America Quotes - Page 16

• You cannot gauge the intelligence of an American by talking with him; you must work with him. The American polishes and refines his way of doing things-even the most commonplace-the way the French of the 17th century polished their maxims.

  Eric Hoffer

  Talking, Gauges, Way

  Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

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• Alligator: The crocodile of America, superior in every detail to the crocodile of the effete monarchies of the Old World.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Details, World, Alligators

  Ambrose Bierce (2011). “Ambrose Bierce: The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs: The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs”, p.571, Library of America

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• We have to be despised by somebody whom we regard as above us, or we are not happy; we have to have somebody to worship and envy,or we cannot be content. In America we manifest this in all the ancient and customary ways. In public we scoff at titles and hereditary privilege, but privately we hanker after them, and when we get a chance we buy them for cash and a daughter.

  Mark Twain

  Daughter, Envy, Titles

  Mark Twain (2010). “Mark Twain's Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review”, p.80, Univ of Wisconsin Press

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• The low level which commercial morality has reached in America is deplorable. We have humble God fearing Christian men among us who will stoop to do things for a million dollars that they ought not to be willing to do for less than 2 millions.

  Mark Twain

  Christian, Humble, Men

  Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.284, Courier Corporation

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• How are we to write
  The Russian novel in America
  As long as life goes so unterribly?

  Robert Frost

  Writing, Long, United States

  Robert Frost (1955). “Selected poems”

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• Everything is un-American that tends either to government by a plutocracy or government by a mob. To divide along the lines of section or caste or creed is un-American. All privileges based on wealth, and all enmity to honest men merely because they are wealthy, are un-American-both of them equally so. 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

  Men, Safety, Firsts

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• Even here in America, we felt the cool, refreshing breeze of freedom when Nelson Mandela took the seat of Presidency in his country where formerly he was not even allowed to vote. We were enlarged by tears of pride as we saw Nelson Mandela's former prison guards invited, courteously, by him to watch from the front rows his inauguration.

  Maya Angelou

  Leadership, Wisdom, Country

  'His Day Is Done' - Poem in Tribute to Nelson Mandela, delivered December 2013

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• There is not a single crowned head in Europe whose talents or merit would entitle him to be elected a vestryman by the people of any parish in America.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Europe, People, Politics

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.98, Rowman & Littlefield

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• It is well known, that on the Ohio, and in many parts of America further north, tusks, grinders, and skeletons of unparalleled magnitude are found in great numbers, some lying on the surface of the earth, and some a little below it ... But to whatever animal we ascribe these remains, it is certain that such a one has existed in America, and that it has been the largest of all terrestrial beings.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Lying, Animal, Skeletons

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• The colleges of Edinburgh and Geneva as seminaries of science, are considered as the two eyes of Europe. While Great Britain and America give the preference to the former, all other countries give it to the latter.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Eye, College

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”, p.109

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• If I added to their pride of America, I am happy.

  Carl Sandburg

  Pride, Ifs

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• Always the path of American destiny has been into the unknown. Always there arose enough reserves of strength, balances of sanity, portions of wisdom to carry the nation through to a fresh start with ever-renewing vitality.

  Carl Sandburg

  Destiny, Balance, Vitality

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• I'll die propped up in bed trying to do a poem about America.

  Carl Sandburg

  Trying, Bed, Dies

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• An entirely new factor has appeared in the social development of the country, and this factor is the Irish-American, and his influence. To mature its powers, to concentrate its action, to learn the secret of its own strength and of England's weakness, the Celtic intellect has had to cross the Atlantic. At home it had but learned the pathetic weakness of nationality; in a strange land it realised what indomitable forces nationality possesses. What captivity was to the Jews, exile has been to the Irish: America and American influence have educated them.

  Oscar Wilde

  Country, Home, Land

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• America 2012: The Learning Channel has HoneyBooBoo, History Channel has PawnStars: and the Science Channel has PumpkinChunkin

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Twitter post from Oct 11, 2012

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• THE AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE. Even what they eat and drink, these palefaces who don't know what wine istheir uglinesstheir pink sausage skin, horrible, they only live because there is penicillin,... the world as an Americanized vacuumtheir fake health, their fake youthfulnessthe way they use cosmetics even on corpses, their whole pornographic attitude to death.

  Max Frisch

  Death, Attitude, Wine

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• I do not share the gloomy thought that Negroes in America are doomed to be stomped out bodaciously, nor even shackled to the bottom of things. Of course some of them will be tromped out, and some will always be at the bottom, keeping company with other bottom-folks.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Share, Gloomy, My Thoughts

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• I maintain that I have been a Negro three times--a Negro baby, a Negro girl and a Negro woman. Still, if you have received no clear cut impression of what the Negro in America is like, then you are in the same place with me. There is no The Negro here. Our lives are so diversified, internal attitudes so varied, appearances and capabilities so different, that there is no possible classification so catholic that it will cover us all, except My people! My people!

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Girl, Baby, Attitude

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• I thought that when they said Atlantic Charter, that meant me and everybody in Africa and Asia and everywhere. But it seems like the Atlantic is an ocean that does not touch anywhere but North America and Europe.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Ocean, Europe, Asia

  Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker (1979). “I Love Myself when I Am Laughing ... and Then Again when I Am Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader”, p.165, Feminist Press at CUNY

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• Overall, white men run America. From nuclear armaments to the filth and jeopardy of New York City subways to the cruel mismanagement of health care, is there anything to boast about?

  June Jordan

  Running, New York, Men

  June Jordan (1985). “On call: political essays”, South End Pr

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• There's no idea in the world that is not contained by black life. I could write forever about the black experience in America.

  August Wilson

  Writing, Ideas, Forever

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• Look well to the hearthstone; therein all hope for America lies.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Lying, Home, Heart

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• The danger to America is not in the direction of the failure to maintain its economic position, but in the direction of the failure to maintain its ideals.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Economic, Danger, Position

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• One of the peculiarities of recent speculation, especially in America, is that ideas are abandoned in virtue of a mere change of feeling, without any new evidence or new arguments. We do not nowadays refute our predecessors, we pleasantly bid them good-bye.

  George Santayana

  Ideas, Bye, Feelings

  George Santayana (2015). “Character and Opinion in the United States”, p.8, Sheba Blake Publishing

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• The western spirit is, or will yet be (for no other is, or can be) the true American one.

  Herman Melville

  Spirit, Western

  Herman Melville (2015). “Israel Potter: Works of Melville”, p.146, 谷月社

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