The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Political speech104 quotes
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. — Abraham Lincoln · 1865We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. — Abraham Lincoln · 1861And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. — John F. Kennedy · 1961But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. — Abraham Lincoln · 1863When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir... America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." — Abraham Lincoln · 1865All 104 quotes →Political literature14 quotes
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. — Declaration of Independence · 1776We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare; and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. — Constitution of the United States · 1787The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. The streams of national power ought to flow immediately from that pure, original fountain of all legitimate authority. — Alexander Hamilton · 1787The American continents... Are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers. — James Monroe · 1823Is it not the glory of the people of America, that, whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience? — James Madison · 1787The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. — James Madison · 1788All 14 quotes →Legal writing8 quotes
The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men. — John Marshall · 1803These men and women...ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right. — Anthony Kennedy · 2015An unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the First Amendment. — Hugo Black · 1964The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race. — John Roberts · 2007The people made the Constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their will, and lives only by their will. — John Marshall · 1821We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today. — Sandra Day O'Connor · 2003All 8 quotes →Dissenting opinion2 quotes
It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country. — Louis Brandeis · 1932Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law. — John Paul Stevens · 2000Documentary (film)2 quotes
This is an impressive crowd. The haves and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite, I call you my base. — George W. Bush · 2004Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that. — Britney Spears · 2004Autobiography and memoir1 quote
People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true... No. The only tired I was was tired of giving in. — Rosa Parks · 1992Comedy1 quote
Long as you live you ain't never gonna see no black vice president. Not while the president's white. They tell you to never say never? I'm saying never. You know why? Cause some black guy would just kill the president, that's why! Shit, I'd do it! — Chris Rock · 1996Comedy (stand up)1 quote
As long as you live you ain't never gonna see no black vice president. Not while the president's white! Oh no, you will never see. Do you know what they say, “never say never”? I'm saying never! Never see no black vice president. Not while there’s a white president, and you know why? ‘Cause some black guy would just kill the president, that’s why! Shit, I’d do it! — Chris Rock · 1996Dystopian fiction1 quote
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 · 1935Horror1 quote
By the way, I would have voted for Obama for a third term, if I could. Best president in my lifetime, hands down. — Dean Armitage · 2017Horror (film)1 quote
By the way, I would have voted for Obama for a third term, if I could. Best president in my lifetime, hands down. — Dean Armitage · 2017War speech1 quote
The war is over-the rebels are our countrymen again. — Ulysses S. Grant · 1865