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"America", "US", "USA", and "United States of America" redirect here. For the landmass comprising North, Central, South America, and the Caribbean, see Americas. For other uses, see America (disambiguation).

⁠The land of the free and the home of the brave —Francis Scott Key

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal union of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous states border Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, with the states of Alaska to the northwest and the archipelagic Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The United States also asserts sovereignty over five major island territories and various uninhabited islands. The country has the world's third-largest land area, largest exclusive economic zone, and third-largest population, exceeding 334 million. Its three largest metropolitan areas are New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and its three most populous states are California, Texas, and Florida.

Quotes

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17th century

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E Pluribus Unum
  • You brave heroic minds
    Worthy your country’s name,
         That honour still pursue;
         Go and subdue!
  • E pluribus unum
    • From many, one.
    • Traditional motto of the United States of America. First appeared on title page of The Gentleman's Miscellany (January, 1692). Pierre Antoine (Peter Anthony Motteaux) was editor. Dr. Simetiere affixed it to the American National Seal at time of the Revolution. See Howard P. Arnold, Historic Side Lights (1899). Compare: Ex pluribus unum facere; translation: "From many to make one"; St. Augustine, Confessions, bk. 4, 8, 13

18th century

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  • We must consult Brother Jonathan.
    • George Washington's apocryphal reference to his secretary and Aide-de-camp, Colonel Jonathan Trumbull; the phrase, Brother Jonathan, later came to mean the American people, collectively
  • Let tyrants shake their iron rod,
    And Slav'ry clank her galling chains,
    We fear them not, we trust in God,
    New England's God forever reigns.
  • A people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood.
    • Edmund Burke, Speech on Conciliation with America (March 22, 1775); Works, 6 vols. (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854–56) [1]
  • Young man, there is America—which at this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories of savage men and uncouth manners; yet shall, before you taste of death, show itself equal to the whole of that commerce which now attracts the envy of the world.
    • Edmund Burke, Speech on Conciliation with America (March 22, 1775)
  • The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind... Mingling religion with politics may be disavowed and reprobated by every inhabitant of America... But where says some is the King of America? I'll tell you Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve as monarchy, that in America the law is king... Receive the fugitive and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.
  • We are in the very midst of a Revolution, the most complete, unexpected, and remarkable of any in the History of Nations.
  • Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them. A man can distinguish himself between temper and principle, and I am as confident, as I am that God governs the world, that America will never be happy till she gets clear of foreign dominion. Wars, without ceasing, will break out till that period arrives, and the continent must in the end be conqueror; for though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.
  • 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.
  • Much less is it adviseable for a Person to go thither [to America], who has no other Quality to recommend him but his Birth. In Europe it has indeed its Value; but it is a Commodity that cannot be carried to a worse Market than that of America, where people do not inquire concerning a Stranger, What is he? but, What can he do?
  • Neither my father or mother, grandfather or grandmother, great grandfather or great grandmother, nor any other relation that I know of, or care a farthing for, has been in England these one hundred and fifty years; so that you see I have not one drop of blood in my veins but what is American.
    • John Adams, to a foreign ambassador (1785), as quoted in Charles F. Adams (ed.), The Works of John Adams (1851), p. 392
  • Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise,
    The queen of the world and the child of the skies!
    Thy genius commands thee; with rapture behold,
    While ages on ages thy splendors unfold.
    • Timothy Dwight, "Columbia", in The American Museum, vol. 1 (June 1787), p. 566 [4]
  • Powel: Well, Doctor, what have we got?
    Franklin: A republic, Madam, if you can keep it.
    Powel: And why not keep it?
    Franklin: Because the people, on tasting the dish, are always disposed to eat more of it than does them good.
  • We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
  • Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
  • A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
  • As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, as it has in itself no character or enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen, and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

