American Quotes

Martin Luther King Jr. was willing to lead a movement against segregation in our nation. He had the courage to tell our nation that its policy of segregation was wrong. To me, that is true patriotism: not only being willing to fight for our country but willing to try to change it so that our ideals are preserved.

My favorite thing about the United States? Lots of Americans, one America. ~Val Saintsbury

Our country is not the only thing to which we owe our allegiance. It is also owed to justice and to humanity. Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong. ~James Bryce

Our great modern Republic. May those who seek the blessings of its institutions and the protection of its flag remember the obligations they impose. ~Ulysses S. Grant

For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail? ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty. ~Louis D. Brandeis

Men love their country, not because it is great, but because it is their own. ~Seneca

Territory is but the body of a nation. The people who inhabit its hills and valleys are its soul, its spirit, its life. ~James Garfield

Ev'ry heart beats true
'neath the Red, White and Blue,
~George M. Cohan

We need a type of patriotism that recognizes the virtues of those who are opposed to us..... The old "manifest destiny" idea ought to be modified so that each nation has the manifest destiny to do the best it can - and that without cant, without the assumption of self-righteousness and with a desire to learn to the uttermost from other nations. ~Francis John McConnell

I believe in America because we have great dreams - and because we have the opportunity to make those dreams come true. ~Wendell L. Wilkie

To me, being an American means feeling safe. ~Currielene Armstrong

We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls. ~Robert J. McCracken

It is sweet to serve one's country by deeds, and it is not absurd to serve her by words. ~Sallust

We need an America with the wisdom of experience. But we must not let America grow old in spirit. ~Hubert H. Humphrey

May I never wake up from the American dream. ~Carrie Latet

A real patriot is the fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices that the system works. ~Bill Vaughan

I think there is one higher office than president and I would call that patriot. ~Gary Hart

My patriotic heart beats red, white, and blue. ~Author Unknown

Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and excusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. ~Mark Twain

All we have of freedom, all we use or know - This our fathers bought for us long and long ago.
~Rudyard Kipling, The Old Issue, 1899

What we need are critical lovers of America - patriots who express their faith in their country by working to improve it. ~Hubert H. Humphrey

You cannot spill a drop of American blood without spilling the blood of the whole world.... We are not a nation, so much as a world. ~Herman Melville

Our hearts where they rocked our cradle,
Our love where we spent our toil,
And our faith, and our hope, and our honor,
We pledge to our native soil.
God gave all men all earth to love,
But since our hearts are small,
Ordained for each one spot should prove
Beloved over all.
~Rudyard Kipling

He is a poor patriot whose patriotism does not enable him to understand how all men everywhere feel about their altars and their hearthstones, their flag and their fatherland. ~Harry Emerson Fosdick

We have enjoyed so much freedom for so long that we are perhaps in danger of forgetting how much blood it cost to establish the Bill of Rights. ~Felix Frankfurter

Patriotism is easy to understand in America - it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country. ~Calvin Coolidge

We dare not forget that we are the heirs of that first revolution. ~John F. Kennedy

The American Revolution was a beginning, not a consummation. ~Woodrow Wilson