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AMERICA PAGE 2 (N-Z)

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We find it almost as difficult as the communists to believe that
anyone could think ill of us, since we are as persuaded as the
communists that our society is so essentially virtuous that only
malice could prompt criticism of any of our actions.
--Reinhold Niebuhr (1892—1971)
American theologian.
_The Irony of American History_ [1962]

America wasn't founded so that we could all
be better. America was founded so that we
could all be anything we damn well pleased.
--P.J. O'Rourke (1947— )
American political satirist.

The cause of America is in great
measure the cause of all mankind.
--Thomas Paine [spelled Pane prior to 1774] (1737—1809)
English-American writer and political pamphleteer.
_Common Sense_, introduction [1776]

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The American system is not a democracy. It is a
constitutional republic. A democracy, if you attach
meaning to terms, is a system of unlimited majority
rule; the classic example is ancient Athens. And
the symbol of it is the fate of Socrates, who was
put to death legally, because the majority didn't
like what he was saying, although he had initiated
no force and had violated no one's rights.

Democracy, in short, is a form of collectivism, which
denies individual rights: the majority can do whatever
it wants with no restrictions. In principle, the
democratic government is all-powerful. Democracy
is a totalitarian manifestation; it is not a form
of freedom....

The American system is a constitutionally limited
republic, restricted to the protection of individual
rights. In such a system, majority rule is applicable
only to lesser details, such as the selection of certain
personnel. But the majority has no say over the basic
principles governing the government. It has no power
to ask for or gain the infringement of individual
rights.

--Leonard Peikoff (1933— )
Canadian-born American philosopher.
_The Philosophy of Objectivism_, Lecture 9 [1976]

-

-

In one generation we have moved from denying a black
man service at a lunch counter to elevating one to
the highest military office in the nation, and to
being a serious contender for the presidency. This
is a magnificent country and I am proud to be one of
its sons.
--Colin L. Powell (1937— )
Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff [1989—1993]; Secretary of State [2001—2005].
At a news conference in Alexandria, VA, where he announced his decision
not to seek the presidential nomination [8 November 1995].


One of the fondest expressions around is that we can't be the world's
policeman. But guess who gets called when suddenly someone needs
a cop?
--Colin L. Powell (1937— )
Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff [1989—1993]; Secretary of State [2001—2005].


We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred
years and we've done this as recently as the last year in Afghanistan
and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have
lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground
to bury them in.
--Colin L. Powell (1937— )
Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff [1989—1993]; Secretary of State [2001—2005].
Speech at World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland [26 January 2003].

-

We ought to change the sign on the Statue of Liberty
to read, 'This time around send us your rich.'
--Felix Rohatyn (1928— )
Austrian-born American businessman.
Felix Rohatyn was a governor of the New York Stock Exchange, Chairman
of the New York Municipal Authority, and US Ambassador to France.

We must be the great arsenal of democracy.
--Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882—1945)
American Democratic statesman and President [1933—1945].
"Fireside Chat" radio broadcast [29 December 1940].

-

If a nation shows that it knows how to act with
decency in industrial and political matters, if
it keeps order and pays its obligations, then it
need fear no interference from the United States.
Brutal wrongdoing, or an impotence which results
in a general loosening of the ties of a civilized
society, may finally require intervention by some
civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere
the United States cannot ignore this duty; but it
remains true that our interests, and those of our
southern neighbors, are in reality identical.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
Letter to The Cuba Society of New York [20 May 1904],
quoted in Edmund Morris, _Theodore Rex_.


Everything is un-American that tends either to government
by a plutocracy, or government by a mob. To divide along
the lines of section or caste or creed is un-American. All
privilege based on wealth, and all enmity to honest men
merely because they are wealthy, are un-American — both
of them equally so. Americanism means the virtues of
courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and hardihood —
the virtues that made America. The things that will destroy
America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price,
safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living,
and the get-rich-quick theory of life.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
In a letter to S. Stanwood Menken [10 January 1917].


