American History Quotes

• American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.

  James A. Baldwin

  Beautiful, Literature, Said

  "James Baldwin’s Lesson for Teachers in a Time of Turmoil" by Clint Smith, www.newyorker.com. September 23, 2017.

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• 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

  Death, Sweet, Freedom

  Speech in Virginia Convention, Richmond, Va., 23 Mar. 1775.

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• I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.

  Booker T. Washington

  Inspirational, Life, Success

  Booker T. Washington (1901). “An Autobiography: The Story of My Life and Work, the Original Brought Up-to-date with Over Half a Hundred Full Page Photo and Halftone Engravings and Drawings by Frank Beard”

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  The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself - the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us - that's where it's at.

  Jesse Owens

  Inspirational, Motivational, Running

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• A house divided against itself cannot stand.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Leadership, Inspirational Life, Twilight

  Speech at Republican state convention nominating him to run for U.S. senator, Springfield, Ill., 16 June 1858

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• We are the ones we've been waiting for.

  June Jordan

  Change, Life Changing, Yes We Can

  June Jordan, “Poem For South African Women”

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• Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes!

  William H. Prescott

  Memorial Day, Military, War

  28 Copy quote
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  Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2012). “A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings”, p.67, Beacon Press

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• I am opposed to any form of tyranny over the mind of man.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Men, Faith Religion

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  Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.

  Wilma Rudolph

  Inspirational, Motivational, Running

  "50 stunning Olympic moments No35: Wilma Rudolph's triple gold in 1960" by Rob Bagchi, www.theguardian.com. June 1, 2012.

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• Hate is baggage. Life's too short to be pissed off all the time. It's just not worth it.

  Edward Furlong

  Hate, Pissed Off, Baggage

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• My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Country

  Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1961

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• We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Inspiring, Women, 4th Of July

  Declaration of Sentiments, First Woman's Rights

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• White America has seen to it that Black history has been suppressed in schools and in American history books. The bravery of hundreds of our ancestors who took part in slave rebellions has been lost in the mists of time, since plantation owners did their best to prevent any written accounts of uprisings.

  Huey Newton

  Book, School, Uprising

  Huey P. Newton (2009). “Revolutionary Suicide: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.158, Penguin

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• The potential for greatness lives within us all.

  Wilma Rudolph

  Inspirational Sports, Athlete, Greatness

  "50 stunning Olympic moments No35: Wilma Rudolph's triple gold in 1960" by Rob Bagchi, www.theguardian.com. June 1, 2012.

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• That government is best which governs least.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Government

  Civil Disobedience (1849) See Ralph Waldo Emerson 29; O'Sullivan 1; Shipley 1

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• Hate is too great a burden to bear.

  Coretta Scott King

  Hater, Famous Love, Inspirational Love

  "Understanding Cultural Diversity in Today's Complex World‎" by Leo Parvis, (p. 54), 2006.

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• I have sworn upon the altar of God Eternal, hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Change, Religious, Men

  Letter to Benjamin Rush, 23 Sept. 1800

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• Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

  Ronald Reagan

  Wall, Memorable, Europe

  Remarks at Brandenburg Gate, West Berlin, Germany, 12 June 1987

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• Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Sarcastic, Freedom

  'The Soul of Man under Socialism'

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  Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.

  Coretta Scott King

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Forgiveness

  "Understanding Cultural Diversity in Today's Complex World". Book by Leo Parvis, p. 54, 2010.

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• National honor is national property of the highest value.

  James Monroe

  Life, Patriotic, Army

  James Monroe (199?). “The Writings of James Monroe: 1817-1823”

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• One is astonished in the study of history at the recurrence of the idea that evil must be forgotten, distorted, skimmed over. We must not remember that Daniel Webster got drunk but only that he was a splendid constitutional lawyer. We must forget that George Washington was a slave owner . . . and simply remember the things we regard as creditable and inspiring. The difficulty, of course, with this philosophy is that history loses its value as an incentive and example; it paints perfect man and noble nations, but it does not tell the truth.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Philosophy, Men, Ideas

  "Whitewashing Black History Month" by Gary Younge, www.theguardian.com. February 1, 2012.

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• the better angels of our nature

  Abraham Lincoln

  Angel, Civil War, Apocalypse

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1861

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• It can not be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ!

  Unknown

  Bible, God, Education

  Patrick Henry (2007). “Patrick Henry in his speeches and writings and in the words of his contemporaries”, Warwick House Publishing

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