Inspirational American quotes will encourage you to think a little deeper than you usually would and broaden your perspective.
Famous American Quotes
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. – Abraham Lincoln
As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality. – George Washington
America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand. – Harry S Truman
Only in America can someone start with nothing and achieve the American Dream. That’s the greatness of this country. – Rafael Cruz
Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, ”that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.” – John Adams
America is the land of the second chance – and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life. – George W. Bush
The cement of this union is the heart-blood of every American. – Thomas Jefferson
This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave. – Elmer Davis
Stability in government is essential to national character and to the advantages annexed to it, as well as to that repose and confidence in the minds of the people, which are among the chief blessings of civil society. – James Madison
America is a passionate idea, or it is nothing. America is a human brotherhood, or it is chaos. – Max Lerner
True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else. – Clarence Darrow
America is another name for opportunity. Our whole history appears like a last effort of divine providence on behalf of the human race. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! – Patrick Henry
There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. – Bill Clinton
When I die, I desire no better winding sheet than the Stars and Stripes, and no softer pillow than the Constitution of my country. – Andrew Johnson
We need an America with the wisdom of experience. But we must not let America grow old in spirit. – Hubert H. Humphrey
I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country. – Nathan Hale
America is a tune. It must be sung together. – Gerald Stanley Lee
Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. – Robert Kennedy
America is so vast that almost everything said about it is likely to be true, and the opposite is probably equally true. – James T. Farrell
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal’. – Martin Luther King Jr
America is great because it has as much diversity in geographies as it does in peoples. – Aurora Raigne
America is a nation with many flaws, but hopes so vast that only the cowardly would refuse to acknowledge them. – James Michener
We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. – Abraham Lincoln
If you take advantage of everything America has to offer, there’s nothing you can’t accomplish. – Geraldine Ferraro
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. – John F. Kennedy
Only Americans can hurt America. – Dwight D. Eisenhower
America is the only nation in history which, miraculously, has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization. – Georges Clemenceau
We identify the flag with almost everything we hold dear on earth, peace, security, liberty, our family, our friends, our home. . .But when we look at our flag and behold it emblazoned with all our rights we must remember that it is equally a symbol of our duties. Every glory that we associate with it is the result of duty done. – Calvin Coolidge
In America, through pressure of conformity, there is freedom of choice, but nothing to choose from. – Peter Alexander Ustinov
What we need are critical lovers of America – patriots who express their faith in their country by working to improve it. – Hubert Humphrey
America is much more than a geographical fact. It is a political and moral fact ? the first community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality – Adlai Stevenson
It is the flag just as much of the man who was naturalized yesterday as of the men whose people have been here many generations. – Henry Cabot Lodge
The great social adventure of America is no longer the conquest of the wilderness but the absorption of fifty different peoples. – Walter Lippman
This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in. – Theodore Roosevelt
America is an enormous frosted cupcake in the middle of millions of starving people. – Gloria Steinem
America: Where a man can say what he thinks, if he isn’t afraid of his wife, his boss, his customer, his neighbors, or the government. – Joe Moore
National honor is national property of the highest value. – James Monroe
America is a country that doesn’t know where it is going but is determined to set a speed record getting there. – Laurence J. Peter
Our citizenship in the United States is our national character. Our citizenship in any particular state is only our local distinction. By the latter we are known at home, by the former to the world. Our great title is AMERICANS… – Thomas Paine
America is a large friendly dog in a small room. Every time it wags its tail it knocks over a chair. – Arnold Toynbee
America is much more than a geographical fact. It is a political and moral fact – the first community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality. – Adlai E. Stevenson
America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy. – John Updike
True patriotism springs from a belief in the dignity of the individual, freedom and equality not only for Americans but for all people on earth, universal brotherhood and good will, and a constant and earnest striving toward the principles and ideals on which this country was founded. – Eleanor Roosevelt
America makes prodigious mistakes, America has colossal faults, but one thing cannot be denied: America is always on the move. She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn’t standing still. – E. E. Cummings
The things that the flag stands for were created by the experiences of a great people. Everything that it stands for was written by their lives. The flag is the embodiment, not of sentiment, but of history. – Woodrow Wilson
America is the best half-educated country in the world. – Nicholas Murray Butler
Every good citizen makes his country’s honor his own and cherishes it not only as precious but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense and its conscious that he gains protection while he gives it. – Andrew Jackson
The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced. – Frank Zappa
America is therefore the land of the future, where, in the ages that lie before us, the burden of the World’s History shall reveal itself. – Georg W. Hegel
Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return. – Colin Powell
America is a young country with an old mentality. – George Santayana
The business of America is not business. Neither is it war. The business of america is justice and securing the blessings of liberty. – George F. Will
Freedom is never granted. It is earned by each generation… in the face of tyranny, cruelty, oppression, extremism, sometimes there is only one choice. When the world looks to America, America looks to you, and you never let her down. – Hillary Clinton
America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this. – Barack Obama
Patriotism in the female sex is the most disinterested of all virtues. Excluded from honors and from offices, we cannot attach ourselves to the State or Government from having held a place of eminence. . . . Yet all history and every age exhibit instance of patriotic virtue in the female sex; which considering our situation equals the most heroic of yours. – Abigail Adams
