American People Quotes

It says the American people are full of goodness and wisdom, and you just have to be paying attention. And sometimes that's hard to do when you're inside this bubble, but this was a little portal through which I could remind myself of that every day. The letters are beautiful, aren't they? -Obama ~ Jeanne Marie Laskas

American people are very patriotic, but there is no driver to get behind and support. I don't see why Formula One cannot be something America is a part of. I wouldn't say it's too European at all. ~ Alexander Rossi

The firmness with which the (American) people have withstood the ... abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false and to form a correct judgment between them. ~ Thomas Jefferson

When the American people get through with the English language, it will look as if it had been run over by a musical comedy. ~ Finley Peter Dunne

But Barack Obama is not a person who would defend the rights and heritage of the European-American people. ~ David Duke

I want to see us to explore outer space. But I want to do it safely, without the loss of human life, and democratically: where is the free-wheeling debate on this question? Only one force can stop this mission: the will of the American people. They have not been asked. Do they want to endanger their loved ones, their industry with this launch? One force is more powerful than plutonium, the spirit of the American people united. ~ Michio Kaku

I just think the American people had expected that the President of the United States would be able to describe what he's going to do in the next four years, but he can't. He can't even explain what he's done in the last four years. ~ Mitt Romney

Obviously, nu-que-lar power is, uh, a renewable source of energy, and the less demand there is for non-renewable sources of energy, like fossil fuels, the better it off it is for the American people. ~ George W. Bush

If you hate the war, that's fine. But you should still support the troops. They don't get to pick where they're deployed. They just gave the American people a blank check for anything up to and including the value of their lives, and the least everyone else can do is be thankful. Buy them dinner. Mow their yard. Bake them cookies. ~ Chris Kyle

The American people deserve long-term, forward-thinking policies. ~ Dean Heller

I believe in (the American) people. I believe that people are more good than bad. I believe tragic things happen. I think there's evil in the world. But I think that at the end of the day, if we work hard, and if we're true to those things in us that feel true and feel right, that, the world gets a little better each time. That's what this presidency is trying to be about. And I see that in the young people i work with. This is not just drama-obama. This is what I really believe. ~ Barack Obama

Way down deep the American people are afraid of an entangling relationship between formal religions - or whole bodies of religious belief - and government. ~ Mario Cuomo

The Supreme Court, of course, has the responsibility of ensuring that our government never oversteps its proper bounds or violates the rights of individuals. But the Court must also recognize the limits on itself and respect the choices made by the American people. ~ Elena Kagan

I understand the Second Amendment. I respect the Second Amendment. I think we need to use common sense tools to keep the American people safe, to keep our streets safe. ~ Eric Holder

I think this president has so badly abused his power, breached his trust in remarkable ways with our Congress, with the American people, has violated so many of our international treaty obligations, our Constitution, our domestic statutory laws, and has been responsible for ordering and condoning heinous human rights violations. We need to draw the line. ~ Rocky Anderson

To the American people I bid a fond farewell. Guard your liberties. It is the trust of each generation to pass a free republic to the next. And if I know you right, you will rouse yourself from slumber to ensure exactly that. ~ Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

In general, I found that the more that debates can be about facts and data, the more likely government is to make sound decisions that benefit innovators and the American people. ~ Julius Genachowski

I hope we, the American people, can come to the understanding that we are not each other's enemies. The enemies are those who are stoking the flames of division, trying to divide us into every category. ~ Benjamin Carson

Flexibility. Oh, that's pretty clearly saying that what Donald Trump said to The New York Times is very different than what he's saying to the American people. He is not the real deal. He is a phony. ~ Mitt Romney

The American people today are involved in a warfare more deadly than the war in Vietnam, but few of them seem aware of it and even fewer of them are doing anything about it. This is a war that is being waged against the American environment, against our lands, air, and water, which are the basis of that environment. ~ Norman Cousins

Whoever committed the act of 11 September are not the friends of the American people. I have already said that we are against the American system, not against its people, whereas in these attacks, the common American people have been killed. ~ Osama Bin Laden

There is no perception among the American people, nor their elected representatives, that there is a serious problem that needs fixing. ~ Robert Reischauer

I believe the American people have the capacity to create a new movement, which would change the direction of our nation from being a military power to being a peaceful nation, using our enormous wealth for human needs, here and abroad. ~ Howard Zinn

The American people are not cowardly. But, living in prosperous isolation, they have been the spoiled children of modern history. ~ Herman Wouk

The story of the African-American people is the story of the settlement and growth of America itself, a universal tale that all people should experience, ~ Henry Louis Gates

