AMERICA QUOTES VI

quotations about America

America quote

The fact that the Constitution is sufficiently open-ended to infuriate all Americans almost equally is part of its enduring genius.

DAHLIA LITHWICK

"Read It and Weep: How the Tea Party's fetish for the Constitution as written may get it in trouble", Slate, January 4, 2011

Tags: Dahlia Lithwick


There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America.

BARACK OBAMA

attributed, Of Thee I Speak: A Collection of Patriotic Quotes

Tags: Barack Obama


An asylum for the sane would be empty in America.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

attributed, Bernard Shaw: Selections of His Wit and Wisdom

Tags: George Bernard Shaw


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

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit

Tags: democracy, liberty


America: It's like Britain, only with buttons.

RINGO STARR

attributed, The Mammoth Book of Great British Humor

Tags: Ringo Starr


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

RICHARD NIXON

Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1969

Tags: Richard Nixon


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

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution

Tags: Walter Bagehot


Donald Trump marched into the political scene last year and claimed he is going to "Make America Great Again." The theme revolves around one question: who is the real American? In other words, Trump is trying to draw a clear line between his supposed rightful Americans -- who deserve proper access to the Bill of Rights -- and the unfavorable cast-offs of American society. Trump's idea of a great America is to cut off and reject those he deems unfit. It seems to be ridiculous, but just ridiculous enough to hit a sweet spot with an increasingly ridiculous voting populace.

PHOEBE KUO

"Trump's Vision of America is Founded on Exclusion", NYU News, March 8, 2016


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

LEWIS H. LAPHAM

Money and Class in America


Most American cities shop to their best advantage when seen from a height or from a distance, at a point where the ugliness of the buildings dissolves into the beauty of an abstraction.

LEWIS H. LAPHAM

Money and Class in America


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

SIGMUND FREUD

attributed, Freud: The Man and His Cause

Tags: Sigmund Freud


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

WARREN BUFFETT

annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, February 2016

Tags: Warren Buffett


That's why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.

GEORGE CARLIN

standup routine

Tags: George Carlin


The American Dream means giving it your all, trying your hardest, accomplishing something. And then I'd add to that, giving something back. No definition of a successful life can do anything but include serving others.

GEORGE H. W. BUSH

interview, Academy of Achievement, Jun. 2, 1995

Tags: George H. W. Bush


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

DAVID SEDARIS

Me Talk Pretty One Day

Tags: David Sedaris, stupidity


What Americans should by now be able to see is that neither the laissez-faire marketplace nor strong government has given them a satisfying or permanent resolution. The problem is not the marketplace and it is not government. The problem originates in the contest of clashing values between society and capitalism and, since this human society cannot surrender its deepest values, it must try to alter capitalism's. As we look deeper for the soul of capitalism, we find that, in the terms of ordinary human existence, American capitalism doesn't appear to have one.

WILLIAM GREIDER

The Soul of Capitalism

Tags: society, capitalism


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

NICOLAS SARKOZY

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

Tags: dreams


America has been the New World in all tongues, to all peoples, not because this continent was a new-found land, but because all those who came here believed they could create upon this continent a new life -- a life that should be new in freedom.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

Third Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1941

Tags: Franklin D. Roosevelt, freedom


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

ANNE SEXTON

"Sixth Psalm", The Complete Poems

Tags: Anne Sexton


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

LINDA STASI

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