The Quotes canon

Sourced and curated.

Every quote has been curated by hand and carefully authenticated.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. — Abraham Lincoln · 1838The destiny of the colored American…is the destiny of America. — Frederick Douglass · 1862Our flag is red, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbow-red, yellow, brown, black and white-and all are precious in God's sight. America is not like a blanket, one piece of unbroken cloth-the same color, the same texture, the same size. It is more like a quilt-many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread. — Jesse Jackson · 1984We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness. — Barack Obama · 2009We have a place, all of us, in a long story—a story we continue, but whose end we will not see. It is the story of a new world that became a friend and liberator of the old, the story of a slave-holding society that became a servant of freedom, the story of a power that went into the world to protect but not possess, to defend but not to conquer. It is the American story—a story of flawed and fallible people, united across the generations by grand and enduring ideals. — George W. Bush · 2001We're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We're not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. — Ronald Reagan · 1981All 20 quotes →
America, if eligible at all to downfall and ruin, is eligible within herself, not without. — Walt Whitman · 1871Religious insanity is very common in the United States. — Alexis de Tocqueville · 1840The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. — Thomas Paine · 1776The love of wealth is therefore to be traced, as either a principal or accessory motive, at the bottom of all that the Americans do; this gives to all their passions a sort of family likeness. — Alexis de Tocqueville · 1840I know of no country, indeed, where the love of money has taken a stronger hold on the affections of men, and where a profounder contempt is expressed for the theory of the permanent equality of property. — Alexis de Tocqueville · 1835America is a land of wonders, in which everything is in constant motion and every change seems an improvement. The idea of novelty is there indissolubly connected with the idea of amelioration. — Alexis de Tocqueville · 1835All 11 quotes →
Drama5 quotes
America is God's crucible, the great melting pot where all the races of Europe are melting and reforming! — Israel Zangwill · 1908In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the woman. That's why you gotta make your own moves. — Tony Montana · 1983You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I can't understand what's gone wrong with it. — George Hanson · 1969I like to be in America, OK by me in America, Everything free in America. — Anita · 1961We'll drive. Keep driving. Head out to the middle of nowhere, take that road as far as it takes us. You've never been west of Philly, have ya? This is a beautiful country, Monty. It's beautiful out there, looks like a different world. Mountains, hills, cows, farms, and white churches. — James Brogan · 2002
Drama (film)4 quotes
In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the woman. That's why you gotta make your own moves. — Tony Montana · 1983You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I can't understand what's gone wrong with it. — George Hanson · 1969I like to be in America, OK by me in America, Everything free in America. — Anita · 1961We'll drive. Keep driving. Head out to the middle of nowhere, take that road as far as it takes us. You've never been west of Philly, have ya? This is a beautiful country, Monty. It's beautiful out there, looks like a different world. Mountains, hills, cows, farms, and white churches. — James Brogan · 2002
Comedy2 quotes
America is great indeed. Imagine a country so free, one can throw glass on the streets! — Prince Akeem · 1988Hey, guys, one more thing, hey, this summer, when you're being inundated with all this American bicentennial Fourth Of July brouhaha, don’t forget what you’re celebrating, and that’s the fact that a bunch of slave-owning, aristocratic, white males didn’t want to pay their taxes. — Ms. Stroud · 1993
America is great indeed. Imagine a country so free, one can throw glass on the streets! — Prince Akeem · 1988Hey, guys, one more thing, hey, this summer, when you're being inundated with all this American bicentennial Fourth Of July brouhaha, don’t forget what you’re celebrating, and that’s the fact that a bunch of slave-owning, aristocratic, white males didn’t want to pay their taxes. — Ms. Stroud · 1993
Crime2 quotes
I believe in America. — Amerigo Bonasera · 1972In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the woman. That's why you gotta make your own moves. — Tony Montana · 1983
Crime (film)2 quotes
I believe in America. — Amerigo Bonasera · 1972In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the woman. That's why you gotta make your own moves. — Tony Montana · 1983
God bless America, Land that I love, Stand beside her and guide her Through the night with a light from above. From the mountains to the prairies, To the oceans white with foam, God bless America, My home sweet home. — Irving Berlin · 1938I like to be in America! Ok by me in America! Everything free in America For a small fee in America! — Stephen Sondheim · 1957
I entered the world a slave-in the midst of a country whose most honoured writings declare that all men have a right to liberty. — Henry Box Brown · 1849
Biography1 quote
So we think of Marilyn who was every man's love affair with America, Marilyn Monroe who was blonde and beautiful and had a sweet little rinky-dink of a voice and all the cleanliness of all the clean American backyards. — Norman Mailer · 1973
What is finished...is the idea that this great country is dedicated to the freedom and flourishing of every individual in it. It's the individual that's finished. It's the single, solitary human being that's finished. It's every single one of you out there that's finished, because this is no longer a nation of independent individuals. It's a nation of some 200-odd million transistorized, deodorized, whiter-than-white, steel-belted bodies, totally unnecessary as human beings, and as replaceable as piston rods. — Howard Beale · 1976
What is finished...is the idea that this great country is dedicated to the freedom and flourishing of every individual in it. It's the individual that's finished. It's the single, solitary human being that's finished. It's every single one of you out there that's finished, because this is no longer a nation of independent individuals. It's a nation of some 200-odd million transistorized, deodorized, whiter-than-white, steel-belted bodies, totally unnecessary as human beings, and as replaceable as piston rods. — Howard Beale · 1976
Hey, guys, one more thing, hey, this summer, when you're being inundated with all this American bicentennial Fourth Of July brouhaha, don’t forget what you’re celebrating, and that’s the fact that a bunch of slave-owning, aristocratic, white males didn’t want to pay their taxes. — Ms. Stroud · 1993
Hey, guys, one more thing, hey, this summer, when you're being inundated with all this American bicentennial Fourth Of July brouhaha, don’t forget what you’re celebrating, and that’s the fact that a bunch of slave-owning, aristocratic, white males didn’t want to pay their taxes. — Ms. Stroud · 1993
America is God's crucible, the great melting pot where all the races of Europe are melting and reforming! — Israel Zangwill · 1908
Why, America’s the only free nation on earth. Besides! Country’s too big for a revolution. No, no! Couldn’t happen here! — Sinclair Lewis · 1935
Folk music1 quote
This land is your land, this land is my land From California to the New York Island, From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters; This land was made for you and me. — Woody Guthrie · 1945
America was discovered accidentally by a great seaman who was looking for something else; when discovered it was not wanted; and most of the exploration for the next fifty years was done in the hope of getting through or around it. America was named after a man who discovered no part of the New World. History is like that, very chancy. — Samuel Eliot Morison · 1965
Musical1 quote
I like to be in America, OK by me in America, Everything free in America. — Anita · 1961
I like to be in America, OK by me in America, Everything free in America. — Anita · 1961
It is a land of desire for all those who are weary of the historical arsenal of old Europe. — Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel · 1830
Road movie1 quote
You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I can't understand what's gone wrong with it. — George Hanson · 1969
I entered the world a slave-in the midst of a country whose most honoured writings declare that all men have a right to liberty. — Henry Box Brown · 1849
Sociology1 quote
The other America, the America of poverty, is hidden today in a way that it never was before. Its millions are socially invisible to the rest of us... The very development of American society is creating a new kind of blindness about poverty. The poor are increasingly slipping out of the very experience and consciousness of the nation. — Michael Harrington · 1962