanged by the British as a spy, September 21, 1776.

Strike--till the last armed foe expires;
Strike--for your alters and your fires;
Strike--for the green graves of your sires;
God--and your native land.
- Fitz-Greene Halleck, Marco Bozzaris.

The man who loves his country prefers its liberty to all other considerations, well knowing that without liberty life is a misery. - Andrew Hamilton, at the trial of publisher John Peter Zenger. August, 1735.

Patriotism is like a plant whose roots stretch down... a plant whose best nutrients are blood and tears; a plant which dies down in peace and flowers most brightly in war. Patriotism does not calculate, does not profiteer, does not stop to reason: in an atmosphere of danger the sap begins to stir; it lives; it takes possession of our soul. - General Sir Ian Hamilton, The Soul & Body of an Army, 1921.

It is an odd thing about patriotism, the true love of one's country. A man can love his native land and never know that he loves it, though he live to be eighty. - Heinrich Heine.

It is a very dangerous thing to organize the patriotism of a nation if you are not sincere. - Ernest Hemingway.

Everyone loves his own country, customs, language, wife, children, not because they are the best in the world, but because they are his established property, and he loves them himself, and the labor he has bestowed on them. - Johann Gottfried von Herder, Philosophy of History, 1774.

Immortal Patriots rise once more
Defend your rights--defend your shore.
- Joseph Hopkinson, “Hail, Columbia.” April 25, 1798.

It is a sweet and beautiful thing to die for ones country. - Horace, Odes, 23 B.C.

It is not the possessor of many things whom you will rightly call happy. The name of the happy man is claimed more justly by him who has learnt the art whereby to use what the gods give, and who can endure the hardships of poverty, who dreads disgrace as something worse than death. He will not fear to die for the friend he loves, or for his country. - Horace, Odes, 23 B.C.

There is no such thing as a little country. The greatness of a people is no more determined by their number than the greatness of a man is determined by his height. - Victor Hugo.

What we need are critical lovers of America - patriots who express their faith in their country by working to improve it. - Hubert Humphrey.

There is no limit to the noble aspirations which the words "my country" may evoke. - Dean W. R. Inge.

A nation thrills, a nation bleeds,
A nation follows where it leads,
And every man is proud to yield
His life upon a crimson field
For Betsy's battle flag.
- Minna Irving, "Betsy's Battle Flag."

No citizen who loves his country, would, in any case whatever, resort to forcible resistance, unless he clearly saw that the time had come when a freeman should prefer death to submission. - Andrew Jackson, Farewell Address. 1840.

No free government can stand without virtue in the people, and a lofty spirit of patriotism; and if the sordid feelings of mere selfishness shall usurp the place which ought to be filled by public spirit, the legislation of Congress will soon be converted into a scramble for personal and sectional advantages. - Andrew Jackson, Farewell Address. 1840.

Patriotism is a centrifugal emotion intensifying at the outskirts. - Alice James.

The first object of my heart is my own country. In that is embarked my family, my fortune, and my existence. I have not one farthing of interest, no fibre of attachment out of it, nor a single motive of preference of any one nation to another, but in proportion as they are more or less friendly to us. - Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry. 1799.

Would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm, on the theoretic and visionary fear that this government, the world's best hope, may by possibility want energy to preserve itself. - Thomas Jefferson, 1st inaugural address. March 4, 1801.

The patriot, like the Christian, must learn that to bear revilings and persecutions is a part of his duty. - Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Judge Sullivan, 1805.

That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona. - Samuel Johnson, Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775.

Patriotism, affection for one's country or one's group, loyalty to its institutions, and zeal for its defense, is a sentiment known among all kinds of men; so is xenophobia, which is a dislike of the stranger. - Elie Kedourie.

My fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. - John F. Kennedy, inaugural address. January 20, 1961.

The warmest instincts of every man’s soil declare the glory of the soldier’s death. It is more appropriate for the Christian than to the greek to sing: “glorious his fate, and envied his lot, who for his country fights and for it dies. - Robert E. Lee.

