# Quotes about America

- Quotes: 141
- Authors: 59
- Broader topic: [Quotes about the state](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-state.md)
- Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america
- JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.json

## Quotes

> The English are polite by telling lies. The Americans are polite by telling the truth.

[Malcolm Bradbury](https://www.leafyquotes.com/malcolm-bradbury.md) · [Stepping Westward](https://www.leafyquotes.com/malcolm-bradbury/stepping-westward.md) · p. 269 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/malcolm-bradbury/stepping-westward/the-english-are.md)

Topics: [lies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [The English](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-english.md)

> Would an alien outsider judge America’s performance by My Lai and Wounded Knee or by Lincoln and Jefferson?

[Gregory Benford](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford.md) · [The Sunborn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/the-sunborn.md) · p. 149 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/the-sunborn/would-an-alien.md)

Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [judging others](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/judging-others.md)

> The world and the books are so accustomed to use, and over-use, the word 'new' in connection with our country, that we early get and permanently retain the impression that there is nothing old about it.

[Mark Twain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain.md) · [Life on the Mississippi](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/life-on-the-mississippi.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/life-on-the-mississippi/the-world-and.md)

Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> To be on foot in the United States is only immoral, not illegal.

[Kyril Bonfiglioli](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kyril-bonfiglioli.md) · [Don't Point That Thing at Me](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kyril-bonfiglioli/dont-point-that-thing-at-me.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kyril-bonfiglioli/dont-point-that-thing-at-me/to-be-on-foot.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> He had made one mistake in an otherwise flawless performance: he hadn't told me his name. Have you ever exchanged three words with an American without being told his name?

[Kyril Bonfiglioli](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kyril-bonfiglioli.md) · [Don't Point That Thing at Me](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kyril-bonfiglioli/dont-point-that-thing-at-me.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kyril-bonfiglioli/dont-point-that-thing-at-me/he-had-made.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> Ten minutes later I was in an enormous taxi-cab, an air-conditioned one, hired for the day for fifty dollars; it seems an awful lot, I know, but money's worth awfully little over there, you'd be surprised. It's because there's so much of it, you see.

[Kyril Bonfiglioli](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kyril-bonfiglioli.md) · [Don't Point That Thing at Me](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kyril-bonfiglioli/dont-point-that-thing-at-me.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kyril-bonfiglioli/dont-point-that-thing-at-me/ten-minutes-later.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [money](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> Without comprehension, the immigrant would forever remain shut - a stranger in America. Until America can release the heart as well as train the hand of the immigrant, he would forever remain driven back upon himself, corroded by the very richness of the unused gifts within his soul. ("How I found America")

[Anzia Yezierska](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anzia-yezierska.md) · [Hungry Hearts](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anzia-yezierska/hungry-hearts.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anzia-yezierska/hungry-hearts/without-comprehension-the.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [emigration](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/emigration.md)

> Americans think of themselves collectively as a huge rescue squad on twenty-four-hour call to any spot on the globe where dispute and conflict may erupt.

[Eldridge Cleaver](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eldridge-cleaver.md) · [Soul on Ice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eldridge-cleaver/soul-on-ice.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eldridge-cleaver/soul-on-ice/americans-think-of-themselves.md)

Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> I've come to think of Europe as a hardcover book, America as the paperback version.

[Don DeLillo](https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo.md) · [The Names](https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/the-names.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/the-names/ive-come-to-think.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> America is woven of many strands; I would recognize them and let it so remain. It's "winner take nothing" that is the great truth of our country or of any country. Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat. Our fate is to become one, and yet many— This is not prophecy, but description.

[Ralph Ellison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ralph-ellison.md) · [Invisible Man](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ralph-ellison/invisible-man.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ralph-ellison/invisible-man/america-is-woven.md)

Topics: [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [community](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/community.md)

> What prevails, what sets the tune, is the American scale of gain, more magnificent than any other, and the fact that the whole assumption, the whole theory of life, is that of the individual's participation in it, that of his being more or less punctually and more or less effectually "squared." To make so much money that you won't, that you don't "mind," don't mind anything — that is absolutely, I think, the main American formula.

[Henry James](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james.md) · [The American Scene](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james/the-american-scene.md) · p. 237 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james/the-american-scene/what-prevails-what.md)

Topics: [money](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> Dollars! All their cares, hopes, joys, affections, virtues, and associations seemed to be melted down into dollars. Whatever the chance contributions that fell into the slow cauldron of their talk, they made the gruel thick and slab with dollars. Men were weighed by their dollars, measures were gauged by their dollars; life was auctioneered, appraised, put up, and knocked down for its dollars. The next respectable thing to dollars was any venture having their attainment for its end. The more of that worthless ballast, honour and fair-dealing, which any man cast overboard from the ship of his Good Nature and Good Intent, the more ample stowage-room he had for dollars. Make commerce one huge lie and mighty theft. Deface the banner of the nation for an idle rag; pollute it star by star; and cut out stripe by stripe as from the arm of a degraded soldier. Do anything for dollars! What is a flag to them!

[Charles Dickens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens.md) · [Martin Chuzzlewit](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/martin-chuzzlewit.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/martin-chuzzlewit/dollars-all-their.md)

Topics: [money](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [greed](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/greed.md)

> I believe no satirist could breathe this air. If another Juvenal or Swift could rise up among us tomorrow, he would be hunted down. If you have any knowledge of our literature, and can give me the name of any man, American born and bred, who has anatomised our follies as a people, and not as this or that party; and who has escaped the foulest and most brutal slander, the most inveterate hatred and intolerant pursuit; it will be a strange name in my ears, believe me.

[Charles Dickens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens.md) · [Martin Chuzzlewit](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/martin-chuzzlewit.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/martin-chuzzlewit/i-believe-no-satirist.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [criticism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/criticism.md)

> If its individual citizens, to a man, are to be believed, it always is depressed, and always is stagnated, and always is at an alarming crisis, and never was otherwise; though as a body, they are ready to make oath upon the Evangelists, at any hour of the day or night, that it is the most thriving and prosperous of all countries on the habitable globe.

[Charles Dickens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens.md) · [Martin Chuzzlewit](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/martin-chuzzlewit.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/martin-chuzzlewit/if-its-individual.md)

Topics: [irony](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> The paradox of race in America is that our common destiny is more pronounced and imperiled precisely when our divisions are deeper. (p4)

[Cornel West](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cornel-west.md) · [Race Matters](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cornel-west/race-matters.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cornel-west/race-matters/the-paradox-of-race.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [racism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/racism.md)

> Instead of fulfilling the promise of infinite orgastic bliss, sex in the America of the feminine mystique is becoming a strangely joyless national compulsion, if not a contemptuous mockery.

