Great American Quotes

• The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Funny, Book, Reading

  57 Copy quote

• Well, I actually wrote her a letter a couple of days ago congratulating her. The tone I tried to convey in the letter is, look, you are a part of a great American historical process.

  Bruce Babbitt

  Couple, Hypnosis, Historical

  "Exit Interview: Bruce Babbitt". Interview with Gwen Ifill, www.pbs.org. January 5, 2001.

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• When reflecting upon it today, that the Pearl Harbor attack should have succeeded in achieving surprise seems a blessing from Heaven. It was clear that a great American fleet had been concentrated in Pearl Harbor, and we supposed that the state of alert would be very high.

  Hideki Tojo

  Blessing, Should Have, Reflecting Upon

  "Hideki Tojo's Prison Diary". "The Journal of Historical Review", Vol. 12, No. 1, (pp. 31-85), www.ihr.org. 1992.

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• That business we started with 10 people has now grown into a great American success story.

  Mitt Romney

  People, Stories, American Success

  Republican Party Presidential Nomination Acceptance, delivered 30 August 2012, Tampa, Florida

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• You don't sit up in a cave and write the Great American Novel and know it is utterly superb, and then throw it page by page into the fire. You just don't do that. You send it out. You have to send it out.

  Theodore Sturgeon

  Writing, Fire, Pages

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• There is really no crisis except an artificial one...If the great American people will only keep their temper, on both sides of the line, the trouble will come to an end.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, People, Sides

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• Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Power, Greatness, Flames

  Misattributed to Tocqueville. "The Tocqueville Fraud" by John Pitney, www.weeklystandard.com. November 12, 1995.

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• Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.

  John Dickinson

  4th Of July, Fall, Patriotic

  "The Liberty Song" (song) (1768). "United we stand, divided we fall!" became a slogan of the American Revolution.

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• Together, we will have one great American future. Our potential is unlimited. We will be one people, under one God, saluting one American flag. America will be a prosperous, generous, and inclusive society.

  Donald Trump

  People, Together, American Flag

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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• The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Inspirational, Happiness, Happy

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• Let me be a free man - free to travel, free to stop, free to work.

  Chief Joseph

  Travel, Native American, Men

  Lincoln Hall Speech in Washington D.C., January 14, 1879.

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• ELVIS PRESLEY was bigger than life. His success was documented and laid out for him. He came to the first show I had in Memphis, and it was very nice. He sort of treated me like an equal, because we were both fresh in the business. We got to be great friends and kindred souls.

  Roy Orbison

  Friendship, Success, Soulmate

  54 Copy quote

• Be proud to be a decent American rather than a wanker whipping up fear.

  Michael D. Higgins

  Fear, America, Political

  45 Copy quote

• Neil Armstrong today takes his place in the hall of heroes. The moon will miss its first son of earth.

  Mitt Romney

  Hero, Son, Moon

  Twitter post from Aug 25, 2012

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• So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

  Tecumseh

  Song, Love You, Native American

  "A Sourcebook for Earth's Community of Religions". Book by Joel Diederik Beversluis, 1993.

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• Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Change, Night, Light

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• If proud Americans can be who they are and boldly stand at the altar with who they love then surely, surely we can give everyone in this country a fair chance at that great American Dream.

  Michelle Obama

  Dream, Country, Giving

  "Michelle Obama speaks to the Democratic national convention - as it happened" by Richard Adams, www.theguardian.com. September 4, 2012.

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• If farmers and blacksmiths could win independence from an empire...if immigrants could leave behind everything they knew for a better life on our shores...if women could be dragged to jail for seeking the vote...if a generation could defeat a depression, and define greatness for all time...if a young preacher could lift us to the mountaintop with his righteous dream...and if proud Americans can be who they are and boldly stand at the altar with who they love...then surely, surely we can give everyone in this country a fair chance at that great American Dream.

  Michelle Obama

  Dream, Country, Badass

  Michelle Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, www.npr.org. September 4, 2012.

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• The forgotten men and women of America will be forgotten no longer. That is the heart of this new [Trump] movement and the future of the Republican Party. People came to vote, and these people - the media - they said, where are they coming from? What's going on here? These are hardworking, great, great Americans. These are unbelievable people who have not been treated fairly. Hillary Clinton called them "deplorable". They're not deplorable.

  Donald Trump

  Party, Heart, Men

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

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• 

  Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself — and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty.

  Chief Joseph

  Life, Strength, Teacher

  Lincoln Hall Speech in Washington D.C., January 14, 1879.

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• There’s nothing more embarrassing than a person who tries to guess what the great American public would like, makes a compromise for the first time, and falls flat on his face… I would rather be a failure on my own terms than a success on someone else’s. That’s a difficult statement to live up to, but then I’ve always believed that the way you affect your audience is more important than how many of them are there.

  Tom Waits

  Fall, Important, Trying

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• Vasectomy means never having to say you're sorry.

  Larry Adler

  Love, Movie, Romantic

  Larry Adler, Philip Judge (1994). “Me and My Big Mouth”, Blake Pub

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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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• I have sworn upon the altar of god.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Government, Faith Religion

  Letter to Benjamin Rush, 23 Sept. 1800

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• This is, if not a lifetime process, it's awfully close to it. The writer broadens, becomes deeper, becomes more observant, becomes more tempered, becomes much wiser over a period time passing. It is not something that is injected into him by a needle. It is not something that comes on a wave of flashing, explosive light one night and say, 'Huzzah! Eureka! I've got it!' and then proceeds to write the great American novel in eleven days. It doesn't work that way. It's a long, tedious, tough, frustrating process, but never, ever be put aside by the fact that it's hard.

  Rod Serling

  Writing, Night, Light

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