America Quotes to Celebrate the U.S.A.

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Celebrate the U.S.A with the best America quotes from Presidents, leaders, and citizens.

There are many names for the United States of America, and they are used all over the world to refer to the 50 diverse states that form a single nation. But America, and being American, represents something much greater than geography, whether for people who live in the US, or those who have never been.

That’s because, for centuries, interest in the culture of America has facilitated its spread across the globe. From wartime propaganda to popular movies, literature, and the internet, across the course of time the culture of the United States has become available to everyone, everywhere. And with that media comes a growing appreciation of what makes America unique, and of what it means to be American in our modern world.

There is no day more important than Independence Day for celebrating what makes America and Americans special! Celebrated on the 4th of July, this Federal Holiday honors the nation’s history and allows people to come together with family and friends, enjoy time outside, and show their pride in red, white, and blue.

In honor of the National Holiday, we’ve put together a list of the very best quotes about America to celebrate the culture of the United States, its people, its history, and its traditions. But these America quotes aren’t just for Independence Day – they’re the perfect way to learn more about the United States, its culture, and what it means to be American today.

Wherever in the world you are, we hope you’ll enjoy these America quotes to celebrate the USA!

A small American flag and a lit sparkler to celebrate the Fourth of July
“The United States is the only country with a known birthday.” – James G. Blaine

Oh, it’s home again and home again, America for me! I want a ship that’s westward bound to plough the rolling sea, To the blessed land of Room Enough beyond the ocean bars, Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.

Henry Van Dyke

Ours is the only country deliberately founded on a good idea.

John Gunther

We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls.

Robert J. McCracken

What does the Flag mean? It is the flag just as much of the man who was naturalized yesterday as of the man whose people have been here generations.

Henry Cabot Lodge
USA quote from President Johnson and a mini American Flag resting on a shelf
“Not merely a nation but a nation of nations.” – Lyndon B. Johnson

Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had merely been detected.

Oscar Wilde

America is the only country ever founded on the printed word.

Marshall McLuhan

Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.

Margaret Thatcher

The winds that blow through the wide sky in these mounts, the winds that sweep from Canada to Mexico, from the Pacific to the Atlantic — have always blown on free men.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

There is nothing the matter with Americans except their ideals. The real American is all right; it is the ideal American who is all wrong.

G. K. Chesterton

America loves a forgiveness story. America is the land of second chances.

Michael Caputo

America 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. Cummings
A sparkler blazing in front of a large American Flag on July 4th
“America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy.” – John Updike

One characteristic of Americans is that they have no tolerance at all of anybody putting up with anything. We believe that whatever is going wrong ought to be fixed.

Margaret Mead

America the Diverse

America is an extremely diverse nation, influenced by a multicultural ethos that includes African, Native American, Asian, Polynesian, and Latin American people and their cultures. It also has its own social and cultural characteristics, such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine, and folklore, which vary considerably across the 50 states.

An ethnically and racially diverse country, America has been enriched by large-scale migration from many countries throughout its history. The US has traditionally been thought of as a “melting pot” of different cultures and traditions, with immigrants contributing to, and eventually assimilating with, the existing American culture.

A large bowl of salad greens and several small bowls of chicory, cabbage, and mushroom
“The metaphor of the melting pot is unfortunate and misleading. A more accurate analogy would be a salad bowl, for, though the salad is an entity, the lettuce can still be distinguished from the chicory, the tomatoes from the cabbage.” – Carl N. Deger

From the 1960s to today, the importance of cultural diversity and pluralism within the US has led to the use of the “salad bowl” metaphor instead. Different cultures are brought together – like salad ingredients – but instead of merging to form a single homogeneous culture, each is able to keep its own distinct qualities.

Diversity and the people of America have been talked about a great deal by writers, journalists, politicians, and visitors of all kinds for generations. Here are some of their very best quotes about the USA and its amazingly diverse population.

An outstretched arm waving an American Flag to celebrate diversity and unity
“My favorite thing about the United States? Lots of Americans, one America.” – Terri Guillemets

The diversity of America is a strength of the country, and I don’t think that we use that. We don’t talk about our strengths. I mean, having so many diverse people in this country from all aspects of all over the world, and we don’t use that. I think we should talk about who we are – that melting pot that we’ve become.

Steve Stoute

We’re Americans, with a capital A… You know what that means? Do ya? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We’re the underdog. We’re mutts!… But there’s no animal that’s more faithful, that’s more loyal, more loveable than the mutt.