[Betty Friedan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/betty-friedan.md) · [The Feminine Mystique](https://www.leafyquotes.com/betty-friedan/the-feminine-mystique.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/betty-friedan/the-feminine-mystique/instead-of-fulfilling.md)

Topics: [women](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [sex](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sex.md)

> On the one side, the Mexican side, Mexican peasants are tantalized by the American possibility of change. On the other side, the American side, the tyranny of American optimism has driven Americans to neurosis and depression, when the dream is elusive or less meaningful than the myth promised. This constitutes the great irony of the Mexican-American border: American sadness has transformed the drug lords of Mexico into billionaires, even as the peasants of Mexico scramble through the darkness to find the American dream.

[Richard Rodriguez](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez.md) · [Darling](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/darling.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/darling/on-the-one.md)

Topics: [irony](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony.md), [dreams and aspirations](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> Americans are so individualistic, they do not realize their individualism is a communally derived value. The American I is deconstructed for me by Paolo, an architect who was raised in Bologna: "You Americans are not truly individualistic, you merely are lonely. In order to be individualistic, one must have a strong sense of oneself within a group." (The "we" is a precondition for saying "I.") Americans spend all their lives looking for a community: a chatroom, a church, a support group, a fetish magazine, a book club, a class action suit... illusions become real when we think they are real and act accordingly. Because Americans thought themselves free of plural pronouns, they began to act as free agents, thus to recreate history. Individuals drifted away from tribe or color or 'hood or hometown or card of explanation, where everyone knew who they were... Americans thus extended the American community by acting so individualistically, so anonymously.

[Richard Rodriguez](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez.md) · [Brown](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/brown.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/brown/americans-are-so-individualistic.md)

Topics: [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [individualism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/individualism.md)

> To watch people on their phones in a crowd is to notice how disconnected they seem; how unprepared for solitude they seem. Neurosis, yes. Novelty is the American neurosis.

[Richard Rodriguez](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez.md) · [Brown](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/brown.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/brown/to-watch-people.md)

Topics: [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [technology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> America is a faith, perhaps pancakes its sacrament. Opportunity comes to those who put away the disadvantages of family or circumstance and entrust themselves to the future. The point of the American story is simple enough for a child, particularly an immigrant child, to grasp: The past holds no sway in America.

[Richard Rodriguez](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez.md) · [Darling](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/darling.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/darling/america-is-a-faith.md)

Topics: [the past](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [emigration](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/emigration.md)

> Every generation of Americans since has had to reenact the loss of our innocence. Smog over L.A. was the loss of our innocence. Vietnam was the loss of our innocence. Gettysburg was the loss of our innocence. Ingrid Bergman’s baby was the loss of our innocence. Oklahoma City was the loss of our innocence. The World Trade Center was the loss of our innocence. Other nations are cynical. America has preferred the child’s game of “discovering” evil—Europe’s or Asia’s, her grandfather’s, even her own.

[Richard Rodriguez](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez.md) · [Brown](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/brown.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/brown/every-generation-of-americans.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [innocence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/innocence.md)

> Anti-intellectualism … first got its strong grip on our ways of thinking because it was fostered by an evangelical religion that also purveyed many humane and democratic sentiments. It made its way into our politics because it became associated with our passion for equality. It has become formidable in our education partly because our educational beliefs are evangelically egalitarian. Hence, as far as possible, our anti-intellectualism must be excised from the benevolent impulses upon which it lives by constant and delicate acts of intellectual surgery which spare these impulses themselves.

[Richard Hofstadter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-hofstadter.md) · [Anti-Intellectualism in American Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-hofstadter/anti-intellectualism-in-american-life.md) · p. 22 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-hofstadter/anti-intellectualism-in-american-life/anti-intellectualism-first-got.md)

Topics: [intelligence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/intelligence.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [equality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/equality.md)

> The intellectual’s … playfulness, in its various manifestations, is likely to seem to most men a perverse luxury; in the United States the play of the mind is perhaps the only form of play that is not looked upon with the most tender indulgence. His piety is likely to seem nettlesome, if not actually dangerous. And neither quality is considered to contribute very much to the practical business of life.

[Richard Hofstadter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-hofstadter.md) · [Anti-Intellectualism in American Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-hofstadter/anti-intellectualism-in-american-life.md) · p. 33 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-hofstadter/anti-intellectualism-in-american-life/the-intellectuals-playfulness.md)

Topics: [intelligence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/intelligence.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> The British are the only people in history crass enough to have made revolutionaries out of Americans.

[Shashi Tharoor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shashi-tharoor.md) · [The Great Indian Novel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shashi-tharoor/the-great-indian-novel.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shashi-tharoor/the-great-indian-novel/the-british-are.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> It will be a great day for America, incidentally, when we begin to eat bread again, instead of the blasphemous and tasteless foam rubber that we have substituted for it. And I am not being frivolous here, either. Something very sinister happens to the people of a country when they begin to distrust their own reactions as deeply as they do here, and become as joyless as they have become.

[James Baldwin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-baldwin.md) · [The Fire Next Time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-baldwin/the-fire-next-time.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-baldwin/the-fire-next-time/it-will-be-a-great.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [joy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/joy.md)

> Full disclosure: I do not have absolute faith in the judgment and wisdom of the American people. We're all human, and we can all be misled. When leaders don't level with citizens, we can't expect them to make good judgments. But I do have absolute faith in the heart of the American people. The greatest resource in this country is the grit, the resolve, the courage, the basic decency, and the stubborn pride of its citizens.

[Joe Biden](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joe-biden.md) · [Promises to Keep](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joe-biden/promises-to-keep.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joe-biden/promises-to-keep/full-disclosure-i-do-not.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> In Amerika, there is the nearly—or so it appears—that sex (fucking) is good and that liking it is right: morally right; a sign of human health; nearly a standard for citizenship. Even those who believe in original sin and have a theology of hellfire and damnation express the Amerikan creed, an optimism that glows in the dark: sex is good, healthy, wholesome, pleasant fun; we like it, we enjoy it, we want it, we are cheerful abut it; it is as simple as we are, the citizens of this strange country with no memory and no mind.

[Andrea Dworkin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/andrea-dworkin.md) · [Intercourse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/andrea-dworkin/intercourse.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/andrea-dworkin/intercourse/in-amerika-there.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [sex](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sex.md)

> God.. crack. Only in America would a guy invent crack. Only in America would there be a guy that cocaine wasn't good enough for. You know? One guy walking around New York City back in 1985 going, "You know, that cocaine's pretty good, but I want something that makes my heart explode as soon as I smoke it, ok? I want to take one suck off that crack pipe and go *snort* *splat* Now I'm happy! I'm dead, the ultimate high!"

