233 years ago...on July 4th, 1776 The great nation, the United States of America in a struggle for what was right and free, was proudly born. Since then many people have tried to encapsulate what it means to be an American... Here are just a few:
A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
A man who won't die for something is not fit to live. ~ Martin L King Jr.
A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle. ~ George William Curtis
A man's feet must be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world. ~ George Santayana
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. ~ Edward Abbey
A statistician made a few calculations and discovered that since the birth of our nation more lives had been lost in celebrating independence than in winning it. ~ Curtis Billings
A thoughtful mind, when it sees a Nation's flag, sees not the flag only, but the Nation itself; and whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag the Government, the principles, the truths, the history which belongs to the Nation which belongs to the Nation that sets it forth. ~ Henry Ward Beecher
All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse. ~ John Quincy Adams
America is a passionate idea or it is nothing. America is a human brotherhood or it is chaos. ~ Max Lerner
America is another name for opportunity. Our whole history appears like a last effort of divine providence on behalf of the human race. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
America is a tune. It must be sung together. ~ Gerald Stanley Lee
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. ~ Abraham Lincoln
Americanism means the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and hardihood -- the virtues that made America. ~ Teddy Roosevelt
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man. ~ John F Kennedy
But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or to detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. ~ Abraham Lincoln
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth. ~ John F Kennedy
Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and excusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. ~ Mark Twain
Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed - else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
He is a poor patriot whose patriotism does not enable him to understand how all men everywhere feel about their altars and their hearthstones, their flag and their fatherland. ~ Harry Emerson Fosdick
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. ~ Martin L. King Jr.
I have always been among those who believed that the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool, the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking.Woodrow T. Wilson
I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him. ~ Abraham Lincoln
In a chariot of light from the region of the day,
The Goddess of Liberty came
She brought in her hand as
a pledge of her love,
the plant she named Liberty Tree. ~ Thomas Paine
In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
Intellectually I know that America is no better than any other country; emotionally I know she is better than every other country. ~ Sinclair Lewis
It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. ~ Robert Kennedy
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
Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have. ~ Harry Emerson
Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain. ~ John F. Kennedy
No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck. ~ Fredrick Douglass
Of all the supervised conditions for life offered man, those under USA's constitution have proved the best. Wherefore, be sure when you start modifying, corrupting or abrogating it. ~ Martin H. Fischer
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
One of the great attractions to patriotism - it fulfills our worst wishes. In the person of our nation we are able, vicariously, to bully and cheat. Bully and cheat, what's more, with a feeling that we are profoundly virtuous. ~ Aldous Huxley
Our country, right or wrong. When right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right. ~ Carl Schurz
Patriotism is easy to understand in America - it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country. ~ Calvin Coolidge
Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels. - Mark Twain
The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men. ~ Samuel Adams
There, I guess King George will be able to read that.John Hancock
There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. ~ William J. Clinton
We stand for freedom. That is our conviction for ourselves; that is our only commitment to others. ~ John F Kennedy
Yesterday, the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony that those United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States. ~ John Adams
Yet America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for meters. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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
You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism. ~ Erma Bombeck
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