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Quotes about America

379 quotes from 149 people

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The blood, sweat, tears, and suffering of Black people are the foundations of the wealth and power of the United States of America. We were forced to build America, and if forced to, we will tear it down.
Huey P. Newton1942–1989“In Defense of Self-defense” I (June 20, 1967)
- Race
The instrument of all reform in America is the ballot.
Woodrow Wilson1856–1924Woodrow Wilson: “7th Annual Message”, December 2, 1919
- Voting
Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?
Jack Kerouac1922–1969On the Road (1957), Part Two, Ch. 3
I will not accept if nominated, and will not serve if elected.
William Tecumseh Sherman1820–1891Telegram sent to General Henderson in 1884, refusing to run in the United States presidential election of that year. As quoted in Sherman’s Memoirs, 4th ed. 1891
- Politics
- Presidency
I don’t measure America by its achievement but by its potential.
Shirley Chisholm1924–2005Unbought and Unbossed (1970), p. 175.
Either the United States will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States.
W. E. B. Du Bois1868–1963Niagara Movement, “Address to the Country”, Harpers Ferry (19 August 1906)
- Education
I have four children, and I want them to grow up in a country that has a working First Amendment.
Frank Zappa1940–1993Appearance on CBS Morning News (18 September 1985)—YouTube video
- Freedom
America is an idea, but it’s an idea that brings with it some baggage, like power brings responsibility.
Bonoborn 1960PENN Address (2004)
- Responsibility
Here’s the way I look at it. President Bush has uranium-tipped bunker busters and I have puns. I think he’ll be OK.
Jon Stewartborn 1962Rolling Stone interview, October 31, 2006
- Humor
- Presidency
“The American Way of Life” is simply not sustainable. Because it doesn’t acknowledge that there is a world beyond America.
Arundhati Royborn 1961Come September (29 Sep 2002)
We Americans write our own history. And the chapters of which we’re proudest are the ones where we had the courage to change.
Al Goreborn 1948Speech at the Democratic National Convention (28 August 1996).
- Change
- Courage
As an American, I want to see our nation recapture the strength and unity it once had when we fought the enemy instead of ourselves.
Margaret Chase Smith1897–1995Declaration of Conscience (1950)
I have spent most of my life studying the lives of other peoples — faraway peoples — so that Americans might better understand themselves.
Margaret Mead1901–1978Blackberry Winter, 1972
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 Webster1782–1852On the Completion of the Bunker Hill Monument (1843), p. 105
- Presidency
I am amazed that Congressmen can pass a bill imposing severe penalties on anyone who burns the American flag, whereas they are responsible for burning that for which the flag stands.
Alan Watts1915–1973Audio lecture “Individual and Society”
- Clever Jabs