This country is not overrun with rebels and free-thinkers, it’s overrun with sheep and conformers. Bill Maher
Fifty men have run America and that’s a high figure. Joseph P Kennedy
The history of the United States can be told in eleven words: Columbus, Washington, Lincoln, Volstead, two flights up and ask for Gus. New York Evening Sun
There are no second acts in American lives. F Scott Fitzgerald, 1896-1940
I look upon North America as the only great nursery of freemen left on the face of the earth. Jonathan Shipley
Look, if you think any American official is going to tell you the truth, then you’re stupid. Did you hear that? – stupid. Arthur Sylvester, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, 1965
Our politicians have sacrificed their principles on the altar of special interests; our corporate leaders have sacrificed their integrity on the altar of profits; and our media watchdogs have sacrificed the voice of dissent on the altar of audience competition. Cornel West
This land is your land, this land is my land,
From California to the New York Island.
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me. Woody Guthrie, This Land is Your Land, 1956
America is God’s Crucible, the great Melting-Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and re-forming! Israel Zangwill, The Melting Pot, 1908
It is a land of desire for all those who are weary of the historical arsenal of old Europe. Georg W F Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of World History
What this country really needs is a good 5-cent cigar. The Hartford Daily Courant 22nd September 1875, crediting source The New York Mail [often attributed to Thomas R Marshall]
My country, ’tis of thee
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing:
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrim’s pride,
From every mountain-side
Let freedom ring. Samuel Francis Smith, America 1831
Its constitution the glittering and sounding generalities of natural right which make up the Declaration of Independence. Rufus Choate, 1799-1859, American lawyer & politician
The people make the Constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their own will, and lives only by their will. John Marshall, Cohens v Virginia 1821
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. D H Lawrence
America is a land whose centre is nowhere; England one whose centre is everywhere. John Updike, Picked Up Pieces 1976
America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy. John Updike, Problems 1980
Americans have been conditioned to respect newness, whatever it costs them. John Updike
We owe it ... to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those [European] powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. James Monroe
Our government will soon become what it is already a long way toward becoming, an elective dictatorship. Senator J William Fulbrig
We live in a nation hated abroad and frightened at home. A place in which we can reasonably refer to the American Republic in the past tense. A country that has moved into a post-constitutional era, no longer a nation of laws but an autocracy run by law breakers, law evaders and law ignorers. A nation governed by a culture of impunity ... A culture in which corruption is no longer a form of deviance but the norm. We all live in a Mafia neighborhood now. Sam Smith
I believe every American should be forced to commiserate with people from other countries while they are growing up. Only when I talked to people from outside my borders did I realize how insanely myopic the entire establishment of the US is. People here really can’t seem to understand why the world gets mad at us. It is not evil that’s the problem here I think, just incredible, earth-shattering, incalculable, painfully entrenched ignorance. spf2119 2001
The country is governed for the richest, for the corporation, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters. Helen Keller
Grim Reaper: Shut up. Shut up, you American. You always talk, you Americans. You talk and you talk and you say, ‘Let me tell you something.’ And, ‘I just want to say this.’ Well you’re dead now. So shut up. Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, 1983 starring Graham Chapman & John Cleese & Terry Gilliam & Eric Idle & Terry Jones & Michael Palin & Carol Cleveland & Patricia Quinn & Simon Jones et al, director Terry Jones
Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. Michel Guillaume Saint Jean de Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer, 1782
’Tis the star-spangled banner; O long may it wave
O’re the land of the free, and the home of the brave. Francis Scott Key, The Star Spangled Banner, 1814
If fascism ever came to the United States, it would be wrapped in an American flag. Huey Long
There’s one thing I don’t understand – them Yanks that pretend to be Irish. What’s that all about, hmm? As if being American wasn’t bad enough. Al Murray, Pub Landlord: And a Glass of White Wine for the Lady, London Playhouse 2011
The United States has always been, at least has attempted to be, dominated by a wealthy elite. Jim Marrs, interview Project Camelot
I think of the spirit of America being imagination combined with tenacity. There’s a strong work ethic. A wonderful freedom of creation combined with the mental muscle and physical labour. To me it represents the best of the human spirit. Michael Douglas
Who are we? And who’s responsible for who we have become? America is us. And we are responsible for who we have become. Cynthia McKinney
In the United States today we have more than our fair share of the nattering nabobs of negativism. Spiro T Agnew, American Republican politician
In the United States there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is. That is what makes America what it is. Gertrude Stein, The Geographical History of America, 1936
The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children. Duke of Windsor, former Edward VIII, 1957
I’m just a dark guy from a den of iniquity. A dark shadowy figure from the bowels of iniquity. I wish I could be Mike who gets an endorsement deal. But you can’t make a lie and a truth go together. This country wasn’t built on moral fiber. This country was built on rape, slavery, murder, degradation and affiliation with crime. Mike Tyson
Four sorrows ... are certain to be visited on the United States. Their cumulative effect guarantees that the US will cease to resemble the country outlined in the Constitution of 1787. First, there will be a state of perpetual war, leading to more terrorism against Americans wherever they may be and a spreading reliance on nuclear weapons among smaller nations as they try to ward off the imperial juggernaut. Second is a loss of democracy and Constitutional rights as the presidency eclipses Congress and is itself transformed from a co-equal ‘executive branch’ of government into a military junta. Third is the replacement of truth by propaganda, disinformation, and the glorification of war, power, and the military legions. Lastly, there is bankruptcy, as the United States pours its economic resources into ever more grandiose military projects and shortchanges the education, health, and safety of its citizens. Chalmers Johnson
A military juggernaut intent on world domination. Professor Chalmers Johnson
I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect Union, one and inseparable, established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies. William Tyler Page