Ellis Island Quotes

• I'm here not just as an actress but as a woman, an African-American, a granddaughter of Ellis Island immigrants, a person who could not have afforded college without the help of student loans and as one of millions of volunteers working to re-elect President Obama!

  Kerry Washington

  College, Islands, Volunteer

  "2012 Democratic Convention: Stars Take Center Stage on Final Day" by Tina Daunt, www.hollywoodreporter.com. September 6, 2912.

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• We must not forget that these men and women who file through the narrow gates at Ellis Island, hopeful, confused, with bundles of misconceptions as heavy as the great sacks upon their backs these simple, rough-handed people are the ancestors of our descendants, the fathers and mothers of our children.

  Walter Weyl

  Mother, Children, Confused

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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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• Most American Jews came from the lower middle classes, and therefore they brought with them not a lot of Jewish culture. The American Jewish story starts with Ellis Island, and the candy store in the Bronx.

  Arthur Hertzberg

  Islands, Class, Culture

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• You, the Spirit of the Settlement! ... Not understand that America is God's crucible, the great melting-pot where all the races of Europe are melting and re-forming! Here, you stand, good folk, think I, when I see them at Ellis Island, here you stand in your fifty groups, with your fifty languages and histories, and your fifty blood hatreds and rivalries.

  Israel Zangwill

  Thinking, Islands, Race

  Israel Zangwill (2015). “The Melting Pot”, p.38, Israel Zangwill

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• I don't know the numbers, but roughly half of the people who came through Ellis Island returned home. They came here to make money, not to make history.

  Aleksandar Hemon

  Home, Islands, Numbers

  "There Is No Real Life". Interview with Brad Fox, www.guernicamag.com. March 15, 2013.

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• When they got here, when they successfully emigrated - and not everybody that came through Ellis Island was accepted. If you were sick you were not allowed in. If you had any kind of a disease, we were in the process of trying to wipe out all these diseases. We did that by keeping people who had them out of the country. You might look at it today as, "Wow, that was really mean." No. It was putting America first. It was putting the American people first, and it was a realization that we can't take everybody.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Country, Mean, Islands

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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• The Islamic community today is faced with a new version of an old struggle. My late mother used to say it doesn't matter whether you came to this country on the Mayflower or on a slave ship, through Ellis Island or the Rio Grande. We're all in the same boat now.

  Carol Moseley Braun

  Mother, Country, Struggle

  "40thCconvention of the Islamic Society of North America [John Esposito recognized as the "Abu Taleb of Islam"]". www.campus-watch.org. September 6, 2004.

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• I am the byproduct of an Ellis Island orgy, basically. I'm everything. I've got quite a mixture in me. I know a lot of it and I don't know some of it. I'm pretty mixed up, but mostly Russian and Irish.

  Gavin DeGraw

  Islands, Mixtures, Knows

  "Gavin DeGraw speaks out on life and music". The Associated Press interview, www.today.com. February 4, 2005.

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• Nonfiction writers are second-class citizens, the Ellis Island of literature. We just can't quite get in. And yes, it pisses me off.

  William Styron

  Islands, Class, Citizens

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• The thing I love about Vegas is that it's a melting pot. It's like working Ellis Island.

  Don Rickles

  Vegas, Islands, Melting

  Esquire interview, bondiviewertest.azurewebsites.net.

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• Your grandparents did not endure the indignities of a steerage journey to Ellis Island so that you could stand outside a discothèque and beg a wallpaper designer to take you in with him.

  Fran Lebowitz

  Journey, Islands, Grandparent

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• He looked like someone with a steerage ticket on the titanic. Somebody who'd be standing in line at Ellis Island. Undiluted and old-blooded. Also cute.

  Rainbow Rowell

  Cute, Islands, Lines

  Rainbow Rowell (2016). “The Rainbow Rowell YA Collection”, p.322, St. Martin's Griffin

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• I was literally fabricated over in France and born about six months after the boat landed at Ellis Island. This was the heart of the Depression. For the first 12 years of my life we lived in a terrible ghetto on the East River.

  Bob Cousy

  Sports, Heart, Ghetto

  "One-On-One With Bob Cousy". Interview with Clark Booth, www.goholycross.com. December 19, 2008.

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