Len Blum, Dan Goldberg, and Harold Ramis “Stripes”

Ultimately, America’s answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired.

Robert Kennedy
The Milky Way at night representing 1000 points of light quoted by George H.W. Bush
“This is America: a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light, in a broad and peaceful sky. ” – George H.W. Bush

Diversity of thought and culture and religion and ideas has become the strength of America.

Gary Locke

The magic of America is that we’re a free and open society with a mixed population. Part of our security is our freedom.

Madeleine Albright

You know, that diversity that America has is so special. It’s starting to really become a cool thing for young people.

Russell Simmons

Americans always try to do the right thing after they’ve tried everything else.

Winston Churchill

Every American carries in his bloodstream the heritage of the malcontent and the dreamer.

Dorothy Fuldheim

America has as much diversity in peoples as it does in geographies.

Terri Guillemets
Thousands of people blending into a large crowd at Donald Trump's inauguration
“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” – Audre Lorde

The great social adventure of America is no longer the conquest of the wilderness but the absorption of fifty different peoples.

Walter Lippman

America is not just a country, but a way of life.

Anonymous

This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in.

Theodore Roosevelt

If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.

John F. Kennedy

A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in… And how many want out.

Tony Blair

I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong.

George Washington
USA quote comparing America to a tune that must be sung together
“America is a tune. It must be sung together.” – Gerald Stanley Lee

Americans in unity, and unity in Americans!

Every Body’s Toast Book and Convivial Companion, 1851

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

My folks came to U.S. as immigrants, aliens, and became citizens. I was born in Boston, a citizen, went to Hollywood and became an alien.

Leonard Nimoy

You cannot spill a drop of American blood without spilling the blood of the whole world…. We are not a nation, so much as a world.

Herman Melville
A group of people viewing the US Capitol from the top of the Willard Hotel
“If you can speak three languages you’re trilingual. If you can speak two languages you’re bilingual. If you can speak only one language you’re an American.” – Anonymous

The American Dream

America is both the Land of Opportunity and the heartland of the American Dream.

The American Dream has been defined as “the set of ideals (democracy, rights, liberty, opportunity and equality) in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, as well as an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers.” The availability of opportunities and a high chance of success have encouraged people to come to America for decades.

Though many would now argue that this ideal no longer exists, entrepreneurs like Bedros Keuilian have argued that there is a New American Dream: “a version of the entrepreneurial journey that is unlike anything that has ever existed before. The barrier to entry to becoming an entrepreneur is literally the lowest it’s ever been right now.”

America will always be home to dreamers, and home to people who will stop at nothing to seek out and pursue the opportunities offered to them at work, in education, and in life. These inspirational USA quotes are especially relevant for them:

View of the Freedom Tower and skyline down a busy lower Manhattan street
“America is another name for opportunity.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

America is a land of opportunity, and don’t ever forget it.

Will Rogers

America stands for the land of opportunity.

Michael Grimm

The land of opportunity. You just need the right people and the right work ethic and you can accomplish anything.

Bob Poser

Basically, there are two kinds of stereotypes out there in the world about America. There’s America the Goliath – the big, powerful, bullying country that pushes its way around the world and gets its ways, pursues its own interests nakedly, irrespective of what others want. And the other stereotype is America, the land of opportunity, where everyone can go and do anything, be anything, make any dreams come true.

Shashi Tharoor

The fact is: It’s true what they say about the United States. It is a land of opportunity. It is too various to get bored with it.

Christopher Hitchens
A couple holding candles at an outdoor party on Independence Day
“I believe in America because we have great dreams, and because we have the opportunity to make those dreams come true.” – Wendell Willkie

Go with your first thoughts; they’re usually your best thoughts. Pay attention, stick to your goals and follow those guidelines. It’s all right there if you reach for it, unless you want to punch timeclocks and work for somebody. That’s what we liked about America, the land of opportunity. All your dreams can come true.

Richard Danko

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty

John F. Kennedy

Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.

O. Henry, Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen

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

If you’re worried about getting a job-or keeping one-start a company of your own. By doing so, you’ll reap the rewards of your hard work and you’ll only get fired if you fail. This is the land of opportunity. Live in it.

Bruce Campbell
A US flag and Thomas Jefferson quote saying the price of freedom is eternal vigilance
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” – Thomas Jefferson

When I was growing up, I don’t remember being told that America was created so that everyone could get rich. I remember being told it was about opportunity and the pursuit of happiness. Not happiness itself, but the pursuit.

