Quotes from United States History
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. – Declaration of Independence, 1776
Give me liberty or give me death! – Patrick Henry, 1775
A house divided against itself cannot stand. – Abraham Lincoln, 1858
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. – Martin Luther King Jr., 1963
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union… – Preamble to the United States Constitution
Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth. – Abraham Lincoln, 1863
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. – Martin Luther King Jr., 1963
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. – Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933
I can’t go on. I’ll go on. – Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot, 1953
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. – Thomas Jefferson
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. – Martin Luther King Jr.
I have not yet begun to fight! – John Paul Jones, 1779
Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. – John F. Kennedy, 1961
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. – Thomas Jefferson
This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave. – Elmer Davis
We must be the change we wish to see in the world. – Mahatma Gandhi
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. – Ronald Reagan
Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. – George Santayana
The truth will set you free. – John 8:32
America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination, and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand. – Harry S. Truman, 1952
The American Dream is not that every man must be level with every other man. The American Dream is that every man must be free to become whatever God intends he should become. – Ronald Reagan
There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. – Bill Clinton
Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes. – Mahatma Gandhi
America is another name for opportunity. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
America is a tune. It must be sung together. – Gerald Stanley Lee
The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government. – Patrick Henry
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. – John F. Kennedy, 1962
I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death. – Patrick Henry, 1775
Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth. – George Washington
I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today. – William Allen White
The American ideal is not that we all agree with each other, or even that we should. It is that we can disagree honestly and still work together. – Harry S. Truman
The best way to predict your future is to create it. – Abraham Lincoln
The American Revolution was not a common event. Its effects and consequences have already been awful over a great part of the globe. – John Adams
History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. – Maya Angelou
America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great. – Alexis de Tocqueville
The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. – Patrick Henry
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. – Ambrose Redmoon
There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children. – Nelson Mandela
We are not makers of history. We are made by history. – Martin Luther King Jr.
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. – Abraham Lincoln
The best road to progress is freedom’s road. – John F. Kennedy
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. – Abraham Lincoln, 1861
Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity. – Herbert Hoover
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. – Eleanor Roosevelt
We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. – Australian Aboriginal proverb
We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorns have roses. – Alphonse Karr
The time is always right to do what is right. – Martin Luther King Jr.
The harder the conflict, the greater the triumph. – George Washington
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts. – Winston Churchill
The past is never dead. It’s not even past. – William Faulkner