Quotes on America
...both postive and negative.
“The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.” Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956), American humorous journalist
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"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed." Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“I firmly believe that when any territory outside the present territorial limits of the United States becomes necessary for our defense or essential for our commercial development, we ought to lose no time in acquiring it.” Sen. Orville Platt of Connecticut 1894
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“Our whole practical government is grounded in mob psychology and the Boobus Americanus will follow any command that promises to make him safer.” H. L. Menchen, 1956
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“The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson.” Franklin D. Roosevelt
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“No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority.” Thomas Jefferson, 3rd US President (1801-09)
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“Your national greatness, swelling vanity; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.” Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)
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“If these precedents are to stand unimpeached, and to provide sanctions for the continued conduct of America affairs—the Constitution may be nullified by the President and officers who have taken the oath and are under moral obligation to uphold it….they may substitute personal and arbitrary government—the first principle of the totalitarian system against which it has been alleged that World War II was waged—while giving lip service to the principle of constitutional government.” Professor Charles Beard, resident Roosevelt and the Coming of the War 1941, 1948
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“Following the same course that virtually every other major industry has in the last two decades, a relentless series of mergers and corporate takeovers has consolidated control of the media into the hands of a few corporate behemoths. The result has been that an increasingly authoritarian agenda has been sold to the American people by a massive, multi-tentacled media machine that has become, for all intents and purposes, a propaganda organ of the state.” David McGowan
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“One thing is for certain: There won’t be any more mass graves and torture rooms and rape rooms.” Bush, press availability in Monterrey, Mexico, Jan. 12, 2004
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“We never see the smoke and the fire, we never smell the blood, we never see the terror in the eyes of the children, whose nightmares will now feature screaming missiles from unseen terrorists, will be known only as Americans.” Martin Kelly
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“I assume the president’s going to say he got bad intelligence... I think that wherever you see poverty, whether it’s in the white rural community or the black urban community, you see that the resources have been sucked up into the war and tax cuts for the rich.” Congressman Charles B. Rangel, 09/02/05
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“We need food and water and they sent us men with guns.” Katrina survivor
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“If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.” Thomas Jefferson
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“The president has adopted a policy of ‘anticipatory self-defense’ that is alarmingly similar to the policy that imperial Japan employed at Pearl Harbor, on a date which, as an earlier American president said it would, lives in infamy. Franklin D. Roosevelt was right, but today it is we Americans who live in infamy.” Arthur Schlesinger
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“A general dissolution of the principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy… While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but once they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader… If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security.” John Adams
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“There are men—now in power in this country—who do not respect dissent, who cannot cope with turmoil, and who believe that the people of America are ready to support repression as long as it is done with a quiet voice and a business suit.” John Lindsay
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“Resistance is feasible even for those who are not heroes by nature, and it is an obligation, I believe, for those who fear the consequences and detest the reality of the attempt to impose American hegemony.” Noam Chomsky
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"The only foes that threaten America are the enemies at home, and these are ignorance, superstition and incompetence." Elbert Hubbard (American editor, publisher and writer, 1856-1915)
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"Americans love their captivity. There's no responsibility. When you're a captive, you don't have to make a decision about anything, though you have no Liberty. People don't want Liberty. Liberty is nothing but uncertainty. It's much easier to have someone tell you where you'll be, what you'll do and who you'll pay tomorrow than to worry about it yourself. The same goes for what you think". Eustace Mullins [May 8, 2004] A Recent Visit with Eustace Mullins --- James Dyer
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There is nothing left of the American character. Only a people who have lost their soul could tolerate the evil that emanates from Washington. A World Overwhelmed By Western Hypocrisy By Paul Craig Roberts
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Studies show that America's corporate chieftains are living like kings while the middle class stagnates and shrivels. Yet, the Tea Party and other anti-tax forces remain determined to protect the historically low tax rates of the rich and push the burden of reducing the federal debt onto the rest of society. How Greed Destroys America By Robert Parry
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Boundless groveling to the commander-in-chief is the new trademark of a good American. Anything less is national suicide. Faith Based Killings Idolizing Absolute Power: The Pro-Assassination Crowd By James Bovard
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Nearly half of all members of Congress are millionaires, and between 2008 and 2009, when most Americans were feeling the brunt of the recession, the personal wealth of members of Congress collectively increased by more than 16 percent. Must be nice. Them That's Not Shall Lose By Charles M. Blow
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"The thugs in uniform now consider themselves to be government agents of a totalitarian regime with limitless authority to enforce the will of the government on all civilian assholes. There are obviously exceptions to that rule, but those would never try to stand in the way of the thugs." The Largest Street Gang in America The Militarization Of The US Police Force
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Bullshit is the glue that binds us as a nation. Freedom4um
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"We live in a system that espouses merit, equality, and a level playing field, but exalts those with wealth, power, and celebrity, however gained." - Derrick Bell, Ethical Ambition: Living a Life of Meaning and Worth