Every man among us is more fit to meet the duties and responsibilities
of citizenship because of the perils over which, in the past, the nation
has triumphed; because of the blood and sweat and tears, the labor
and the anguish, through which, in the days that have gone, our
forefathers moved on to triumph.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
Address as Assistant Secretary of the Navy before
the Naval War College, Newport, R.I., [June 1897].

-

America will believe it her duty to concern herself
with the rest of the world, but she will not do this
without being paid for it. The payment she will
demand will not be material but moral. No country
is more convinced than this one that she is right,
or is more arrogant in her moral superiority. If she
intervenes in the affairs of the world it will be to
impose her ideas, and she will consider her inter-
vention a blessing for lost and suffering humanity.
The prospect is cheerless. Whether run by the
American left or right, the world will in either case
suffer a singular form of tyranny, at once biblical
and materialistic.
--Raoul de Roussy de Sales
French journalist and historian.
_The Making of Tomorrow_ [1943] "7 July 1942"

America's greatest enemy is not from without, but
from within, and that enemy is hate: hatred of races,
peoples, classes and religions. If America ever dies,
it will be not through conquest but suicide.
--Fulton John Sheen (1895—1979)
Roman Catholic bishop; the first popular preacher to appear on television.
_Preface To Religion_ [1946]

I'd rather have the United States be the world's policeman
than the Soviet Union be the world's jailer.
--attributed to Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918—2008)
Russian novelist.

I like to be in America!
O.K. by me in America!
Ev'rything free in America
For a small fee in America!
--Stephen Sondheim (1930— )
American musical theater lyricist and composer.
"America" [1957 song]

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 (1874—1946)
American writer.
In _The Geographical History of America_ [1936].

For centuries America and Americans have been the target for
opinions — Asian, African, and European — only these opinions
have been called criticism, observation, or, God help us, evaluation.
Unfortunately, Americans have allowed these foreign opinions the
value set on them by their authors. ... This essay is not an attempt
to answer or refute the sausage-like propaganda which is ground
out in our disfavor. It cannot even pretend to be objective truth. ...
But at least it is informed by America, and inspired by curiosity,
impatience, some anger, and a passionate love of America and
the Americans. For I believe that out of the whole body of our past,
out of our differences, our quarrels, our many interests and directions,
something has emerged that is itself unique in the world: America —
complicated, paradoxical, bullheaded, shy, cruel, boisterous,
unspeakably dear, and very beautiful.
--John Ernst Steinbeck (1902—1968)
American novelist.
Forward to _America and Americans_ [1966].

The home of the homeless all over the earth.
--Alfred Billings Street (1811—1881)
American poet, lawyer, and librarian.

America, my friends, is the only country in
the world actually founded on liberty — the
only one. People went to America to be free.
--Margaret Thatcher (1925— )
British conservative stateswoman and Prime Minister [1979—1990].

-

If I were asked. . . to what the singular prosperity and growing
strength of that people [the Americans] ought mainly to be
attributed, I should reply: To the superiority of their women.
--Alexis de Tocqueville (1805—1859)
French historian and politician.
_Democracy in America_ [1840], pt. 2, bk.3, ch. 12


There are today two great peoples on the earth who,
setting off from different points of departure, seem
to be advancing towards the same goal: they are the
Russians and the Anglo-Americans ... Each of them
seems to be summoned by a secret plan of
Providence one day to hold in its hands the
destinies of half the world.
--Alexis de Tocqueville (1805—1859)
French historian and politician.
_Democracy in America_ [1835] bk I, pt. 2, ch. 10


I know of no country, indeed, where the love of money has
taken stronger hold on the affections of men, and where a
profounder contempt is expressed for the theory of the
permanent equality of property.
--Alexis de Tocqueville (1805—1859)
French historian and politician.
_Democracy in America_, vol. I, ch. 3 [1835]


Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits
flame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and the
genius of America. America is great because America is good. If
America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.
--Alexis de Tocqueville (1805—1859)
French historian and politician.
Attributed but not found in his writings.