[Denis Leary](https://www.leafyquotes.com/denis-leary.md) · [No Cure for Cancer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/denis-leary/no-cure-for-cancer.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/denis-leary/no-cure-for-cancer/god-crack-only.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [drugs](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/drugs.md)

> Not greatly gifted, not deeply beautiful, Madonna tells America that fame comes from wanting it badly enough. And everyone is terribly good at badly wanting things.

[Martin Amis](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-amis.md) · [Visiting Mrs Nabokov And Other Excursions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-amis/visiting-mrs-nabokov-and-other-excursions.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-amis/visiting-mrs-nabokov-and-other-excursions/not-greatly-gifted.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [fame](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fame.md)

> Never content just to be, America is also obliged to mean; America signifies, hence its constant and riveting vulnerability to illusion.

[Martin Amis](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-amis.md) · [Visiting Mrs Nabokov And Other Excursions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-amis/visiting-mrs-nabokov-and-other-excursions.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-amis/visiting-mrs-nabokov-and-other-excursions/never-content-just.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [illusions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions-2.md)

> Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops. (p. 39)

[Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [Slaughterhouse-Five](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/slaughterhouse-five.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/slaughterhouse-five/like-so-many.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [consumerism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consumerism.md)

> Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue, the monograph went on. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say, Napoleonic times. (p. 129)

[Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [Slaughterhouse-Five](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/slaughterhouse-five.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/slaughterhouse-five/americans-like-human.md)

Topics: [money](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [poverty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poverty.md)

> In America, nostalgia for things is apt to set in before they go.

[Robert Hughes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes.md) · [Nothing If Not Critical](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes/nothing-if-not-critical.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes/nothing-if-not-critical/in-america-nostalgia.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [nostalgia](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia.md)

> No author, without a trial, can conceive of the difficulty of writing a romance about a country where there is no shadow, no antiquity, no mystery, no picturesque and gloomy wrong, nor anything but a commonplace prosperity, in broad and simple daylight, as is happily the case with my dear native land. It will be very long, I trust, before romance writers may find congenial and easily handled themes, either in the annals of our stalwart republic, or in any characteristic and probable events of our individual lives. Romance and poetry, ivy, lichens and wallflowers need ruin to make them grow.

[Nathaniel Hawthorne](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nathaniel-hawthorne.md) · [The Marble Faun](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nathaniel-hawthorne/the-marble-faun.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nathaniel-hawthorne/the-marble-faun/no-author-without.md)

Topics: [writing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> Once this was a nation of farmers, builders, inventors, creators, explorers, and thinkers. Now we are a nation of bubblehead academic poseurs, race-guilt hucksters, and keening middle-class "victims" of imaginary wrongs.

[John Derbyshire](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-derbyshire.md) · [We Are Doomed](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-derbyshire/we-are-doomed.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-derbyshire/we-are-doomed/once-this-was.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> This is America, you live in it, you let it happen. Let it unfurl.

[Thomas Pynchon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon.md) · [The Crying of Lot 49](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/the-crying-of-lot-49.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/the-crying-of-lot-49/this-is-america.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> "If the U.S. was a person," he later became fond of saying, "and it sat down, Columbus, Ohio would instantly be plunged into darkness"

[Thomas Pynchon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon.md) · [Against the Day](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/against-the-day.md) · p. 66 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/against-the-day/if-the-u-s.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> He had the true American taste for argument, argument as distinguished from conversation on the one hand and from oratory on the other. The long-drawn-out, meandering debate was, perhaps, the only art form he understood or relished, and this was natural since the argument is in a sense our only indigenous folk-art, and it is not the poet but the silver-tongued lawyer who is our real national bard.

[Mary McCarthy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-mccarthy.md) · [The Company She Keeps](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-mccarthy/the-company-she-keeps.md) · p. 141 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-mccarthy/the-company-she-keeps/he-had-the.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [conversation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conversation.md)

> What's more American than violence?" Hayduke wanted to know. "Violence, it's as American as pizza pie.

[Edward Abbey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey.md) · [The Monkey Wrench Gang](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/the-monkey-wrench-gang.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/the-monkey-wrench-gang/whats-more-american.md)

Topics: [violence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> The United States is a very different thing. It's a continent-spanning nation built from scratch by millions of immigrants from every part of the world on top of its native population.

[Garry Kasparov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/garry-kasparov.md) · [Winter Is Coming](https://www.leafyquotes.com/garry-kasparov/winter-is-coming.md) · p. 42 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/garry-kasparov/winter-is-coming/the-united-states.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> She watches Marvy's face as he pays Monika, watches him in this primal American act, paying, more deeply himself than when coming, or asleep, or maybe even dying.

[Thomas Pynchon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon.md) · [Gravity's Rainbow](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/gravitys-rainbow.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/gravitys-rainbow/she-watches-marvys.md)

Topics: [money](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> Nothing will avail to offset this virus which is poisoning the whole world. America is the very incarnation of doom. She will drag the whole world down to the bottomless pit.

[Henry Miller](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-miller.md) · [Tropic of Cancer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-miller/tropic-of-cancer.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-miller/tropic-of-cancer/nothing-will-avail.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> The White Protestant's ultimate sympathy must be with science, factology, and committee rather than with sex, birth, heat, flesh, creation, the sweet and the funky; they must vote, manipulate, control, and direct, these Protestants who are the center of power in our land, they must go for what they believe is reason when it is only the Square logic of the past.

[Norman Mailer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer.md) · [Advertisements for Myself](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/advertisements-for-myself.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/advertisements-for-myself/the-white-protestants.md)

Topics: [power](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> America is a hurricane, and the only people who do not hear the sound are those fortunate if incredibly stupid and smug White Protestants who live in the center, in the serene eye of the big wind.

[Norman Mailer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer.md) · [Advertisements for Myself](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/advertisements-for-myself.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/advertisements-for-myself/america-is-a-hurricane.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multi-cultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat.

[Zbigniew Brzezinski](https://www.leafyquotes.com/zbigniew-brzezinski.md) · [The Grand Chessboard](https://www.leafyquotes.com/zbigniew-brzezinski/the-grand-chessboard.md) · p. 211 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/zbigniew-brzezinski/the-grand-chessboard/moreover-as-america.md)

Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> To put it very simply, anyone can become an American, but only a Chinese can be Chinese - and that places an additional and significant barrier in the way of any essentially national global hegemony.

[Zbigniew Brzezinski](https://www.leafyquotes.com/zbigniew-brzezinski.md) · [The Grand Chessboard](https://www.leafyquotes.com/zbigniew-brzezinski/the-grand-chessboard.md) · p. 210 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/zbigniew-brzezinski/the-grand-chessboard/to-put-it-very.md)

Topics: [identity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> In the long run, global politics are bound to become increasingly uncongenial to the concentration of hegemonic power in the hands of a single state. Hence America is not only the first, as well as the only, truly global superpower, but is also likely to be the very last.