19th century

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  • In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book? or goes to an American play? or looks at an American picture or statue?
    • Sydney Smith, "America", in The Edinburgh Review, vol. 33, no. 65 (January 1820), p. 79 [7]
  • Slavery in this country, I have seen hanging over it like a black cloud for half a century.
    • John Adams (1821), as quoted in Joseph J. Ellis, Passionate Sage (York: Norton, 1993), p. 138
  • Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.
    • John Quincy Adams, Address as Secretary of State to the U.S. House of Representatives (July 4, 1821) [8]
  • Yet, still, from either beach,
    The voice of blood shall reach,
    More audible than speech,
      We are one!
    • Washington Allston, "Lines (America and England)", in The Cincinnati Literary Gazette (July 30, 1825), p. 244 [9]
  • I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old.
    • George Canning, Address to the British House of Commons (December 12, 1826), in R. Therry (ed.), Speeches of Lord Canning, vol. 6 (London: James Ridgway, 1826), p. 111 [10]
  • The breaking waves dashed high
    On a stern and rock-bound coast,
    And the woods against a stormy sky
    Their giant branches tossed.
  • And the heavy night hung dark,
    The hills and waters o'er,
    When a band of exiles moored their bark
    On the wild New England shore.
  • What sought they thus afar?
    Bright jewels of the mine,
    The wealth of seas, the spoils of war?
    They sought a faith's pure shrine.
  • Ay, call it holy ground,
    The soil where first they trod;
    They have left unstained what there they found —
    Freedom to whorship God.
    • Felicia Hemans, "The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers", sts. 1, 2, 9, 10
    • The League of the Alps, ... and Other Poems (1826), p. 4 [11]
  • 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.
  • We have built no national temples but the Capitol; we consult no common oracle but the Constitution.
    • Rufus Choate, The Importance of Illustrating New-England History by a Series of Romances like the Waverley Novels (1833), a lecture delivered at Salem, Massachusetts.
  • America! half brother of the world!
    With something good and bad of every land.
  • I am disappointed. This is not the republic I came to see; this is not the republic of my imagination.
  • A spirit of hostile interference against us... checking the fulfilment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.
  • O, Columbia, the gem of the ocean,
       The home of the brave and the free,
    The shrine of each patriot's devotion,
       A world offers homage to thee.
    • "O, Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean", in The Public School Singing Book (Philadelphia: Leary & Getz, 1848), p. 4 [14]
  • Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
    Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
    Humanity with all its fears,
    With all the hopes of future years,
    Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
  • Neither do I acknowledge the right of Plymouth to the whole rock. No, the rock underlies all America: it only crops out here.
    • Wendell Phillips, Speech at the dinner of the Pilgrim Society at Plymouth (December 21, 1855)
  • Asylum of the oppressed of every nation.
    • Phrase used in the Democratic platform of 1856, referring to the U.S. Henry Harrison Smith (ed.), National Conventions of the Democratic and Republican Parties, from 1832 to 1856 (1892), pp. 77, 83, 87, 114 [16]
  • We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
  • Gigantic daughter of the West,
    We drink to thee across the flood, ...
    For art not thou of English blood?
    • Alfred Tennyson, "Hands all Round", in the Examiner (1862); London Times (1880)
  • Give it only the fulcrum of Plymouth Rock, an idea will upheave the continent.
    • Wendell Phillips, Speech, New York (January 21, 1863)
    • Speeches, Lectures, and Letters (Boston: James Redpath, 1863), pp. 221, 539 [17]
  • Earth's biggest Country's gut her soul
       An' risen up Earth's Greatest Nation.
    • James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers, 2nd series (London: Trübner & Co., 1865), no. 7, st. 21 [18]
    • See The Atlantic (February, 1863), p. 265 [19]
We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth
  • Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
  • When asked what State he hails from,
       Our sole reply shall be,
    He comes from Appomattox
       And its famous apple tree.
    • Charles G. Halpine (Miles O'Reilly), Verse, quoted in Alfred R. Conkling (ed.), Life and Letters of Roscoe Conkling, vol. 2 (New York: Charles L. Webster & Co., 1889), p. 596 [20]
    • Variants: "Charter Song of the Grant Club", in The Grant Songster (New York: Haney & Co., 1867), p. 6 [21]
  • "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
    With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
    Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
    The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
    Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
    I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
  • Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,
    All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old,
    Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,
    Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love,
    A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,
    Chair’d in the adamant of Time.
    • Walt Whitman, "America", in the New York Herald (February 11, 1888)
  • Bring me men to match my mountains,
       Bring me men to match my plains,
    Men with empires in their purpose,
       And new eras in their brains.
    • Sam Walter Foss, "The Coming American", in Sidney Perley (ed.), The Poets of Essex County, Massachusetts (1889), p. 56 [22]
  • The youth of America is their oldest tradition. It has been going on now for three hundred years.
  • Home from the lonely cities, time's wreck, and the naked woe,
    Home through the clean great waters where freemen's pennants blow,
    Home to the land men dream of, where all the nations go.

