quotations about America
Although America loved its tough guys, they weren't ready to vote for leaders who exhibited no compassion for the downtrodden and miserable, for on any given day they might constitute a majority.
DAVID BALDACCI
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Split Second
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It is sometimes said that you Americans are devoid of sentiment; that in affairs of the heart you are like birds who come in early spring and sing while the trees are in blossom, but who leave with no sign of regret at the first touch of Autumn. I do not believe that. Your sentiment is of another kind. You are younger than we as a race, you are perhaps barbaric, but what of it? You are still in the moulding. Your spirit is superb.
SARAH BERNHARDT
"Bernhardt Triumphs in New Role", Theatre Magazine, 1920
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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
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If you're thinking seriously about the future of America, you know that right now all bets are off. Face it: America is going down. It's full of enemy combatants ready to strike. It's a nuclear time bomb. It's the tallest buildings crumbling to dust. It's a corporate-controlled surveillance state. It's ghettos, graffiti, and the abandoned shell of industry. It's endless ugly chain stores, transient strip-mall architecture, cheaply built McMansions, and shoddy imported goods no one is proud of. It's the glamorous, Golden Age of Hollywood transformed into a raunchy, foul-mouthed, violent beast. It's the Titanic about to test her might upon an iceberg. It's a catastrophe right out of a 70s disaster film.
MICHAEL STUTZ
"America is a 70s Disaster Film Starring Donald Trump", The Daily Caller, February 16, 2016
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Americans could open doors to almost all that was admirable--it was their misfortune, not their fault, that movies and victrolas and advertisements squeezed in when they opened the door.
STELLA BENSON
Pipers and a Dancer
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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
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We should keep steadily before our minds the fact that Americanism is a question of principle, of purpose, of idealism, of character; that it is not a matter of birthplace, or creed, or line of descent.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
speech at the unveiling of the monument to General Sheridan, Nov. 25, 1908
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I know this about the American people: We welcome competition. We'll match our ingenuity, our energy, our experience and technology, our spirit and enterprise against anyone.
GEORGE H. W. BUSH
State of the Union Address, Jan. 31, 1990
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America: It's like Britain, only with buttons.
RINGO STARR
attributed, The Mammoth Book of Great British Humor
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An asylum for the sane would be empty in America.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
attributed, Bernard Shaw: Selections of His Wit and Wisdom
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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
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Americans, unhappily, have the most remarkable ability to alchemize all bitter truths into an innocuous but piquant confection and to transform their moral contradictions, or public discussion of such contradictions, into a proud decoration, such as are given for heroism on the field of battle.
JAMES BALDWIN
Notes of a Native Son
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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
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I've always felt that my relationship to the United States is analogous to a marriage. I love this country. I hate it. I get angry at it. I feel close to it. I'm charmed by it. I'm repelled by it. And it's a marriage that's gone on for let's say at least 50 years of my writing life, and in the course of that, what's happened? It's gotten worse. It's not what it used to be.
NORMAN MAILER
The New York Times, Oct. 4, 2000
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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
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America has never quite forgiven Europe for having been discovered somewhat earlier in history than itself.
OSCAR WILDE
The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde
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That's why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.
GEORGE CARLIN
standup routine
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America is a nation of underdogs.
MARCO RUBIO
"For Marco Rubio, Is It Too Late to Be the Underdog?", ABC News, March 7, 2016
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It's one of our favorite American myths that broad plains necessarily make broad minds, and high mountains make high purpose.
SINCLAIR LEWIS
Main Street
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How does the rest of the world feel about the United States? They are fans, according to a survey of [checks notes] Americans.
MARK BERMAN
"America is popular, according to Americans", Washington Post, February 25, 2016
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