Friday, April 17, 2009

Your Favorite Quote from American History

Do you have a favorite quote? Was it said by a famous American?

Washington? FDR? Sandy Koufax?

Is it inspirational? funny? or the epitome of liberty?

We're interested to learn more about our audience by having them interact.
Share your favorite US History Quote below and tell us why you love it so much.

We'll choose our favorites and highlight them in a future post.

Thanks. for sharing.

Related Posts by Categories



14 comments:

HTHaynes said...

Great subject...I'll get thigns started. One of my favorites is actually a recent one from Warren Buffet:

"I don't worry too much about pointing fingers at the past. I operate on the theory that every saint has a past, every sinner has a future."

klkatz said...

As a Philadelphian and newly annointed home brewmaster, and because it's the anniversary of his departure - I'll submit the following:

"Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy"

- B. Franklin

Pam Walter said...

I really like this one that is frequently mis-attributed to Thomas Jefferson, but was actually stated by Gerald Ford in 1974: "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have." www.satisfiedsole.com

boldlygo said...

My favorite quote comes from a bookmark I picked up while visiting different civil war battlefields. It is from a letter that Lincoln wrote to George McClellan.

"If you don't want to use the army, I should like to borrow it for a while."

Mike B said...

I have long been a fan of Will Rogers. With that in mind, I'll submit the following favorite quote:

“The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets.”
Will Rogers

HTHaynes said...

Will Rogers did have a way with folksy wisdom. Another one of my favorites was from him:

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there"

Elektratig said...

Great idea. I can't choose one. Here are three favorites:

David Wilmot introducing the Wilmot Proviso, 1846:

"But whatever territory might be acquired, he declared himself opposed, now and forever, to the extension of this 'peculiar institution' that belongs in the South. He referred to the annexation of Texas, and to his affirmative vote on the proposition connected with it at this session; he was for taking it as it was; slavery had already been established there. But if the free territory comes in, God forbid that he should be the means of planting this institution upon it."

John C. Calhoun, in support of "internal improvements", 1817:

Those who understand the human heart best, know how powerfully distance tends to break the sympathies of our nature. Nothing, not even dissimilarity of language, tends more to estrange man from man. Let us then . . . bind the Republic together with a perfect system of roads and canals. Let us conquer space. . . .

Andrew Jackson warning South Carolina during the Nullification Crisis, 1832:

"Tell them from me that they can talk and write resolutions and print threats to their heart's content. But if one drop of blood be shed there in defiance of the laws of the United States, I will hang the first man of them I can get my hands on to the first tree I can find."

klkatz said...

borrowed this from a twitter follower -

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years"
--
Abraham Lincoln

just more food for thought

Reference_Lib said...

Favorite:
"History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again." -- Kurt Vonnegut

Least favorite:
"History. We don't know. We'll all be dead" -- Dubya.

NK said...

You see things; and you say Why? But I dream things that never were; and I say Why not?-George Bernard Shaw but commonly attributed to Bobby Kennedy who used it for his presidential campaign

K. Freeland said...

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. --James Madison, Federalist #51.

K. Freeland said...

I forgot the second part of the above quote by James Madison: "If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary."

Ashlee Mooneyhan said...

"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." --Winston Churchill

Jose.Garcia said...

my fav.

Every daring attempt to make a great change in existing conditions, every lofty vision of new possibilities for the human race, has been labeled Utopian. - Emma Goldman

She is an unsung hero, to us ALL. She epitomizes what Americans should be, Innovative, and constantly challenging government officials. This quote speaks on the irony of people like Goldman. They are labeled as "commies" "un-American" , etc. However, they are taking a stand against a government which no longer works for it's people- HOW AMERICA IS THAT?... I love her'

also Howard Zinn what great people. True Americans!

Post a Comment