Mayflower Quotes

• My forefathers didn't come over on the Mayflower, but they met the boat.

  Will Rogers

  Native American, Ancestry, Boat

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• Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine our selves together.

  William Bradford

  Christian, Country, Kings

  William Bradford (1952). “Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647”, p.76, Rutgers University Press

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• A friend of ours has a hobby doing genealogy, and we found out that we were cousins in the ninth degree, that we had a common ancestor on the Mayflower.

  Marion Zimmer Bradley

  Cousin, Hobbies, Degrees

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• This is the snobbery of the people on the Mayflower looking down their noses at the people who came over ON THE SECOND BOAT!

  Mitchell Kapor

  People, Noses, Internet

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• The pilgrims on the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock. To my knowledge, they didn't wait around for a return trip to Europe. You settle some place with a purpose. If you don't want to do that, stay home. You avoid an awful lot of risks by not venturing outward.

  Buzz Aldrin

  Home, Rocks, Europe

  "Buzz Aldrin, Moonwalker, says US must aim for Mars". Interview with James M. Clash, www.livemint.com. May 24, 2013.

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• All of our people all over the country-except the pure-blooded Indians-are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, including even those who came over here on the Mayflower.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Country, People, Justice

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• Whether one traces his Americanism back three centuries to the Mayflower, or three years to the steerage, is not half so important as whether his Americanism of today is real and genuine. No matter by what various crafts we came here, we are all now in the same boat.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Real, Years, Important

  Calvin Coolidge (2001). “The Quotable Calvin Coolidge: Sensible Words for a New Century”, Images from the Past Incorporated

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• The improved American highway system isolated the American-in-transit. On his speedway he had no contact with the towns which he by-passed. If he stopped for food or gas, he was served no local fare or local fuel, but had one of Howard Johnson's nationally branded ice cream flavors, and so many gallons of Exxon. This vast ocean of superhighways was nearly as free of culture as the sea traversed by the Mayflower Pilgrims.

  Daniel J. Boorstin

  Ocean, Ice Cream, Sea

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• But the closer we study their lives, and the better we know their deeds, the more profound is our admiration and the greater our reverence for the Pilgrim fathers. Between the drafting of their immortal charter of liberty in the cabin of the Mayflower and the fruition of their principles in the power and majesty of the republic of the United States of to-day is but a span in the records of the word, and yet it is the most important and beneficent chapter in history. To be able to claim descent from them, either by birth or adoption, is to glory in kinship with God's nobility.

  Chauncey Depew

  Father, Profound, Adoption

  Chauncey Mitchell Depew (1910). “Club and society addresses”

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• The American experience works when people embrace a set of shared values, you come, you work hard, you embrace these values and you're as American as anybody that came on the Mayflower.

  Jeb Bush

  Hard Work, People, Embrace

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• The shy little Mayflower weaves her nest, But the south wind sighs o'er the fragrant loam, And betrays the path to her woodland home.

  Sarah Helen Whitman

  Home, Wind, Shy

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• Whether our ancestors came here on the Mayflower, on slave ships, whether they came to Ellis Island or LAX in Los Angeles, whether they came yesterday or walked this land a thousand years ago our great challenge for the 21st century is to find a way to be One America. We can meet all the other challenges if we can go forward as One America.

  William J. Clinton

  Islands, Years, Slave Ships

  Clinton, William J. (2000). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 1999”, p.70, Best Books on

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• What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one's heroic ancestors. It's astounding to me, for example, that so many people really appear to believe that the country was founded by a band of heroes who wanted to be free. That happens not to be true. What happened was that some people left Europe because they couldn't stay there any longer and had to go somewhere else to make it. That's all. They were hungry, they were poor, they were convicts. Those who were making it in England, for example, did not get on the Mayflower. That's how the country was settled.

  James A. Baldwin

  Country, Believe, Hero

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• Most African Americans, if given a chance, would have chosen to be 'just Americans' ever since the first of us was brought here to Jamestown colony in 1619, a year before the Mayflower landed. But that choice has never been left up to us.