Martin Scorsese

A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

The Constitution only guarantees you the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

Benjamin Franklin

There will always be a frontier where there is an open mind and a willing hand.

Charles Kettering

You may live in an imperfect world but the frontiers are not closed and the doors are not all shut.

Maxwell Maltz

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Thomas Jefferson
The view down a row of bus seats and a Rosa Parks quote about freedom
“I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free… so other people would be also free.” – Rosa Parks

If you’re not ready to die for it, put the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabulary.

Malcolm X

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

Ronald Reagan

What is the essence of America? Finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom “to” and freedom “from.”

Marilyn vos Savant

America is a passionate idea or it is nothing. America is a human brotherhood or it is chaos.

Max Lerner

When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect.

Adlai Stevenson

If you take advantage of everything America has to offer, there’s nothing you can’t accomplish.

Geraldine Ferraro

America is still the land of opportunity for most, but it is not a land of opportunity for all. If we are to remain an exceptional nation, we must close this gap in opportunity.

Marco Rubio
View of the Chicago skyline and Willis Tower down the Lake Michigan shore
“When they say America is a land of opportunity, it’s true. If you work hard, people appreciate you. ” – Vijay Singh

On Patriotism and Freedom

One of the hallmarks of the American people, at home and overseas, is their incredible sense of patriotism and the pride they have for their homeland. Central to the ideals of democracy, rights, liberty, opportunity and equality is a sense of freedom.

Freedom stands for something far greater than just “the right to act however I choose.” It also stands for securing an equal opportunity for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (as outlined in the U.S. Constitution) for everyone.

The 4th of July is, at its heart, a celebration of this freedom. It marks the day in 1776 that the Continental Congress declared that the thirteen American colonies were no longer subject to the British Monarchy, but became united, free, and independent states. Most Americans also recognize the crucial role the United States military plays in maintaining the freedom, safety, and security of the United States.

The military is also linked to the US nickname “Uncle Sam.” When Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from Troy, New York, supplied barrels of beef to the United States Army during the War of 1812, he stamped the barrels with “U.S.” for United States. However, the soldiers began referring to the food supplies when they arrived as “Uncle Sam’s.” A local newspaper picked up on the story, providing a vehicle for the widespread acceptance as the nickname for the U.S. federal government. Political cartoonist Thomas Nast (1840-1902) began popularising the image of Uncle Sam in the 1860s and 1870s, giving him the white beard and stars-and-stripes suit that are associated with the character today.

Adlai Stevenson quote about patriotism and stars on a folded American flag
“Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.” – Aldai Stevenson

Freedom lies in being bold.

Robert Frost

In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

We will stand by the right, we will stand by the true, we will live, we will die for the red, white, and blue.

Anonymous

Dreams can grow wild born inside an American child.

Phil Vassar

America without her soldiers would be like God without his angels.

Claudia Pemberton

Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.

Albert Camus

We’re blessed with the opportunity to stand for something – for liberty and freedom and fairness. And these are things worth fighting for, worth devoting our lives to.

Ronald Reagan

Where liberty dwells, there is my country.

Benjamin Franklin

This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.

Elmer Davis

May the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely than this our own country!

Daniel Webster
An American flag hanging from a front porch on a suburban American street
“Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit.” – Ronald Reagan

Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

John F. Kennedy

Liberty is the breath of life to nations.

George Bernard Shaw

One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, one nation evermore!

Oliver Wendell Holmes

We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.

William Faulkner

Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.

Louis D. Brendeis

Only Americans can hurt America.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

Abraham Lincoln
A kie rider draped in a US flag and a woman running with another flag by the sea
“America, to me, is freedom.” – Willie Nelson

America’s one of the finest countries anyone ever stole.

Bobcat Goldthwaite

True patriotism springs from a belief in the dignity of the individual, freedom and equality not only for Americans but for all people on Earth.

Eleanor Roosevelt

What we need are critical lovers of America — patriots who express their faith in their country by working to improve it.

Hubert Humphrey

We hope these America quotes about the USA put you in a patriotic mood – whether for July 4th, Presidents Day, Labor Day, or any other day. However you celebrate, have fun and stay safe!

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Natalie Seale

Natalie Seale is a writer and researcher with an MA, MSc, and PhD in History from the University of Edinburgh. Natalie is an avid reader, a keen traveller, and enjoys cooking and walking with her English Spaniel. Her posts focus on inspiring ideas and tips that help people learn, gro, and inspire others.

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