I constantly signal to the Iraqi leaders that our patience, or the patience of the American people, is running out ~ Zalmay Khalilzad

There is no executive order; there is no law that can require the American people to form a national community. This we must do as individuals and if we do it as individuals, there is no President of the United States who can veto that decision. ~ Barbara Jordan

I think I've set some big goals. The American people haven't had a raise in 15 years. Getting incomes up is a huge goal. Now maybe it's not as exciting to some people, but it's a huge goal. ~ Hillary Clinton

Now and always, we expect to insist upon it that we are Americans, that America is our native land; that this is our home; that we are American citizens . . . and that it is the duty of the American people so to recognize us. - FREDERICK DOUGLASS A ~ Elizabeth Dowling Taylor

When asked about how he could have offered the Warren Report, full of inconsistencies, to the American people with a straight face, Dulles is reported to have said, "The American people don't read. ~ Michael C. Ruppert

The American people, Neil, are sick and tired of excuses. They are sick and tired of the blame game. And they're sick and tired of the deception coming from this president and this administration. This is why I believe that I am doing so well in the polls. ~ Herman Cain

For in the first place the American people could not have been swept too fast and too far in this movement without enough alarms being sounded to be heard and heeded. ~ Robert W. Welch, Jr.

The American people will not tolerate a clean increase in the debt limit. ~ John Boehner

I go to bed at night worrying that I didn't do enough that day to make sure I protect the American people. ~ John O. Brennan

This is all about creating good jobs for middle income Americans, and it's a place where the President, frankly, has failed. His effort to put in place a series of liberal proposals he thought were historic kept his eye off the ball of getting the economy going again. It is the economy, and the American people aren't stupid. They want someone who can get this economy going again. ~ Mitt Romney

Feb. 9, 1999 Dear Friend, Without your previous support, Bill Clinton and I would not have won our victories for the American people in 1992 and 1996 ... And to win in 2000, I need you by my side. ~ Al Gore

And if that's what the American people want, then that's what the policy should be, of course. But the idea that anything in the United States is too sensitive to discuss or too dangerous to discuss is really, I think, absurd. ~ Michael Scheuer

When you look at the results that Newt Gingrich got when he was speaker, he got results for the American people. ~ J. C. Watts

I allowed Rick Santorum to express views and ideas that the American people never would have had expressed. ~ Foster Friess

The mass of the American people are most emphatically not in the deplorable condition of which you speak. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

We will use all lawful tools at our disposal, and that includes authorities under the renewed PATRIOT Act. We firmly believe that our intelligence gathering tools must enable us to collect the information we need to protect the American people. ~ John O. Brennan

Today, our actions must be motivated only by our intense desire to achieve a just and lasting peace. The compassion and charity of the American people should be reflected in this legislation, though sadly, they are silenced. ~ Nick Rahall

I think the American people pretty well understand that radical Islam has an agenda that includes us. ~ Lindsey Graham

I'll tell you what a weakness is of this country [the USA]: there are a lot of people who are sick and tired because Washington does not play by the same rules that the American people have to play by. ~ Rand Paul

Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory ... we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Remember the picture of the president in the classroom, being told of the attack by chief of staff Andy Card? The American people thought they were seeing a man suddenly thrust into a grave challenge no one could have anticipated. ~ Howard Fineman

I think that the best approach would be if the American people ever insist that we cut down on the massive amounts of money that moves into the campaigns from special interest groups, and if we resist publicly by saying "No more negative advertisements that destroy the reputations of one's opponents." In the meantime, just don't pay any attention to negative ads, if you can avoid them, and try to focus on the issues. ~ Jimmy Carter

Hitherto acceptable norms of human conduct do not apply. If the United States is to survive, long-standing American concepts of 'fair play' must be reconsidered. We must develop effective espionage and counterespionage services and must learn to subvert, sabotage and destroy our enemies by more clever, more sophisticated, and more effective methods than those used against us. It may become necessary that the American people be made acquainted with, understand and support this fundamentally repugnant philosophy. ~ Jimmy Doolittle

The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name, liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names, liberty and tyranny. The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty. ~ Abraham Lincoln

I'm sure we, the American people, are the butt of jokes by those in power. ~ Alice Walker

I strongly believe that crossing the aisle for the good of the American people is more important than party politics. ~ Gabrielle Giffords

Sad will be the day when the American people forget their traditions and their history, and so longer remember that the country they love, the institutions they cherish, and the freedom they hope to preserve, were born from the throes of armed resistance to tyranny, and nursed in the rugged arms of fearless men. ~ Roger Sherman

