Quotes on America
I would rather have a nod from an American, than a snuff-box from an emperor.
Lord Byron 1788-1824, British PoetThe keynote of American civilization is a sort of warm-hearted vulgarity. The Americans have none of the irony of the English, none of their cool poise, none of their manner. But they do have friendliness. Where an Englishman would give you his card, an American would very likely give you his shirt.
Raymond Chandler 1888-1959, American AuthorI have no further use for America. I wouldn't go back there if Jesus Christ was President.
Charlie Chaplin 1889-1977, British Comic Actor, FilmmakerAmerica's best buy is a telephone call to the right man.
Ilka Chase 1905-, American Author, ActorThere is nothing the matter with Americans except their ideals. The real American is all right; it is the ideal American who is all wrong.
Gilbert K. Chesterton 1874-1936, British AuthorThe Constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself.
John Ciardi 1916-1986, American Teacher, Poet, WriterAmerica is the only nation in history which, miraculously, has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.
Georges Clemenceau 1841-1929, French StatesmanThe business of America is business and the chief ideal of the American people is idealism.
Calvin Coolidge 1872-1933, Thirtieth President of the USAAmerica makes prodigious mistakes, America has colossal faults, but one thing cannot be denied: America is always on the move. She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn't standing still.
E.E. (Edward. E.) Cummings 1894-1962, American PoetAt least the Pilgrim Fathers used to shoot Indians: the Pilgrim Children merely punch time clocks.
E.E. (Edward. E.) Cummings 1894-1962, American PoetIf you think the United States has stood still, who built The largest shopping center in the world?
Richard M. Nixon 1913-1994, Thirty-seventh President of the USAIt is impossible for a stranger traveling through the United States to tell from the appearance of the people or the country whether he is in Toledo, Ohio, or Portland, Oregon. Ninety million Americans cut their hair in the same way, eat each morning exactly the same breakfast, tie up the small girls curls with precisely the same kind of ribbon fashioned into bows exactly alike; and in every way all try to look and act as much like all the others as they can.
Lord NorthcliffeThe main thing that endears the United Nations to member governments, and so enables it to survive, is its proven capacity to fail. You can safely appeal to the United Nations in the comfortable certainty that it will let you down.
Conor Cruise O'Brien 1917-, Irish Historian, Critic, and Statesman