United States

Explore 2893 quotes by people from United States

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. So governments' programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth.

Ronald Reagan

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Topic

Big government Government Political theory

Speaker

Ronald Reagan

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1964 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Reagan, Ronald. "A Time for Choosing." U.S. presidential election campaign. 27 Oct. 1964, Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, California, USA. TV broadcast.

Narratives can make us understand. Photographs do something else: they haunt us.

Susan Sontag

More information about this quote

Topic

Photography Stories

Author

Susan Sontag

Source

Regarding the Pain of Others

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

2003 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sontag, Susan. Regarding the Pain of Others. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003, ch. 5.

I say violence is necessary. Violence is a part of America's culture. It is as American as cherry pie.

H. Rap Brown

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Topic

Violence in America America

Speaker

H. Rap Brown

Medium

News conference

Language

English

Time

1967 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Brown, H. Rap. News conference. 27 July 1967, Washington, DC, USA.

Keeping time,
Keeping the rhythm in their dancing
As in their living in the living seasons
The time of the seasons and the constellations
The time of milking and the time of harvest
The time of the coupling of man and woman
And that of beasts. Feet rising and falling. Eating and drinking. Dung and death.

T.S. Eliot

Four Quartets

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Topic

Rhythm of life

Author

T.S. Eliot

Source

East Coker Four Quartets

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Eliot, T. S. "East Coker." New English Weekly, Mar. 1940.

Thunder is the voice of God, and, therefore, to be dreaded.

Increase Mather

More information about this quote

Topic

Thunder Weather God and nature

Author

Increase Mather

Language

English

Time

1684 1680s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Mather, Increase. An Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences. Boston: Joseph Browning, 1684, ch. 4.

Once lead this people into war and they will forget there ever was such a thing as tolerance.

Woodrow Wilson

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Topic

World War I

Speaker

Woodrow Wilson

Language

English

Time

1917 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Wilson, Woodrow. Conversation with Frank Irving Cobb before asking Congress to declare war. 2 Apr. 1917.

There can be no equality or opportunity, the first essential of justice in the body politic, if men and women and children be not shielded in their lives, their very vitality, from the consequences of great industrial and social processes which they can not alter, control, or singly cope with.

Woodrow Wilson

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Topic

Equality of opportunity Change

Speaker

Woodrow Wilson

Source

First Inaugural Address of Woodrow Wilson

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1913 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Wilson, Woodrow. "First Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1913, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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Read The Building of the Ship at Poetry Foundation

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Topic

American experiment America

Author

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Source

The Building of the Ship The Seaside and the Fireside

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1850 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. "The Building of the Ship." The Seaside and the Fireside. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1850, I. 377.

Current Citation

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. "The Building of the Ship." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Poems & Other Writings, edited by J. D. McClatchy. Library of America, 2000, I. 377.

That's one of my Goddam precious American rights, not to think about politics.

John Updike

More information about this quote

Topic

Indifference to politics

Author

John Updike

Source

Rabbit Redux

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1971 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Updike, John. Rabbit Redux. Alfred A. Knopf, 1971, ch. 1.

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

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Topic

American Presidency American politics

Author

Theodore Roosevelt

Source

Kansas City Star

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

1918 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Roosevelt, Theodore, Jr. Kansas City Star. 7 May 1918.

America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy.

John Updike

More information about this quote

Topic

America

Author

John Updike

Medium

Short story

Language

English

Time

1972 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Updike, John. "How to Love America and Leave It at the Same Time." The New Yorker, 19 Aug. 1972.

Current Citation

Updike, John. "How to Love America and Leave It at the Same Time." Problems and Other Stories. Knopf, 1979.

Death, the refuge, the solace, the best and kindliest and most prized friend and benefactor of the erring, the forsaken, the old, and weary, and broken of heart, whose burdens be heavy upon them, and who would lie down and be at rest.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Death as a blessing Death

Author

Mark Twain

Source

On Adam (Speech) Speeches of Mark Twain

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1883 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. "On Adam." Royal Literary and Scientific Society Dinner. 23 May 1883, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. "On Adam." Mark Twain Speaking. University of Iowa Press, 2006.

We are not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war.

William Tecumseh Sherman

More information about this quote

Topic

American Civil War Military strategy

Author

William Tecumseh Sherman

Source

Letter to Henry W. Halleck

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1864 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Sherman, William Tecumsch. Letter to Henry W. Halleck. 24 Dec. 1864.

Current Citation

Sherman, William Tecumsch. Memoirs of General William Tecumseh Sherman. Vol. 2, Penguin Classics, 2000, ch. 21.

What pornographic literature does is precisely to drive a wedge between one's existence as a full human being and one's existence as a sexual being.

Susan Sontag

The Pornographic Imagination

More information about this quote

Topic

Pornography

Author

Susan Sontag

Source

The Pornographic Imagination Partisan Review

Medium

Essay Magazine

Language

English

Time

1967 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sontag, Susan. "The Pornographic Imagination." Partisan Review, Spring 1967.

Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill.

Barbara W. Tuchman

More information about this quote

Topic

Books

Author

Barbara W. Tuchman

Source

The Washington Post

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Tuchman, Barbara. "Papyrus to Paperbacks: The World that Books Made." The Washington Post, 30 Dec. 1979.

Everything is funny as long as it is happening to Somebody Else.

Will Rogers

More information about this quote

Topic

Misfortunes of others

Author

Will Rogers

Language

English

Time

1924 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Rogers, Will. "Warning to Jokers: Lay Off the Prince." The Illiterate Digest. Albert & Charles Boni, 1924.

In our own lives, let each of us ask—not just what will government do for me, but what can I do for myself? In the challenges we face together, let each of us ask—not just how can government help, but how can I help?

Richard Nixon

Second Inaugural Address of Richard Nixon

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Topic

Citizen and state Civic duty American politics

Speaker

Richard Nixon

Source

Second Inaugural Address of Richard Nixon Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Nixon, Richard. "Second Inaugural Address." 20 Jan. 1973, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

Whatsoever is of domestic concernment, unconnected with the other members of the Union or with foreign lands, belongs exclusively to the administration of the State governments. Whatsoever directly involves the rights and interests of the federative fraternity or of foreign powers is of the resort of this General Government. The duties of both are obvious in the general principle, though sometimes perplexed with difficulties in the detail.

John Quincy Adams

Inaugural Address of John Quincy Adams

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Topic

Federalism Subsidiarity American government Political theory

Speaker

John Quincy Adams

Source

Inaugural Address of John Quincy Adams Presidential inaugural address

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1825 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Adams, John Quincy. "Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1825, House Chamber, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

Thus it came to him merely to run away was folly, because he could never run away from himself.

Sinclair Lewis

Babbitt

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Topic

Running away Escape

Author

Sinclair Lewis

Source

Babbitt

Medium

Novel

Genre

Satire

Language

English

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Lewis, Sinclair. Babbitt. Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1922, ch. 25.

Current Citation

Lewis, Sinclair. Babbitt, edited by Gordon Hutner. Oxford University Press, 2010, ch. 25.

The world is little, people are little, human life is little. There is only one big thing-desire.

Willa Cather

The Song of the Lark

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Topic

Desire

Speaker

Wunsch

Author

Willa Cather

Source

The Song of the Lark

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1915 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Cather, Willa. The Song of the Lark. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1915, pt. 1, ch. 9.

Current Citation

Cather, Willa. The Song of the Lark. Vintage, 1999, pt. 1, ch. 9.