-

America is a large, friendly dog in a very small
room. Every time it wags its tail it knocks over
a chair.
--attributed to Arnold Toynbee (1889—1975)
English historian.

America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy.
--John Updike (1932—2009)
American novelist and short-story writer.
_Problems and Other Stories_ [1980]

I like the German fir-woods, in green battalions drilled
I like the gardens of Versailles with flashing fountains filled;
But, oh, to take your hand, my dear, and ramble for a day
In the friendly western woodland where Nature has her way!
..Oh, it's home again, and home again, America for me!
I want a ship that's westward bound to plough the rolling sea,
To the blessed Land of Room Enough beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.
--Henry Van Dyke (1852—1933)
American clergyman, educator, and author.

-

...teachers of children in the United States of America wrote this date
on blackboards again and again, and asked the children to memorize
it with pride and joy: 1492.

The teachers told the children that this was when their continent was
discovered by human beings. Actually, millions of human beings were
already living full and imaginative lives on the continent in 1492. That
was simply the year in which sea pirates began to cheat and rob and
kill them.

--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922—2007)
American novelist and short-story writer.
_Breakfast of Champions_, ch. I [1973]

-

There is a rank due to the United States, among
nations, which will be withheld, if not absolutely
lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire
to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we
desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful
instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be
known that we are at all times ready for war.
--George Washington (1732—1799)
American general and commander-in-chief of the colonial armies in the American
Revolution [1775—1783] and first president of the United States [1789—1797].

-

I am lost in wonder and amazement. It is not a
country but a world. . . . The West I liked best.
The people are stronger, fresher, saner than the
rest. They are ready to be taught. The surroundings
of nature have instilled in them a love of the
beautiful, which but needs development and
direction. The East I found a feeble reflex of
Europe; in fact, I may say that I was in
America for a month before I saw an American.
--Oscar Wilde (1854—1900)
Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet.
Quoted in the "St. Louis Daily Democrat"
[26 February 1882].


The cities of America are inexpressibly tedious.
The Bostonians take their learning too sadly:
culture with them is an accomplishment rather
than an atmosphere; their 'Hub,' as they call
it, is the paradise of prigs. Chicago is a sort
of monster-shop, full of bustle and bores.
Political life at Washington is like political
life in a suburban vestry. Baltimore is amusing
for a week, but Philadelphia is dreadfully
provincial; and though one can dine in New
York, one could not dwell there.
--Oscar Wilde (1854—1900)
Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet.
_The American Invasion_ in the
"Court and Society Review" [March 1887].


Please do not shoot the pianist.
He is doing his best.
(Printed notice in a dancing saloon.)
--anon., in Oscar Wilde
_Impressions of America_ "Leadville" [c.1882—1883]

-

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 (1941— )
American columnist.
"A Land Fit for Heroes",
"Time" [11 March 1991]

If the US is an empire it's a very odd one: Countries where it has
troops such as Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Germany suggest
they are unhappy about that and the response is, 'OK," and an
offer to leave. Nero and Napoleon would have been appalled.
--R. James Woolsey (1941— )
Director of the CIA (1993—1995).
"We Are All Jews" [3 October 2003]

America is God's Crucible, the great Melting-Pot
where all the races of Europe are melting and
re-forming!
--Israel Zangwill (1864—1926)
Jewish spokesman and writer.
_The Melting Pot_ [1908]

-----

gallimaufry [gal-uh-MAW-free], noun:
A medley; a hodgepodge.
Syn.: jumble, olla podrida, olio, salmagundi, potpourri.
Ex.: Today bilingual programs are conducted in a gallimaufry
of around 80 tongues, ranging from Spanish to Lithuanian to
Micronesian Yapese.
--Ezra Bowen, "For Learning or Ethnic Pride?"
_Time_ [8 July 1985]


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