[Zbigniew Brzezinski](https://www.leafyquotes.com/zbigniew-brzezinski.md) · [The Grand Chessboard](https://www.leafyquotes.com/zbigniew-brzezinski/the-grand-chessboard.md) · p. 209 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/zbigniew-brzezinski/the-grand-chessboard/in-the-long.md)

Topics: [power](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> The language of the internet is English, and an overwhelming proportion of the global computer chatter also originates from America, influencing the content of global conversation.

[Zbigniew Brzezinski](https://www.leafyquotes.com/zbigniew-brzezinski.md) · [The Grand Chessboard](https://www.leafyquotes.com/zbigniew-brzezinski/the-grand-chessboard.md) · p. 25 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/zbigniew-brzezinski/the-grand-chessboard/the-language-of-the.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [the internet](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-internet.md)

> The scope of America's global hegemony is admittedly great, but its depth is shallow, limited by both domestic and external restraints.

[Zbigniew Brzezinski](https://www.leafyquotes.com/zbigniew-brzezinski.md) · [The Grand Chessboard](https://www.leafyquotes.com/zbigniew-brzezinski/the-grand-chessboard.md) · p. 35 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/zbigniew-brzezinski/the-grand-chessboard/the-scope-of-americas.md)

Topics: [power](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> While some multimillionaires started in poverty, most did not. A study of the origins of 303 textile, railroad and steel executives of the 1870s showed that 90 percent came from middle- or upper-class families. The Horatio Alger stories of "rags to riches" were true for a few men, but mostly a myth, and a useful myth for control.

[Howard Zinn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/howard-zinn.md) · [A People's History of the United States](https://www.leafyquotes.com/howard-zinn/a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/howard-zinn/a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states/while-some-multimillionaires.md)

Topics: [wealth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wealth.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> In America, if your addiction isn't always new and improved, you're a failure.

[Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Choke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/choke.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/choke/in-america-if-your.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [addiction](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/addiction.md)

> If we had to name the one cultural current that most characterizes America in the twentieth century, it might be the work of Freud and the disciplines that grew out of it.

[Shulamith Firestone](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shulamith-firestone.md) · [The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shulamith-firestone/the-dialectic-of-sex-the-case-for-feminist-revolution.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shulamith-firestone/the-dialectic-of-sex-the-case-for-feminist-revolution/if-we-had.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [feminism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/feminism.md), [psychology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/psychology.md)

> Now here’s a thought to consider. Every twenty minutes on the Appalachian Trail, Katz and I walked farther than the average American does in a week. For 93 percent of all trips outside the home, for whatever distance or whatever purpose, Americans now get in a car. On average the total walking of an American these days—that’s walking of all types: from car to office, from office to car, around the supermarket and shopping malls—adds up to 1.4 miles a week, barely 350 yards a day. That’s ridiculous.

[Bill Bryson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson.md) · [A Walk in the Woods](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson/a-walk-in-the-woods.md) · p. 128 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson/a-walk-in-the-woods/now-heres-a-thought.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> America was entering the age not just of the automobile but of the retarded attention span.

[Bill Bryson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson.md) · [A Walk in the Woods](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson/a-walk-in-the-woods.md) · p. 234 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson/a-walk-in-the-woods/america-was-entering.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> The last time anybody made a list of the top hundred character attributes of New Yorkers, common sense snuck in at number 79.

[Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [Mostly Harmless](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/mostly-harmless.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/mostly-harmless/the-last-time.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> We haven't accepted — we can't really believe — that the most characteristic product of our age of scientific miracles is junk, but that is so. And we still think and behave as though we face an unspoiled continent, with thousands of acres of living space for every man. We still sing "America the Beautiful" as though we had not created in it, by strenuous effort, at great expense, and with dauntless self-praise, an unprecedented ugliness.

[Wendell Berry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry.md) · [The Long-Legged House](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/the-long-legged-house.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/the-long-legged-house/we-havent-accepted.md)

Topics: [ecology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> A village in a country which is taking pains to become altogether standardized and pure, which aspires to succeed Victorian England as the chief mediocrity of the world, is no longer merely provincial, no longer downy and restful in its leaf-shadowed ignorance. It is a force seeking to conquer the earth... Sure of itself, it bullies other civilizations, as a traveling salesman in a brown derby conquers the wisdom of China and tacks advertisements of cigarettes over arches for centuries dedicate to the sayings of Confucius. Such a society functions admirably in the production of cheap automobiles, dollar watches, and safety razors. But it is not satisfied until the entire world also admits that the end and joyous purpose of living is to ride in flivvers, to make advertising-pictures of dollar watches, and in the twilight to sit talking not of love and courage but of the convenience of safety razors.

[Sinclair Lewis](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sinclair-lewis.md) · [Main Street](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sinclair-lewis/main-street.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sinclair-lewis/main-street/a-village-in-a-country.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [consumerism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consumerism.md)

> What you have to do is enter the fiction of America, enter America as fiction. It is, indeed, on this fictive basis that it dominates the world.

[Jean Baudrillard](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-baudrillard.md) · [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-baudrillard/america.md) · p. 29 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-baudrillard/america/what-you-have.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry.

[F.Scott Fitzgerald](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald.md) · [The Great Gatsby](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/the-great-gatsby.md) · p. 88 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/the-great-gatsby/americans-while-occasionally.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> 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.

[J. William Fulbright](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-william-fulbright.md) · [The Arrogance of Power](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-william-fulbright/the-arrogance-of-power.md) · p. 245 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-william-fulbright/the-arrogance-of-power/there-are-two.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> “Californians invented the concept of lifestyle. This alone warrants their doom.” – Alfonse

[Don DeLillo](https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo.md) · [White Noise](https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/white-noise.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/white-noise/californians-invented-the.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> Sheep were docile, yes, but vigilant. Unlike many people, sheep were always aware that predators existed and were alert for the scent and the schemes of wolves.
>
> Contemporary Americans were so proseperous, so happily distracted by such a richness of vivid entertainments, they were reluctant to have their fun diminished by acknowledging that anything existed with fangs and fierce appetites. If now and then they recognized a wolf, they threw a bone to it and convinced themselves it was a dog.

[Dean Koontz](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dean-koontz.md) · [The Good Guy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dean-koontz/the-good-guy.md) · p. 52 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dean-koontz/the-good-guy/sheep-were-docile.md)

Topics: [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> Bobby noticed two colorful charts posted on the wall near the refrigerator. The first displayed each kid's grades and major test results since the start of the school year in September. The other was a list of household chores for which each child was responsible. … Some attributed Asian-Americans' success to a conspiracy, but Bobby saw the simple explanation for their achievements everywhere in the Phan house: They tried harder. They embraced the ideals upon which the country had been based — including hard work, honesty, goal-oriented self-denial, and the freedom to be whatever one wanted to be. Ironically, their great success was partly due to the fact that so many born Americans had become cynical about those same ideals.