The thing American people fear about corporations is that they might achieve too much power. We have an antipathy to power even as we admire it. ~ Annie Proulx

The only thing that can be expected from the next US president is more war, more murder, and more oppression of the gullible American people. People as uninformed and as gullible as Americans have no future. Americans are a dead people that history is about to run over. ~ Paul Craig Roberts

The do-not-call registry is still being challenged in court. Yet, the conclusions of the American people, the legislative branch, and the executive branch are beyond question. ~ George W. Bush

The American people are tired of liars and people who pretend to be something they're not. ~ Hillary Clinton

The American people want peace. They have long since ceased to talk of a hard or a soft peace for Germany. ~ James F. Byrnes

Nobody in a leadership level in American politics is trying to inspire the American people. Everybody needs to be goosed. The vast majority of people are not self-starters. ~ Rush Limbaugh

But I am not discouraged. I do not despair for our country. I believe tonight, as I always have, that the essential decency, compassion and common sense of the American people will prevail. ~ Jimmy Carter

One of the problems of not allowing the American people to read what bin Laden has said is that in October 2001 just after the war began in Afghanistan, he gave a speech that had two parts to it. ~ Michael Scheuer

Seventy-six percent of the American people say we have a spiritual problem in our country. That's great, because now they understand the root of the problem is not that we haven't passed enough laws; rather, the root of the problem is in terms of our social value system. ~ Charles Colson

Ever since I came to Congress in 1992, there are those who have been trying to silence my voice. I've been told to 'sit down and shut up' over and over again. Well, I won't sit down and I won't shut up until the full and unvarnished truth is placed before the American people. ~ Cynthia McKinney

I think the American people are looking for real leadership. That's what I've done in Louisiana, that's what I'll do in America. ~ Bobby Jindal

I think the American people should know there's already strong influences toward another deployment of American troops in an open-ended commitment. ~ John McCain

The American people expect the United States to keep terrorists where they belong, apart from civilized society and outside of America's borders ~ Eric Cantor

The most effective weapon against crime is cooperation ... The efforts of all law enforcement agencies with the support and understanding of the American people. ~ J. Edgar Hoover

On either side of them the essence of honky tonk beach resort had now enclosed them: gas stations, fried clam stands, Dairy Treets, motels painted in feverish pastel colors, mini golf.

Larry was drawn two painful ways by these things. Part of him clamored at their sad and blatant ugliness and at the ugliness of the minds that had turned this section of a magnificent, savage coastline into one long highway amusement park for families in station wagons. But there was a more subtle, deeper part of him that whispered of the people who had filled these places and this road during other summers. Ladies in sunhats and shorts too tight for their large behinds. College boys in red and black striped rugby shirts. Girls in beach shifts and thong sandals. Small screaming children with ice cream spread over their faces. They were American people, and there was a kind of dirty, compelling romance about them whenever they were in groups never mind if the group was in an Aspen ski lodge or performing their prosaic/ arcane rites of summer along Route 1 in Maine. And now all these Americans were gone. ~ Stephen King

If the American people don't love me, their descendants will. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

It seems hard for the American people to believe that anything could be more exciting than the times themselves. What we read daily and view on the TV has thrust imagined forms into the shadow. We are staggeringly rich in facts, in things, and perhaps, like the nouveau riche of other ages, we want our wealth faithfully reproduced by the artist. ~ Saul Bellow

If we want an all-volunteer force, the bottom line is that we're going to have to take care of these people who were willing to do what the bulk of people weren't willing to do. Going to war is dangerous - you can get killed doing it. And the question is, are the American people willing to recognize the sacrifices of these young people? ~ Gordon R. Sullivan

Obama has now lost his trustworthiness. He has lost any hope of majority support from the American people for his agenda. Obamacare has wiped that out. It really has. ~ Rush Limbaugh

Because the American people champion liberty, more people in the world live free today than at any time in history. Yet, there is more to be done and it is America who will lead the way. ~ Dick Armey

We are inclined to confuse freedom and democracy, which we regard as moral principles, with the way in which they are practiced in America with capitalism, federalism, and the two-party system, which are not moral principles but simply the preferred and accepted practices of the American people. ~ J. William Fulbright

The American people have not become heartless. ~ Joe Biden

[Ronald Reagan] appealed to that group of [working American] people and we can do it again, because they've had, now, eight years of [Barak] Obama. Things have not gone well. ~ Jeff Sessions

I think the American people expect more from us than cries of indignation and attack. The times are too grave, the challenge too urgent, and the stakes too high
to permit the customary passions of political debate. ~ John F. Kennedy