Mere vaporing and boasting become a nation as little as a man. But honest, outspoken pride and faith in our country are infinitely better and more to be respected than the cultivated reserve which sets it down as ill-bred and in bad taste ever to refer to our country except by way of deprication, criticism, or general negation. We have a right to be proud of our vast material success, our national power and dignity, our advancing civilization, carrying freedom and education in its train. But to count our wealth and tell our numbers and rehearse our great deeds simply to boast of them is useless enough. We have a right to do it only when we listen to the solemn undertone which brings the message of great responsibilities — responsibilities far greater than the ordinary political and financial issues, which are sure to find, sooner or later, a right settlement. - Henry Cabot Lodge, Americanism.

There is something magnificent in having a country to love. It is almost like what one feels for a woman. Not so tender, perhaps, but to the full as self-forgetful. - James Russell Lowell.

Certainly it is no shame to a man that he should be as nice about his country as about his sweetheart... Yet it would hardly be wise to hold everyone an enemy who could not see her with our own enchanted eyes. - James Russell Lowell.

Every male brought into existence should be taught from infancy that the military service of the Republic carries with it honor and distinction, and his very life should be permeated with the ideal that even death itself may become a boon when a man dies that a nation may live and fulfill its destiny. - Douglas MacArthur, Infantry Journal. March 1927.

Love of country should make a good citizen forget private wrongs. - Niccoló Machiavelli, The Discourses, 1517.

Every man who loves peace, every man who loves his country, every man who loves liberty, ought to have it ever before his eyes, that he may cherish in heart a due attachment to the union of America, and be able to set a due value on the means of preserving it. - James Madison, The Federalist #41. January 19, 1788.

The man who is willing to fight for his country is finally the full custodian of its security. If there were no willing men, no power in the government could ever rally the masses of the unwilling. - Brigadier General S.L.A. Marshall, Men Against Fire. 1947.

There is nothing more souless than a religion without good works unless it be patriotism which does not concern itself with the welfare and dignity of the individual. Only the officer who dedicates his thoughts and energy to his men can convert into a coherent military force their inarticulate thoughts about their country; nor is any other in a position to stimulate their desire to be of service to it. - Brigadier General S.L.A. Marshall, Men Against Fire. 1947.

His grave a nation's heart shall be,
His monument a people free.
- Caroline Mason, "President Lincoln's Grave." c.1865.

In the name of your love for your country you must combat without truce the existence of every privilege, every inequality, upon the soil which has given you birth. - Guiseppe Mazzini, The Duties of Man.

So long as you are ready to die for humanity, the life of your country is immortal. - Guiseppe Mazzini, The Duties of Man.

Do not say I; say we. Be every one of you an incarnation of your Country, and feel himself and make himself responsible for his fellow-countrymen; let each one of you learn to act in such a way that in him men shall respect and love his Country. - Guiseppe Mazzini, The Duties of Man.

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. - John Stuart Mill.

To prevent the weaker members of the community from being preyed upon by innumerable vultures, it was needful that there should be an animal of prey stronger than the rest, commissioned to keep them down. But as the king of the vultures would be no less bent upon preying upon the flock than any of the minor harpies, it was indispensable to be in a perpetual attitude of defence against his beak and claws. The aim, therefore, of patriots, was to set limits on the power which the ruler should be suffered to exercise over the community; and this limitation was what they meant by liberty. - John Stuart Mill, On Liberty. 1859.

National honor is national property of the highest value. - James Monroe, first inaugural address. March 4, 1817.

A government is like everything else: to preserve it we must love it. - Baron de Montesquieu, The Spirit of The Laws, 1748.

The state subsists independently of the love of our country, of the thirst for true glory, of self-denial, of the sacrifice of our dearest interests, and of all those heroic virtues which we admire in the ancients, and to us are known only by tradition. - Baron de Montesquieu, The Spirit of The Laws, 1748.

At vast expense the Ambassadors offer up their livers almost every night in the service of their country. - Patrick O'Donovan.

There is one certain means by which I can be sure never to see my country's ruin, — I will die in the last ditch. - William of Orange When Buckingham urged the inevitable destruction which hung over the United Provinces, and asked him whether he did not see that the commonwealth was ruined, cited in Hume’s History of England. 1622.

Patriotism is usually stronger than class-hatred, and always stronger than internationalism. - George Orwell.

The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion. - Thomas Paine.

Remember that it is in a commonwealth only that you can expect to find every man a patriot of a hero. - Thomas Paine, "A Dialogue." 1776.

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis #1. December 23, 1776.

A good opinion of ourselves is exceedingly necessary in private life, but absolutely necessary in public life, and of the utmost importance in supporting national character. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis #5. March 21, 1778.