[Dean Koontz](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dean-koontz.md) · [The Bad Place](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dean-koontz/the-bad-place.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dean-koontz/the-bad-place/bobby-noticed-two.md)

Topics: [work](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> The task of an American writer is not to describe the misgivings of a woman taken in adultery as she looks out of a window at the rain but to describe four hundred people under the lights reaching for a foul ball. This is ceremony.

[John Cheever](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-cheever.md) · [The Journals of John Cheever](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-cheever/the-journals-of-john-cheever.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-cheever/the-journals-of-john-cheever/the-task-of-an-american.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [writers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writers.md)

> Texas is a state of mind. Texas is an obsession. Above all, Texas is a nation in every sense of the word. And there’s an opening covey of generalities. A Texan outside of Texas is a foreigner.

[John Steinbeck](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck.md) · [Travels with Charley in Search of America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/travels-with-charley-in-search-of-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/travels-with-charley-in-search-of-america/texas-is-a-state.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> There used to be a thing or a commodity we put great store by. It was called the People. Find out where the People have gone. I don’t mean the square-eyed toothpaste-and-hair-dye people or the new-car-or-bust people, or the success-and-coronary people. Maybe they never existed, but if there ever were the People, that’s the commodity the Declaration was talking about, and Mr. Lincoln.

[John Steinbeck](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck.md) · [Travels with Charley in Search of America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/travels-with-charley-in-search-of-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/travels-with-charley-in-search-of-america/there-used-to.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> This monster of a land, this mightiest of nations, this spawn of the future, turns out to be the macrocosm of microcosm me.

[John Steinbeck](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck.md) · [Travels with Charley in Search of America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/travels-with-charley-in-search-of-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/travels-with-charley-in-search-of-america/this-monster-of-a-land.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> 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.

[John Steinbeck](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck.md) · [East of Eden](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/east-of-eden.md) · p. 568 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/east-of-eden/all-colors-and.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> God's country. He could have made it smaller and still made the same point.

[John Hoyer Updike](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike.md) · [Rabbit at Rest](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-at-rest.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-at-rest/gods-country-he-could.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> "Driving is boring," Rabbit pontificates, "but it's what we do. Most of American life is driving somewhere and then driving back wondering why the hell you went."

[John Hoyer Updike](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike.md) · [Rabbit at Rest](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-at-rest.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-at-rest/driving-is-boring.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> There is no pleasing New Englanders, my dear, their soil is all rocks and their hearts are bloodless absolutes.

[John Hoyer Updike](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike.md) · [Buchanan Dying](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/buchanan-dying.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/buchanan-dying/there-is-no-pleasing.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> The artistic triumph of American Jewry lay, he thought, not in the novels of the 1950s but in the movies of the 1930s, those gargantuan, crass contraptions whereby Jewish brains projected Gentile stars upon a Gentile nation and out of their own immigrant joy gave a formless land dreams and even a kind of conscience.

[John Hoyer Updike](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike.md) · [Bech: A Book](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/bech-a-book.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/bech-a-book/the-artistic-triumph.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [cinema](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cinema.md)

> There was a beauty here, refined from country pastures, a game of solitariness, of waiting, waiting for the pitcher to complete his gaze toward first base and throw his lightning, a game whose very taste, of spit and dust and grass and sweat and leather and sun, was America.

[John Hoyer Updike](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike.md) · [Rabbit Redux](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-redux.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-redux/there-was-a-beauty.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [sport](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sport.md)

> It was one of history’s great love stories, the mutually profitable romance which Hollywood and bohunk America conducted almost in the dark, a tapping of fervent messages through the wall of the San Gabriel Range.

[John Hoyer Updike](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike.md) · [Bech: A Book](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/bech-a-book.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/bech-a-book/it-was-one.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [cinema](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cinema.md)

> The air of the New World seems favorable to the art of declamation.

[Joseph Conrad](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad.md) · [Nostromo](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/nostromo.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/nostromo/the-air-of-the.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism. The beloved Echo of our ancestors, the virgin America. has been abandoned. We have fallen in love with our own image, with images of our making, which turn out to be images of ourselves.

[Daniel J. Boorstin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin.md) · [The Image](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin/the-image.md) · p. 257 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin/the-image/as-individuals-and.md)

Topics: [appearances](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/appearances.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> Of all nations in the world, the United States was built in nobody's image. It was the land of the unexpected, of unbounded hope, of ideals, of quest for an unknown perfection. It is all the more unfitting that we should offer ourselves in images. And all the more fitting that the images which we make wittingly or unwittingly to sell America to the world should come back to haunt and curse us.

[Daniel J. Boorstin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin.md) · [The Image](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin/the-image.md) · p. 245 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin/the-image/of-all-nations.md)

Topics: [appearances](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/appearances.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> Yes, their cities are good. They knew how to blend art into their living. It’s always been a thing apart for Americans. Art was something you kept in the crazy son’s room upstairs. Art was something you took in Sunday doses, mixed with religion, perhaps. Well, these Martians have art and religion and everything.

[Ray Bradbury](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ray-bradbury.md) · [The Martian Chronicles](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ray-bradbury/the-martian-chronicles.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ray-bradbury/the-martian-chronicles/yes-their-cities.md)

Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [art](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> That phrase, "loss of innocence," has become stale with overuse and diminishing returns; no other culture is so addicted to this narcissistic impression of itself as having any innocence to lose in the first place.

[Christopher Hitchens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens.md) · [Unacknowledged Legislation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/unacknowledged-legislation.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/unacknowledged-legislation/that-phrase-loss.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> The United States has an isolationist and insular culture, combined with a global and interventionist posture. This highly dangerous and febrile mixture, which greatly facilitates the task of the fear-mongers and chauvinists, needs a very exact and nuanced diagnosis. I don't think that analogies from the totalitarian model, however suggestive, are sufficient.

[Christopher Hitchens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens.md) · [For the Sake of Argument](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/for-the-sake-of-argument.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/for-the-sake-of-argument/the-united-states.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> The highest treason in the USA is to say Americans are not loved, no matter where they are, no matter what they are doing there.

[Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [A Man Without a Country](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/a-man-without-a-country.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/a-man-without-a-country/the-highest-treason.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [patriotism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/patriotism.md)

> I thought Beatrice Keedsler had joined hands with other old-fashioned storytellers to make people believe that life had leading characters, minor characters, significant details, insignificant details, that it had lessons to be learned, tests to be passed, and a beginning, a middle, and an end.As I approached my fiftieth birthday, I had become more and more enraged and mystified by the idiot decisions made by my countrymen. And then I had come suddenly to pity them, for I understood how innocent and natural it was for them to behave so abominably, and with such abominable results: They were doing their best to live like people invented in story books. This was the reason Americans shot each other so often: It was a convenient literary device for ending short stories and books.Why were so many Americans treated by their government as though their lives were as disposable as paper facial tissues? Because that was the way authors customarily treated bit-part players in their madeup tales.And so on.Once I understood what was making America such a dangerous, unhappy nation of people who had nothing to do with real life, I resolved to shun storytelling. I would write about life. Every person would be exactly as important as any other. All facts would also be given equal weightiness. Nothing would be left out. Let others bring order to chaos. I would bring chaos to order, instead, which I think I have done.If all writers would do that, then perhaps citizens not in the literary trades will understand that there is no order in the world around us, that we must adapt ourselves to the requirements of chaos instead.It is hard to adapt to chaos, but it can be done. I am living proof of that: It can be done.

[Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [Breakfast of Champions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/breakfast-of-champions.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/breakfast-of-champions/i-thought-beatrice.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [chaos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chaos.md), [storytelling](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/storytelling.md)

> A lot of the people on the wrecked planet were Communists. They had a theory that what was left of the planet should be shared more or less equally among all the people, who hadn't asked to come to a wrecked planet in the first place. Meanwhile, more babies were arriving all the time—kicking and screaming, yelling for milk.
>
> In some places people would actually try to eat mud or such on gravel while babies were being born just a few feet away.
>
> And so on.
>
> Dwayne Hoover's and Kilgore Trout's country, where there was still plenty of everything, was opposed to Communism. It didn't think that Earthlings who had a lot should share it with others unless they really wanted to, and most of them didn't want to.
>
> So they didn't have to.

[Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [Breakfast of Champions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/breakfast-of-champions.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/breakfast-of-champions/a-lot-of-the.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [poverty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poverty.md), [communism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/communism.md)

> Thus did a handful of rapacious citizens come to control all that was worth controlling in America. Thus was the savage and stupid and entirely inappropriate and unnecessary and humorless American class system created. Honest, industrious, peaceful citizens were classed as bloodsuckers, if they asked to be paid a living wage. And they saw that praise was reserved henceforth for those who devised means of getting paid enormously for committing crimes against which no laws had been passed. Thus the American dream turned belly up, turned green, bobbed to the scummy surface of cupidity unlimited, filled with gas, went bang in the noonday sun.

[Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/god-bless-you-mr-rosewater.md) · p. 4 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/god-bless-you-mr-rosewater/thus-did-a-handful.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [greed](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/greed.md), [social inequality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/social-inequality.md)

> Americans... are forever searching for love in forms it never takes, in places it can never be. It must have something to do with the vanished frontier.

[Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [Cat's Cradle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/cats-cradle.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/cats-cradle/americans-are-forever.md)

Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> ... I was very upset about how Americans couldn’t imagine what it was like to be something else, to be something else and proud of it.

[Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [Cat's Cradle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/cats-cradle.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/cats-cradle/i-was-very.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [being different](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/being-different.md)

> "The highest possible form of treason," said [Horlick] Minton, "is to say that Americans aren't loved wherever they go, whatever they do. Claire tried to make the point that American foreign policy should recognize hate rather than imagine love.""I guess Americans are hated a lot of places.""People are hated a lot of places. Claire pointed out ... that Americans, in being hated, were simply paying the normal penalty for being people, and that they were foolish to think they should somehow be exempted from that penalty. But the loyalty board didn't pay any attention to that. All they knew was that Claire and I both felt that Americans were unloved."

[Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [Cat's Cradle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/cats-cradle.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/cats-cradle/the-highest-possible.md)

Topics: [hatred](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hatred.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [patriotism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/patriotism.md)

> Son—they say there isn't any royalty in this country, but do you want me to tell you how to be king of the United States of America? Just fall through the hole in a privy and come out smelling like a rose.

[Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [The Sirens of Titan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/the-sirens-of-titan.md) · p. 65 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/the-sirens-of-titan/son-they-say-there.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> Paul wondered at what thorough believers in mechanization most Americans were, even when their lives had been badly damaged by mechanization.

[Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [Player Piano](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/player-piano.md) · p. 241 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/player-piano/paul-wondered-at-what.md)

Topics: [technology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> The policies — determining who would be drafted and who would be deferred, who would serve and who would escape, who would die and who would live — were an antidemocratic disgrace ... I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well placed ... managed to wangle slots in reserve and National Guard units. Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to their country.

[Colin Powell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/colin-powell.md) · [My American Journey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/colin-powell/my-american-journey.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/colin-powell/my-american-journey/the-policies-determining.md)

Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [social inequality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/social-inequality.md)

> That's the American Dream: to make your life into something you can sell.

[Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Haunted](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/haunted.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/haunted/thats-the-american.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [consumerism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consumerism.md)

> If you haven’t already noticed, all my books are about a lonely person looking for some way to connect with other people.
>
> In a way, that is the opposite of the American Dream: to get so rich you can rise above the rabble, all those people on the freeway or, worse, the bus.

[Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Stranger Than Fiction](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/stranger-than-fiction.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/stranger-than-fiction/if-you-havent.md)

Topics: [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> In the case of European towns, the passing of centuries provides an enhancement; in the case of American towns, the passing of years brings degeneration. It is not simply that they have been newly built; they were built so as to be renewable as quickly as they were put up, that is, badly.

[Claude Lévi-Strauss](https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss.md) · [Tristes Tropiques](https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss/tristes-tropiques.md) · p. 95 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss/tristes-tropiques/in-the-case.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md)

> Businessmen are the one group that distinguishes capitalism and the American way of life from the totalitarian statism that is swallowing the rest of the world. All the other social groups- workers, farmers, professional men, scientists, soldiers- exist under dictatorships, even though they exist in chains, in terror, in misery, and in progressive self-destruction. But there is no such group as businessmen under a dictatorship. Their place is taken by armed thugs: by bureaucrats and commissars. Businessmen are the symbol of a free society- the symbol of America.

[Ayn Rand](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand.md) · [Capitalism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/capitalism.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/capitalism/businessmen-are-the.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [tyranny](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tyranny.md), [business](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/business.md)

> It took centuries of intellectual, philosophical development to achieve political freedom. It was a long struggle, stretching from Aristotle to John Locke to the Founding Fathers. The system they established was not based on unlimited majority rule, but on its opposite: on individual rights, which were not to be alienated by majority vote or minority plotting. The individual was not left at the mercy of his neighbors or his leaders: the Constitutional system of checks and balances was scientifically devised to protect him from both. This was the great American achievement—and if concern for the actual welfare of other nations were our present leaders' motive, this is what we should have been teaching the world.