We've always known that Democrats are anti-war, and we've always known that we can't really count on them when it comes to national defense. But we have finally seen with whom they will go to war: the American people who disagree with them. ~ Rush Limbaugh

Pedagogues: More than any other class of blind leaders of the blind they are responsible for the degrading standardization which now afflicts the American people. ~ H.L. Mencken

It will take time to eradicate a cancer like Isil. And any time we take military action, there are risks involved - especially to the servicemen and women who carry out these missions. But I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil. ~ Barack Obama

To [the government] it didn't matter what happened to the American people as long as america in the abstract was kept strong. ~ Isaac Asimov

President Obama was asked not long ago to reflect on any mistakes he might have made. He said, well, 'I haven't communicated enough.' He said his job is to 'tell a story to the American people' - as if that's the whole problem here? He needs to talk more, and we need to be better listeners? ~ Paul Ryan

Hillary Clinton and I have worked together on a higher education proposal which will guarantee free tuition in public colleges and universities for every family in this country making $125,000 a year or less. We're going to fight for paid family and medical leave. Those are the issues that the American people want to hear discussed, and I'm going to go around the country discussing them and making sure that Hillary Clinton is elected president. ~ Bernie Sanders

The Democratic Party and the Republican Party are beholden to industry. They always will be. And, the American people are fooled when they think that if you can just get McGovern instead of Humphrey, or if you can get a Democrat instead of a Republican, this will be the end of our problems. ~ Benjamin Spock

You are, I am sure, aware that genuine popular support in the United States is required to carry out any Government policy, foreign or domestic. The American people make up their own minds and no governmental action can change it. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

A skill required to be president is to explain to the American people any given thing they do. ~ Jim Lehrer

Legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties. ~ Thomas Jefferson

This president [Barack Obama ] has seen personnel records of people who have sacrificed for the American people and for the federal government stolen by the Chinese and he's done nothing in return. ~ Chris Christie

To me, there's so much talent in the world that's locked out for the wrong reasons, whether it's innovators at the highest end where we need to change the regulation systems, or whether it's the talented people who work here who the bureaucracy's holding back, or the amazing American people. ~ Megan Smith

One of the things about leadership is that you've got to show up. And if you want to be president of the United States you've got to make a case to the American people that Barack Obama needs to be dismissed from his position. ~ Tim Pawlenty

I ask the vice president to stop dodging the issue with legalese, and acknowledge his continued ties with Halliburton to the American people. ~ Frank Lautenberg

There is no excuse for this administration shielding information about Iraq and the fact that we have great difficulties there from the American people. ~ Jay Inslee

Critics have stepped up their attacks on the President for authorizing the National Security Agency to listen to international communications of known al Qaeda members or affiliated terrorists during a time of war. The American people expect their leaders to stay a step ahead of the enemy, and the National Security Agency authorization is a critical tool in the War on Terror that saves lives and protects civil liberties at the same time. ~ Scott McClellan

In the very next election, the American people elected 63 new Republicans to the House of Representatives - the largest sweep of Congress for any party since 1948. Even liberal Massachusetts elected a Republican senator solely because of his vow to vote against Obamacare. ~ Ann Coulter

But you say, does it represent change? The change is that we are fighting an insurance industry that has killed health reform for generations. They're spending tens of millions of dollars right now to defeat this bill, and we're on the doorstep of winning a great victory for the American people. ~ David Axelrod

We aren't using Guantanamo Bay anymore to take additional terrorists. That was the perfect facility to be able to use to extract information from people to keep the American people safe. ~ Michele Bachmann

It is important to me that everybody who has been hurt know that the sorrow I feel is genuine: First and most important, my family; also my friends, my staff, my Cabinet, Monica Lewinsky and her family, and the American people. I have asked all for their forgiveness. ~ William J. Clinton

I trust in due time to lay the perfidy, meanness, and wickedness of [Henry] Clay naked before the American people. I have lately got an intimation of some of his secret movements, which, if I can reach with positive and responsible proof, I will wield to his political, and perhaps his actual, destruction. ~ Andrew Jackson

The American press exists for one purpose only, and that is to convince Americans that they are living in the greatest and most envied country in the history of the world. The Press tells the American people how awful every other country is and how wonderful the United States is and how evil communism is and how happy they should be to have freedom to buy seven different sorts of detergent. ~ Gore Vidal

To the American People: Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. If we think on these things, there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world.
Presidential message, December 25, 1927 ~ Calvin Coolidge

The secretary of education does not work for the education establishment. The secretary works for the American people. ~ William Bennett