For my part, I have but a very slender opinion of those patriots, if they be called such, who never appear till provoked to it by a personal quarrel, and then blaze away, the hero of their tale, and in a whirlwind of their own raising; such men are very seldom what the populace mean by the word "staunch," and it is only by a continuance of service that any public can become a judge of a man's principles. - Thomas Paine, "To The Public on Mr. Deane's Affairs," Pennsylvania Packet. January 8, 1779.

And when we view a flag, which to the eye is beautiful, and to contemplate its rise and origin inspires a sensation of sublime delight, our national honor must unite with our interests to prevent injury to the one, or insult to the other. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis #14. December 9, 1783.

This empire has been acquired by men who knew their duty and had the courage to do it, who in their hour of conflict had the fear of dishonour always present to them, and who, if ever they failed in an enterprise, would not allow their virtues to be lost to their country, but freely gave their lives to her as the fairest offering which they could present at her feast. - Pericles, funeral oration for the Athenian dead, 431 B.C.

We have all got to die some day; a few years more or less of our lives don't much matter if by dying a year or two sooner than we should otherwise do from disease we can help to save the flag of our country from going under. - Lord Baden-Powell, Scouting for Boys, 1908.

Their patriotism is quiet but deep. Their values sustain our national life. - Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981.

The word ``patriotism'' is defined as love for or devotion to one's country, and that can't be bought. But it's present on this great ship, on the destroyer Fletcher and the cruiser Jouett, the frigate Wadsworth as well. - Ronald Reagan, Remarks on Board the U.S.S. Constellation, August 20, 1981.

We would rather die on our feet than live on our knees. - Franklin D. Roosevelt. 1939.

As men do not live by bread alone, they do not fight by armaments alone. - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Four Freedoms Speech. January 6, 1941.

The man who loves other countries as much as his own stands on a level with the man who loves other women as much as he loves his own wife. - Theodore Roosevelt.

There can be no patriotism without liberty, no liberty without virtue, no virtue without citizens; create citizens, and you have everything you need; without them, you will have nothing but debased slaves, from the rulers of the state downwards. - Jean Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse on Political Economy, 1755.

It is certain that the greatest miracles of virtue have been produced by patriotism: this fine and lively feeling, which gives to the force of self-love all the beauty of virtue, lends it an energy which, without disfiguring it, makes it the most heroic of all passions. This it is that produces so many immortal actions, the glory of which dazzles our feeble eyes; and so many great men, whose old-world virtues pass for fables now that patriotism is made mock of. - Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract. 1762.

To die for one's country is to suffer martyrdom: to violate the laws is to be guilty of impiety, and to expose an evil-doer to public obloquy [dishonor] is to subject him to the wrath of God: Sacer estod. - Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract. 1762.

Breathes there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd
From wandering on a foreign strand?
If such there breathe, go, mark him well!
For him no minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim, —
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung.
- Sir Walter Scott, The Lay of The Last Minstrel, 1805.

Where's the coward that would not dare
To fight for such a land?
- Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, 1808.

One drop of blood drawn from thy country's bosom should grieve thee more than streams of foreign gore. - William Shakespeare, Henry V, 1599.

Who here is so vile that will not love his country? - William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, 1600.

Patriotism also imposes sacred duties. - Georges Sorel, Reflections on Violence, 1908.

The patriots are those who love America enough to wish to see her as a model to mankind. - Adlai Stevenson.

When an American says that he loves his country, he... means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect. - Adlai Stevenson.

And he who counts another greater friend than his own fatherland, I put him nowhere. - Sophocles, Antigone, c.450 b.c.

In the United States, it is believed, and with truth, that patriotism is a kind of devotion which is strengthened by ritual observance. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. 1835.

Patriotism is not durable in a conquered nation. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. 1835.

All free nations are vainglorious, but national pride is not displayed by all in the same manner. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. 1835.

Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and your country, let men label you as they may. - Mark Twain.

My kind of loyalty was to one's country, not to it's institutions or to its office holders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to. - Mark Twain.

But the blood of the patriot brothers of Carolina and Massachusetts smoked yet upon the battlefields of the Revolution. The recollection of their kindred language, and common dangers and sufferings, burned still fresh in their hearts. Patriotism proved more powerful than jealousy, and good sense stronger than fanaticism. - Clement L. Vallandingham, speech. October 29, 1855.

Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors. - Voltaire, Mérope, 1743.

Guard against the postures of pretended patriotism. - George Washington, Farewell address. September 17, 1796.

Whatever services I have rendered to my country, in its general approbation I have received an ample reward. - George Washington, address to the Senators of Massachusettes, 1797.

Men may speculate as they will; they may talk of patriotism; they draw a few examples from ancient story, of great achievements performed by its influence; but whoever builds upon it, as a sufficient basis for conducting a long and bloody war, will find themselves deceived in the end.... We must take the passions of men as nature has given them, and whose principles as a guide which are generally the rule of action. I do not mean to exclude altogether the idea of patriotism. I know it exists, and I know it has done much in the present contest. But I will venture to assert, that a great and lasting war can never be supported on this principle alone. It must be aided by a prospect of interest or some reward. For a time, it may, of itself push men to action; to bear much, to encounter difficulties; but it will not endure unassited by interest. - George Washington, letter to John Bannister. 21 April, 1778.

Let it be born on the flag under which we rally in every exigency, that we have one country, one constitution, one destiny. - Daniel Webster.

Let our object be our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country. - Daniel Webster, Address on laying the Corner-Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, 1825.

There are no points of the compass on the chart of true patriotism. - Robert C. Winthrop.

"The results should have been predictable, since a human being has no natural rights of any nature"

Mr. Dubois had paused. Somebody took the bait. "Sir? How about 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'?"

"Ah, yes, the 'unalienable rights.' Each year someone quotes that magnificent poetry. Life? What 'right' to life has a man who is drowning in the Pacific? The ocean will not hearken to his cries. What 'right' to life has a man who must die if he is to save his children? If he chooses to save his own life, does he do so as a matter of 'right'? If two men are starving and cannibalism is the only alternative to death, which man's right is 'unalienable'? And is it 'right'? As to liberty, the heroes who signed that great document pledged themselves to buy liberty with their lives. Liberty is always unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it is always vanquished. Of all the so-called 'natural human rights' that have ever been invented, liberty is least likely to be cheap and is never free of cost."

"The third 'right'?- the 'pursuit of happiness'? It is indeed unalienable but it is not a right; it is simply a universal condition which tyrants cannot take away nor patriots restore. Cast me into a dungeon, burn me at the stake, crown me king of kings, I can 'pursue happiness' as long as my brain lives - but neither gods nor saints, wise men nor subtle drugs, can insure that I will catch it."

Mr. Dubois then turned to me. "I told you that 'juvenile delinquent' is a contradiction in terms. 'Delinquent' means 'failing in duty'. But duty is an adult virtue - indeed a juvenile becomes an adult when, and only when, he acquires a knowledge of duty and embraces it as dearer than the self-love he was born with. There never was, there cannot be, a 'juvenile delinquent'. But for every juvenile criminal there are always one or more adult delinquents - people of mature years who either do not know their duty, or who, knowing it, fail."

"And that was the soft spot which destroyed what was in many ways an admirable cultrue. The junior hoodlums who roamed their streets were symptoms of a greater sickness; their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constitutued, can endure."

- Robert Heinlein , Starship Troopers

You will march with the utmost expedition and secrecy to Concord, where you will seize all the artillery and ammunition you can find... - Orders to LTC Francis Smith from British General Gage.

The best part is, they didn't find any artillery, or ammunition. Some powder and other colonial stores, but the artillery, such as it was, had been hauled away and hidden in newly plowed furrows, then covered over by the action of plowing another furrow beside the first one. The Lobsterbacks marched right past the fields hiding the cannon. Smith, as fat as I am at least, got himself swarmed. Militia, alerted by Paul Revere and others sent on their own "midnight rides", marched toward Concord more quickly than the Brits coudl retreat back to Boston.

I like the organiztion of the government into Legislative, Judicary, & Executive -- Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to James Madison, 20 December 1787

That these Powers ... are so distributed among the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches, into which the general Government is arranged, that it can never be in danger of degenerating into a monarchy, an Oligarchy, an Aristocracy, or any other despotic or oppresive form; so long as there shall remain any virtue in the body of the People. -- George Washington, in a letter to Marquis de Lafayette, 7 February 1788

The supreme power is in the people, and rulers possess only that portion which is expressly given them... -- "Federal Farmer"

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