[Ayn Rand](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand.md) · [Capitalism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/capitalism.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/capitalism/it-took-centuries.md)

Topics: [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [human rights](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-rights.md)

> America's abundance was created not by public sacrifices to the common good, but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. They did not starve the people to pay for America's industrialization. They gave the people better jobs, higher wages, and cheaper goods with every new machine they invented, with every scientific discovery or technological advance- and thus the whole country was moving forward and profiting, not suffering, every step of the way.

[Ayn Rand](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand.md) · [Capitalism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/capitalism.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/capitalism/americas-abundance-was.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [capitalism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capitalism.md)

> The skyline of New York is a monument of a splendor that no pyramids or palaces will ever equal or approach.

[Ayn Rand](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand.md) · [The Virtue of Selfishness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-virtue-of-selfishness.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-virtue-of-selfishness/the-skyline-of-new.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities.md)

> The rudeness of many Americans depressed him, a rudeness based on a solid ignorance of the whole concept of manners, and on the proposition that for social purposes, all people are more or less equal and interchangeable.

[William S. Burroughs](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-s-burroughs.md) · [Queer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-s-burroughs/queer.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-s-burroughs/queer/the-rudeness-of-many.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [equality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/equality.md), [culture](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture.md)

> Americans have a special horror of giving up control, of letting things happen in their own way without interference. They would like to jump down into their stomachs and digest the food and shovel the shit out.

[William S. Burroughs](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-s-burroughs.md) · [Naked Lunch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-s-burroughs/naked-lunch.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-s-burroughs/naked-lunch/americans-have-a-special.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> America is not a young land: it is old and dirty and evil before the settlers, before the Indians. The evil is there waiting.

[William S. Burroughs](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-s-burroughs.md) · [Naked Lunch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-s-burroughs/naked-lunch.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-s-burroughs/naked-lunch/america-is-not.md)

Topics: [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> When I was a little kid in Oregon I didn't feel that I was an American at all, with all that suburban ideal and sex repression and general dreary newspaper gray censorship of all our real human values but and when I discovered Buddhism and all I suddenly felt that I had lived in a previous lifetime innumerable ages ago and now because of faults and sins in that lifetime I was being degraded to a more grievous domain of existence and my karma was to be born in America where nobody has any fun or believes in anything, especially freedom.

[Jack Kerouac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac.md) · [The Dharma Bums](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac/the-dharma-bums.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac/the-dharma-bums/when-i-was.md)

Topics: [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [Buddhism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/buddhism.md)

> So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, and all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars'll be out, and don't you know that God is Pooh Bear? the evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all the rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what's going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty.

[Jack Kerouac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac.md) · [On the Road](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac/on-the-road.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac/on-the-road/so-in-america-when.md)

Topics: [old age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?

[Jack Kerouac](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac.md) · [On the Road](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac/on-the-road.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac/on-the-road/whither-goest-thou.md)

Topics: [travel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/travel.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> America had declared war with Spain.... It did not require much political wisdom to see that America's concern was a matter of sugar and had nothing to do with humanitarian feelings. Of course there were plenty of credulous people, not only in the country at large, but even in liberal ranks, who believed in America's claim. I could not join them. I was sure that no one, be it individual or government, engaged in enslaving and exploiting at home, could have the integrity or the desire to free people in other lands. (p. 226)

[Emma Goldman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-goldman.md) · [Living My Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-goldman/living-my-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-goldman/living-my-life/america-had-declared.md)

Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [hypocrisy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hypocrisy.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> The history of other cultures is non-existent until it erupts in confrontation with the United States.

[Edward W. Said](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said.md) · [Culture and Imperialism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/culture-and-imperialism.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/culture-and-imperialism/the-history-of-other.md)

Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> ...American society, literary or lay, tends to be humorless. What other culture could have produced someone like Hemingway and not seen the joke?

[Gore Vidal](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal.md) · [United States](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/united-states.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/united-states/american-society-literary.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> Nothing that Shakespeare ever invented was to equal Lincoln's invention of himself and, in the process, us.

[Gore Vidal](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal.md) · [United States](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/united-states.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/united-states/nothing-that-shakespeare.md)

Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> The average "educated" American has been made to believe that, somehow, the United States must lead the world even though hardly anyone has any information at all about those countries we are meant to lead. Worse, we have very little information about our own country and its past. That is why it is not really possible to compare a writer like Howells with any living American writer because Howells thought that it was a good thing to know as much as possible about his own country as well as other countries while our writers today, in common with the presidents and paint manufacturers, live in a present without past among signs whose meanings are uninterpretable.

[Gore Vidal](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal.md) · [At Home](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/at-home.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/at-home/the-average-educated.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [ignorance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ignorance.md)

> The last best hope on earth, two trillion dollars in debt, is spinning out of control, and all we can do is stare at a flickering cathode-ray tube as Ollie "answers" questions on TV while the press, resolutely irrelevant as ever, asks politicians if they have committed adultery. From V-J Day 1945 to this has been, my fellow countrymen, a perfect nightmare.

[Gore Vidal](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal.md) · [At Home](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/at-home.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/at-home/the-last-best.md)

Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> The more money an American accumulates the less interesting he himself becomes.

[Gore Vidal](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal.md) · [Homage to Daniel Shays](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/homage-to-daniel-shays.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/homage-to-daniel-shays/the-more-money.md)

Topics: [money](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> For more than three decades the Americans had been gradually sliding into isolationism and industrial decline. Space, he thought ruefully, they should have gone into space. He'd never understood the strange paralysis of will that had seemed to grip their brilliant early efforts. Or perhaps it was simply a failure of imagination, of vision.