America is just downright mean. – Michelle Obama
The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous. – Frederick Douglass
In America, your ancestors don’t matter so much. You’re just you. – Lensey Namioka
America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand. – Harry Truman
America is another name for opportunity. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
We are called the nation of inventors. And we are. We could still claim that title and wear its loftiest honors if we had stopped with the first thing we ever invented, which was human liberty. – Mark Twain
There is nothing wrong in America that can’t be fixed with what is right in America. – Bill Clinton
America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up. – Oscar Wilde
I think in our desire to create a better America,we have to have civilized debate in this country and not just yelling. – Craig Ferguson
There is not a liberal America and a conservative America – there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America … there’s the United States of America. – Barack Obama
It is our duty and our privilege to keep America moving forward. – Bill Frist
It was wonderful to find America, but it would have been more wonderful to miss it. – Mark Twain
The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. The millions who are in want will not stand by silently forever while the things to satisfy their needs are within easy reach. We need enthusiasm, imagination and the ability to face facts, even unpleasant ones, bravely. We need to correct, by drastic means if necessary, the faults in our economic system from which we now suffer. We need the courage of the young. Yours is not the task of making your way in the world, but the task of remaking the world which you will find before you. May every one of us be granted the courage, the faith and the vision to give the best that is in us to that remaking! – Franklin D. Roosevelt
Regarding the fitness craze: America has lost its soul; now it’s trying to save its body. – George Carlin
America preaches integration and practices segregation. – Malcolm X
America is too great for small dreams. – Ronald Reagan
Where liberty dwells, there is my country. – Benjamin Franklin
America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great. – Alexis de Tocqueville
Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.” – George W. Bush
The major fortunes in America have been made in land. – John D. Rockefeller
I love my freedom. I love my America. – Jessi Lane Adams
America, thou half-brother of the world; with something good and bad of every land. – Philip James Bailey
The magic of America is that we’re a free and open society with a mixed population. Part of our security is our freedom. – Madeleine Albright
A thoughtful mind, when it sees a Nation’s flag, sees not the flag only, but the Nation itself; and whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag the Government, the principles, the truths, the history which belongs to the Nation which belongs to the Nation that sets it forth. – Henry Ward Beecher
America is the only idealistic nation in the world. – Woodrow Wilson
My country owes me nothing. It gave me, as it gives every boy and girl, a chance. It gave me schooling, independence of action, opportunity for service and honor. In no other land could a boy from a country village, without inheritance or influential friends, look forward with unbounded hope.” -Herbert Hoover
America is great, because America is free. – Dan Quayle
America is not merely a nation but a nation of nations. – Lyndon B. Johnson
Patriotism is easy to understand in America; it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country. – Calvin Coolidge
America will never run… And we will always be grateful that liberty has found such brave defenders. – George W. Bush
America is a great country, but you can’t live in it for nothing. – Will Rogers
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. – Ronald Reagan
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. – D.H. Lawrence
America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense, it is the other way around. Human rights invented America. – Jimmy Carter
America forms the longest and straightest bone in the earth’s skeleton. – Ellsworth Huntington
The American, by nature, is optimistic. He is experimental, an inventor and a builder who builds best when called upon to build greatly. – John F. Kennedy
The freedom to be an individual is the essence of America. – Marilyn vos Savant
America is a large, friendly dog in a very small room. Every time it wags its tail, it knocks over a chair. – Arnold Toynbee
America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. – Oscar Wilde
If you are ashamed to stand by your colors, you had better seek another flag. – Anonymous
America is a nation with many flaws but hopes so vast that only the cowardly would refuse to acknowledge them. – William J. Clinton
God created war so that Americans would learn geography. – Mark Twain
All great change in America begins at the dinner table. – Ronald Reagan
In America, anyone can become president. That’s the problem. – George Carlin
Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half. – Gore Vidal
In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. – Barack Obama
United States: the country where liberty is a statue. – Nicanor Parra
Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry is own weight, this is a frightening prospect. – Eleanor Roosevelt
There is no America without labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other. – Abraham Lincoln
The thing that impresses me the most about America is the way parents obey their children. – King Edward VIII
In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. – Barack Obama
Anyone who believes the competitive spirit in America is dead has never been in a supermarket when the cashier opens another check-out line. – Ann Landers
The idea of America is so wonderful because the more equal something is, the more American it is – Andy Warhol
The fact is, with every friendship you make, and every bond of trust you establish, you are shaping the image of America projected to the rest of the world. That is so important. So when you study abroad, you’re actually helping to make America stronger. – Michelle Obama
America is a land where men govern, but women rule. – John Mason Brown
America’s greatest strength, and its greatest weakness, is our belief in second chances, our belief that we can always start over, that things can be made better. – Anthony Walton
The only foes that threaten America are the enemies at home, and these are ignorance, superstition and incompetence. – Elbert Hubbard
America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.” -Harry S. Truman
America is not just a country, it’s an idea. – Bono
Patriotism can be good or bad. Knee-jerk patriotism can be very bad. I’m patriotic almost to the point of self-consciousness, but I love my country the way I love a friend or a child who I would correct if she was going the wrong way. Who I expect the very best from. – Emmylou Harris
America’s one of the finest countries anyone ever stole. – Bobcat Goldthwaite
By heritage and by choice, the United States of America will make that stand. – George W. Bush
