The purpose of this page is to provide some
interesting quotes from characters in American history.
If you have suggestions about other quotes to
include,
please
let me know.
Abraham Lincoln, 1839
|
The purpose of this page is to provide some
interesting quotes from characters in American history. If you have suggestions about other quotes to
include,
please
let me know.
|
Abraham Lincoln, 1839 |
| Topic |
Quote |
Source |
| Ancestors |
I
don't know who my grandfather
was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be. |
Abraham
Lincoln |
| Authority |
Since
when have we Americans
been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and
reverence to those who represent us? |
William
O. Douglas |
| Civil
disobedience |
Under
a government which
imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.
|
Henry
David Thoreau |
| Courage |
Do
one thing every day that
scares you. |
Eleanor
Roosevelt |
| Cuban
Missile Crisis |
Do
you, Ambassador Zorin, deny
that the USSR has placed and is placing medium - and intermediate -
range missiles and sites in Cuba? Yes or no? Don't wait for the
translation. Yes or no? You are in the courtroom of world
opinion. You have denied they exist, and I want to know if I understood
you correctly. I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes
over. And I am also prepared to present the evidence in this room! |
Adlai
Stevenson |
| Equal
opportunity |
Sitting
at the table
doesn't make you a diner, unless you eat some of what's on that plate.
Being here in America doesn't make you an American. Being born here in
America doesn't make you an American. |
Malcolm
X |
| Freedom |
All
free men, wherever they may
live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take
pride in the words, Ich bin ein Berliner. |
John
F. Kennedy |
| Freedom |
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 |
| Freedom |
No
man is good enough to govern
another man without his consent. |
Abraham Lincoln |
| Freedom |
No
man is good enough to govern
any woman without her consent. |
Susan
B. Anthony |
| Freedom
from fear |
So,
first of all, let me assert
my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself --
nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed
efforts to convert retreat into advance. |
Franklin
D.
Roosevelt |
| Freedom
of speech |
I
think the most
un-American thing you can say is, 'You can't say that. |
Garrison
Keillor |
| Freedom
of speech |
Free
speech is not to be
regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience that
hissed yesterday may applaud today, even for the same performance. |
William
O. Douglas |
| Gender
equity |
I
do not believe that women are
better than men. We have not wrecked railroads, nor corrupted
legislatures, nor done many unholy things that men have done; but then
we must remember that we have not had the chance. |
Jane
Addams |
| Happiness |
The
Constitution only
guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have
to catch it yourself. |
Benjamin
Franklin |
| Independence's
cost |
What
we obtain
too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives
everything its value. |
Thomas
Paine |
| Justice |
The
arc of
the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. |
Martin
Luther King, Jr. |
| National
debt |
Blessed
are the young for they
shall inherit the national debt. |
Herbert
Hoover |
| Over-achievement |
To
those of you who
received honors, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C
students, I say: You, too, can be president of the United States. |
George
W. Bush |
| Parents |
Most
American children
suffer too much mother and too little father. |
Gloria
Steinem |
| Patriotism |
Loyalty
to the country always.
Loyalty to the government when it deserves it. |
Mark
Twain |
| Patriotism |
My
fellow
Americans, ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do
for your country. |
John
F. Kennedy |
| Patriotism
& the presidency |
To
announce that there must be
no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the
president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is
morally treasonable to the American public. |
Theodore
Roosevelt |
| People |
I
never had much faith in
leaders. I am willing to be charged with almost anything, rather than
to be charged with being a leader. I am suspicious of leaders, and
especially of the intellectual variety. Give me the rank and file every
day in the week. If you go to the city of Washington, and you examine
the pages of the Congressional Directory, you will find that almost all
of those corporation lawyers and cowardly politicians, members of
Congress, and mis-representatives of the masses -- you will find that
almost all of them claim, in glowing terms, that they have risen from
the ranks to places of eminence and distinction. I am very glad I
cannot make that claim for myself. I would be ashamed to admit that I
had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks, and
not from the ranks. |
Eugene
V. Debs |
| Presidential
powers in time of
war |
We
have long
since made clear that a state of war is not a blank check for the
President when it comes to the rights of the Nation’s citizens...[E]ven
the war power [of the President] does not remove constitutional
limitations safeguarding essential liberties. |
Sandra
Day
O'Connor, Hamdi v. Rumsfeld |
| Prohibition |
Instead
of giving money to found
colleges to promote learning, why don't they pass a constitutional
amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as
good as the Prohibition one did, why, in five years we would have the
smartest race of people on earth. |
Will
Rogers |
| Puritans |
The
objection to Puritans is not that they try to make us think as they do,
but that they try to make us do as they think. |
H.L.
Mencken |
| Relative
worth |
I
had a better year than he did (When
informed that the $80,000 dollar
salary he received in 1930 was $5,000 more that that of President
Hoover) |
Babe
Ruth |
| Responsibility |
I’m
the ultimately responsible
person in this organization. Other people can pass the buck to me, but
I can’t pass the buck to anyone else. |
Harry
S. Truman |
| Taste |
Nobody
ever went broke
underestimating the taste of the American public. |
H.
L Mencken |
| Tyranny |
I
have sworn upon the altar of
God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of
man. |
Thomas
Jeffferson |
| Vice--presidency |
The
vice presidency isn't worth
a warm bucket of spit (reporters
allegedly changed the last word) |
John
Nance Garner |
| Vice-presidency |
My
country has contrived for me
the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived
or his imagination conceived. |
John
Adams |
| War |
Great
is the guilt of an
unnecessary war. |
John
Adams |
| War |
You
can no more
win a war than you can win an earthquake. |
Jeannette
Rankin |