  Clarence Page

  Years, Justice, Diversity

  Clarence Page (1997). “Showing My Color: Impolite Essays on Race and Identity”, Harper Perennial

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• Did the Pilgrims on the Mayflower sit around Plymouth Rock waiting for a return trip? They came here to settle. And that's what we should be doing on Mars. When you go to Mars, you need to have made the decision that you're there permanently. The more people we have there, the more it can become a sustaining environment. Except for very rare exceptions, the people who go to Mars shouldn't be coming back. Once you get on the surface, you're there.

  Buzz Aldrin

  Rocks, People, Decision

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• I have just as much right to stay in America - in fact, the black people have contributed more to America than any other race, because our kids have fought here for what was called "democracy"; our mothers and fathers were sold and bought here for a price. So all I can say when they say "go back to Africa," I say "when you send the Chinese back to China, the Italians back to Italy, etc., and you get on that Mayflower from whence you came, and give the Indians their land back, who really would be here at home?"

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Mother, Father, Home

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

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• America was founded by the refuse of the religious fanatics of England, these undesirable elements that came over on the Mayflower. Ignorant, religious fanatics who land here and abuse the Indians.

  Frank Zappa

  Religious, America, Land

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• When earth gets good and crowded, like 15th century England, then some new Pilgrims are gonna rocket their Mayflowers to a new solar system.

  Lenny Bruce

  Earth, Rockets, England

  "The Lenny Bruce Interview, Jill Bourque’s How We First Met and Stage Time With Steven Alan Green". jewishjournal.com. April 7, 2013.

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• Looking, acting, and ultimately being Prep is not restricted to an elite minority lucky enough to attend prestigious private schools, just because an ancestor or two happened to arrive here on the Mayflower. You don't even have to be a registered Republican.

  Lisa Birnbach

  School, Two, Acting

  Lisa Birnbach (1980). “The official preppy handbook”, Workman Publishing

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• One of our ancestors came over on the Mayflower, and we had family in Jamestown as well... I was raised where service was a part of the fabric of life. It wasn't one-upmanship. No one bragged about their medals, but you could see the look in the eyes, the tip of the hat. You served your country first, then you went to work and had a family.

  Steve Daines

  Country, Eye, Fabric Of Life

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• But the United States is neither a Christian nation nor the exclusive home of any particular religious group. Non-Christians are not guests. We are as much hosts as any Mayflower-descendant Protestant. It is our home as well as theirs. And in a home with so many owners, there can be no official sectarian prayer. That is what the First Amendment is all about, and the first act by the new administration was in defiance of our Constitution.

  Alan Dershowitz

  Christian, Religious, Prayer

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• I would have liked to be a comedian in the '20s, or maybe even a comedian on the Mayflower and have a statue somewhere.

  Dani Levy

  Comedian, Statues

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• And so, whether they came here on the Mayflower, on a slave ship, or on an airplane from Havana, we are all descendants of the men and women who built here the nation that saved the world.

  Marco Rubio

  Airplane, Men, Slave Ships

  "War of Choice" by Ken Auletta, www.newyorker.com. January 9, 2012.

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• We also have a piece about the Mayflower, but it's just a very different, very gritty, very character-driven version of why those people were on that boat and what the experience was like for them, emotionally, physically and spiritually, and also the Native Americans and what the state of Native American society was at that time.

  John Landgraf

  Character, Native American, People

  "FX CEO John Landgraf Talks FARGO Limited Series, THE STRAIN, and More; Says THE STRAIN Will End Up Running Between 39 and 65 Episodes". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. August 2, 2013.

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• Julian Schnabel painted a picture that he dedicated to my character in Rumble Fish. It was called The Motorcycle Boy. I remember when he brought it over to me at the Mayflower Hotel [in New York] years ago. This is when you and I knew each other.

  Mickey Rourke

  New York, Character, Boys

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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