20th century

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  • O beautiful for spacious skies,
    For amber waves of grain,
    For purple mountain majesties
    Above the fruited plain!
    America! America!
    God shed His grace on thee,
    And crown thy good with brotherhood
    From sea to shining sea!
  • So it's home again, and home again, America for me!
    My heart is turning home again, and I long to be
    In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean bars,
    Where the air is full of sunshine, and the flag is full of stars.
    • Henry Van Dyke, "America for Me" (June, 1909), in Poems (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911) [24]
  • America is a tune. It must be sung together.
  • The North! the South! the West! the East!
    No one the most and none the least,
    But each with its own heart and mind,
    Each of its own distinctive kind,
    Yet each a part and none the whole,
    But all together form one soul;
    That soul Our Country at its best,
    No North, no South, no East, no West,
    No yours, no mine, but always Ours,
    Merged in one Power our lesser powers,
    For no one's favor, great or small,
    But all for Each and each for All.
  • Some Americans need hyphens in their names, because only part of them has come over; but when the whole man has come over, heart and thought and all, the hyphen drops of its own weight out of his name.
    • Woodrow Wilson, Address, "Unveiling of the Statue to the Memory of Commodore John Barry", Washington (May 16, 1914)
  • Just what is it that America stands for? If she stands for one thing more than another, it is for the sovereignty of self-governing people, and her example, her assistance, her encouragement, has thrilled two continents in this western world with all those fine impulses which have built up human liberty on both sides of the water. She stands, therefore, as an example of independence, as an example of free institutions, and as an example of disinterested international action in the main tenets of justice.
  • We want the spirit of America to be efficient; we want American character to be efficient; we want American character to display itself in what I may, perhaps, be allowed to call spiritual efficiency—clear, disinterested thinking and fearless action along the right lines of thought. America is not anything if it consists of each of us. It is something only if it consists of all of us; and it can consist of all of us only as our spirits are banded together in a common enterprise. That common enterprise is the enterprise of liberty and justice and right. And, therefore, I, for my part, have a great enthusiasm for rendering America spiritually efficient; and that conception lies at the basis of what seems very far removed from it, namely, the plans that have been proposed for the military efficiency of this nation.
  • We have room but for one Language here and that is the English Language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans of American nationality and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding-house.
    • Theodore Roosevelt, Letter to Charles Steward Davison, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Defense Society (January 3, 1919)
  • New Lestz Suits that are as American as apple pie.
    • Advertisement in the Gettysburg Times (June 3, 1924), p. 6, whence the idiom "As American as mom and apple pie" [26]
  • As I went walking that ribbon of highway
    And I saw above me that endless skyway,
    I saw below me that golden valley:
    This land was made for you and me.
  • There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me
    A sign was painted, said: Private Property,
    But on the back side it didn’t say nothing:
    This land was made for you and me.
  • This land is your land ’n 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.
  • All colors and blends of Americans have somewhat the same tendencies. It's a breed — selected out by accident. And so we're overbrave and overfearful — we're kind and cruel as children. We're overfriendly and at the same time frightened of strangers. We boast and are impressed. We're oversentimental and realistic. We are mundane and materialistic — and do you know of any other nation that acts for ideals? We eat too much. We have no taste, no sense of proportion. We throw our energy about like waste. In the old lands they say of us that we go from barbarism to decadence without an intervening culture.
  • To make America the greatest is my goal,
    So I beat the Russian, and I beat the Pole,
    And for the USA won the Medal of Gold.
    Italians said, "You're greater than the Cassius of Old."
    We like your name, we like your game,
    So make Rome your home if you will.
    I said I appreciate kind hospitality,
    But the USA is my country still,
    'Cause they waiting to welcome me in Louisville.
  • I'm not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner, unless you eat some of what's on that plate. Being here in America doesn't make you an American. Being born here in America doesn't make you an American. ... No, I’m not an American. I’m one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy.
  • If this is a country of freedom, let it be a country of freedom; and if it's not a country of freedom, change it.
    • Malcolm X, "The Ballot or the Bullet", Speech in Cleveland, Ohio (April 3, 1964)
  • There are two Americas. One is the America of Lincoln and Adlai Stevenson; the other is the America of Teddy Roosevelt and the modern superpatriots. One is generous and humane, the other narrowly egotistical; one is self-critical, the other self-righteous; one is sensible, the other romantic; one is good-humored, the other solemn; one is inquiring, the other pontificating; one is moderate, the other filled with passionate intensity; one is judicious and the other arrogant in the use of great power.
  • In In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism.

21st century

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  • If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us. If we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us.
  • McDonald's (Fuck yeah!) Walmart (Fuck yeah!) The Gap (Fuck yeah!) Baseball (Fuck yeah!) NFL (Fuck yeah!) Rock and roll (Fuck yeah!) The Internet (Fuck yeah!) Slavery (Fuck yeah!) ... Starbucks (Fuck yeah!) Disney World (Fuck yeah!) Porno (Fuck yeah!) Valium (Fuck yeah!) Reeboks (Fuck yeah!) Fake tits (Fuck yeah!) Sushi (Fuck yeah!) Taco Bell (Fuck yeah!) Rodeos (Fuck yeah!) Bed, Bath & Beyond (Fuck yeah, fuck yeah!) Liberty (Fuck yeah!) Wax lips (Fuck yeah!) The Alamo (Fuck yeah!) Band-aids (Fuck yeah!) Las Vegas (Fuck yeah!) Christmas (Fuck yeah!) Immigrants (Fuck yeah!) Popeye (Fuck yeah!) Democrats (Fuck yeah!) Republicans (Fuck yeah, fuck yeah) Sportsmanship... Books...
  • We are America. Second to none. And we own the finish line.
    • Joe Biden, Democratic National Convention Speech (July 27, 2016) [29]
  • My fellow Americans, we have to be different than this. America has to be better than this, and I believe America is so much better than this.

See also

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