[William Gibson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson.md) · [Burning Chrome](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/burning-chrome.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/burning-chrome/for-more-than.md)

Topics: [imagination](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/imagination.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> If there ever are great revolutions there, they will be caused by the presence of the blacks upon American soil. That is to say, it will not be the equality of social conditions but rather their inequality which may give rise thereto.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/if-there-ever.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [revolution](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/revolution.md), [social inequality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/social-inequality.md)

> Two things in America are astonishing: the changeableness of most human behavior and the strange stability of certain principles. Men are constantly on the move, but the spirit of humanity seems almost unmoved.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/two-things-in-america.md)

Topics: [change](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> There are at the present time two great nations in the world—allude to the Russians and the Americans— All other nations seem to have nearly reached their national limits, and have only to maintain their power; these alone are proceeding—along a path to which no limit can be perceived.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/there-are-at-the.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [Russia](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/russia.md)

> In America the majority raises formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion; within these barriers an author may write what he pleases, but woe to him if he goes beyond them.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/in-america-the.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [censorship](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/censorship.md), [public opinion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/public-opinion.md)

> I have no hesitation in saying that although the American woman never leaves her domestic sphere and is in some respects very dependent within it, nowhere does she enjoy a higher station. And if anyone asks me what I think the chief cause of the extraordinary prosperity and growing power of this nation, I should answer that it is due to the superiority of their women.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/i-have-no-hesitation.md)

Topics: [women](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> The First thing that strikes a traveler in the United States is the innumerable multitude of those who seek to emerge from their original condition; and the second is the rarity of lofty ambition to be observed in the midst of the universally ambitious stir of society. No Americans are devoid of a yearning desire to rise, but hardly any appear to entertain hopes of great magnitude or to pursue very lofty aims. All are constantly seeking to acquire property, power, and reputation.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/the-first-thing.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [ambition](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ambition.md)

> In America, more than anywhere else in the world, care has been taken constantly to trace clearly distinct spheres of action for the two sexes, and both are required to keep in step, but along paths that are never the same.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/in-america-more.md)

Topics: [women](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [men](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/men.md)

> They all attributed the peaceful dominion of religion in their country mainly to the separation of church and state. I do not hesitate to affirm that during my stay in America I did not meet a single individual, of the clergy or the laity, who was not of the same opinion on this point.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/they-all-attributed.md)

Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [the state](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-state.md)

> I once met an American sailor and asked him why his country's ships are made so that they will not last long. He answered offhand that the art of navigation was making such quick progress that even the best of boats would be almost useless if it lasted more than a few years.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/i-once-met.md)

Topics: [technology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> There is hardly a pioneer's hut which does not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare. I remember reading the feudal drama of Henry V for the first time in a log cabin.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/there-is-hardly.md)

Topics: [reading](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> In the United States a man builds a house to spend his latter years in it and he sells it before the roof is on. He plants a garden and lets it just as the trees are coming into bearing. He brings a field into tillage and leaves other men to gather the crops. He embraces a profession and gives it up. He settles in a place which he soon afterward leaves to carry his changeable longings elsewhere. If his private affairs leave him any leisure he instantly plunges into the vortex of politics and if at the end of a year of unremitting labour he finds he has a few days' vacation, his eager curiosity whirls him over the vast extent of the United States, and he will travel fifteen hundred miles in a few days to shake off his happiness.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/in-the-united-states.md)

Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [haste](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/haste.md)

> It is easy to see that, even in the freedom of early youth, an American girl never quite loses control of herself; she enjoys all permitted pleasures without losing her head about any of them, and her reason never lets the reins go, though it may often seem to let them flap.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/it-is-easy.md)

Topics: [women](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> The whole life of an American is passed like a game of chance, a revolutionary crisis, or a battle.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/the-whole-life.md)

Topics: [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> The most formidable of all the ills that threaten the future of the Union arises from the presence of a black population upon its territory; and in contemplating the cause of the present embarrassments, or the future dangers of the United States, the observer is invariably led to this as a primary fact.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/the-most-formidable.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [racism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/racism.md)

> I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/i-know-of-no-country-in.md)

Topics: [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [conformity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> What most astonishes me in the United States, is not so much the marvelous grandeur of some undertakings, as the innumerable multitude of small ones.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/what-most-astonishes.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> Americans combine to give fêtes, found seminaries, build churches, distribute books, and send missionaries to the antipodes. Hospitals, prisons, and schools take shape in that way. Finally, if they want to proclaim a truth or propagate some feeling by the encouragement of a great example, they form an association. In every case, at the head of any new undertaking, where in France you would find the government or in England some territorial magnate, in the United States you are sure to find an association. I have come across several types of association in America of which, I confess, I had not previously the slightest conception, and I have often admired the extreme skill they show in proposing a common object for the exertions of very many and in inducing them voluntarily to pursue it.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/americans-combine-to-give.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [cooperation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cooperation.md)

> Americans of all ages, all stations of life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations... In democratic countries knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends that of all the others.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/americans-of-all.md)

Topics: [democracy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [cooperation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cooperation.md)

> The Americans never use the word peasant, because they have no idea of the class which that term denotes; the ignorance of more remote ages, the simplicity of rural life, and the rusticity of the villager have not been preserved among them; and they are alike unacquainted with the virtues, the vices, the coarse habits, and the simple graces of an early stage of civilization.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/the-americans-never.md)

Topics: [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> In no other country in the world is the love of property keener or more alert than in the United States, and nowhere else does the majority display less inclination toward doctrines which in any way threaten the way property is owned.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/in-no-other.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [private property](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/private-property.md)

> The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other; and with them this conviction does not spring from that barren traditionary faith which seems to vegetate in the soul rather than to live.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/the-americans-combine.md)

Topics: [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [Christianity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/christianity.md)

> Americans cleave to the things of this world as if assured that they will never die,… They clutch everything but hold nothing fast, and so lose grip as they hurry after some new delight. ... Death steps in in the end and stops him before he has grown tired of this futile pursuit of that complete felicity which always escapes him. At first sight there is something astonishing in this spectacle of so many lucky men restless in the midst of abundance. But it is a spectacle as old as the world; all that is new is to see a whole people performing in it.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/americans-cleave-to-the.md)

Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> The President ... may err ... Congress may decide amiss ... But if the Supreme Court is ever composed of imprudent or bad men, the Union may be plunged into anarchy or civil war.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/the-president-may.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [courts](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/courts.md)

> An American cannot converse, but he can discuss, and his talk falls into a dissertation. He speaks to you as if he was addressing a meeting; and if he should chance to become warm in the discussion, he will say "Gentlemen" to the person with whom he is conversing.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/an-american-cannot.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [conversation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conversation.md)

> In America, conscription is unknown; men are enlisted for payment. Compulsory recruitment is so alien to the ideas and so foreign to the customs of the people of the United States that I doubt whether they would ever dare to introduce it into their law.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/in-america-conscription.md)

Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> I know of no country, indeed, where the love of money has taken stronger hold on the affections of men, and where the profounder contempt is expressed for the theory of the permanent equality of property.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/i-know-of-no-country.md)

Topics: [money](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [equality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/equality.md)

> The people reign over the American political world as God rules over the universe. It is the cause and the end of all things; everything rises out of it and is absorbed back into it.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/the-people-reign.md)

Topics: [democracy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/the-surface-of-american.md)

Topics: [democracy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> Useful undertakings which require sustained attention and vigorous precision in order to succeed often end up by being abandoned, for, in America, as elsewhere, the people move forward by sudden impulses and short-lived efforts.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/useful-undertakings-which.md)

Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [patience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/patience.md)

> The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/the-greatness-of-america.md)

Topics: [mistakes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mistakes.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)