America has believed that in differentiation, not in uniformity, lies the path of progress. It acted on this belief; it has advanced human happiness, and it has prospered. Louis D. Brandeis US jurist (1856 - 1941) I just want to say this. I want to say it gently but I want to say it firmly: There is a tendency for the world to say to America, "the big problems of the world are yours, you go and sort them out," and then to worry when America wants to sort them out. Tony Blair British politician (1953 - ) America is the country where you buy a lifetime supply of aspirin for one dollar and use it up in two weeks. John Barrymore US actor (1882 - 1942) Unique among the nations, America recognized the source of our character as being godly and eternal, not being civic and temporal. And because we have understood that our source is eternal, America has been different. We have no king but Jesus. John Ashcroft US politician (1942 - ) America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. John Quincy Adams US diplomat & politician (1767 - 1848) I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth. John Adams US diplomat & politician (1735 - 1826) I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American. Daniel Webster US diplomat, lawyer, orator, & politician (1782 - 1852) Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops. Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five US novelist (1922 - ) The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. Henry David Thoreau US Transcendentalist author (1817 - 1862) Americans never quit. General Douglas Macarthur US WWII general & war hero (1880 - 1964) |