104460 Quotes by American authors

American voices swing between defiance and tenderness, mixing porch talk with courtroom thunder, hymnals with barroom jokes. The sayings lean toward motion, road-tested, restless, certain that the next turn matters, and they test ideas like tools, not ornaments. Humor undercuts sermon, dissent stands beside loyalty, and hope keeps arguing with experience. From prairie plain speech to borough quickfire, the language favors verbs over lace, a handshake over ceremony. Edge meets empathy, contradictions are carried honestly, and words still try to shove the world forward.

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"It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you've got"

Sheryl Crow, Musician

Small: Sheryl Crow

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom"

Anais Nin, Author

"I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character"

Martin Luther King Jr., Minister

Small: Martin Luther King Jr.

"Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles"

Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect

Small: Frank Lloyd Wright

"We will, in fact, be greeted as liberators"

Dick Cheney, Vice President

Small: Dick Cheney

"The consequences of an act affect the probability of it's occurring again"

B. F. Skinner, Psychologist

Small: B. F. Skinner

"Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days"

Benjamin Franklin, Politician

Small: Benjamin Franklin

"The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions"

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Poet

Small: Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

"If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it"

Dwight D. Eisenhower, President

Small: Dwight D. Eisenhower

"The family is the nucleus of civilization"

Will Durant, Historian

Small: Will Durant

"First-rate people hire first-rate people; second-rate people hire third-rate people"

Leo Rosten, Novelist

Small: Leo Rosten

"How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened"

Thomas Jefferson, President

Small: Thomas Jefferson

"When I'm good, I'm very good. But when I'm bad I'm better"

Mae West, Actress

Small: Mae West

"Cats and monkeys; monkeys and cats; all human life is there"

Henry James, Writer

Small: Henry James

"In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous"

Robert G. Ingersoll, Lawyer

Small: Robert G. Ingersoll

"My father always wanted to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding and the baby at every christening"

Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Author

Small: Alice Roosevelt Longworth

"You can't take a character anywhere they don't expect the character to go. But within those confines is where creativity lies"

Richard Price, Writer

"Grove giveth and Gates taketh away"

Bob Metcalfe, Scientist

"If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first"

Mark Twain, Author

Small: Mark Twain

"Prestige is the shadow of money and power"

C. Wright Mills, Sociologist

Small: C. Wright Mills

"There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender... identity is performatively constituted by the very 'expressions' that are said to be its results"

Judith Butler, Philosopher

Small: Judith Butler

"Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow"

Anthony J. D'Angelo, Author

Small: Anthony J. D'Angelo

"The best view comes after the hardest climb"

Mat Fraser, Athlete

Small: Mat Fraser

"Hearing nuns' confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn"

Fulton J. Sheen, Clergyman

"I don't know what the future may hold, but I know who holds the future"

Ralph Abernathy, Activist

"Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star"

W. Clement Stone, Businessman

Small: W. Clement Stone

"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded"

Barack Obama, President

Small: Barack Obama

"Telling a teenager the facts of life is like giving a fish a bath"

Arnold H. Glasow, Businessman

Small: Arnold H. Glasow

"When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost"

Billy Graham, Clergyman

Small: Billy Graham

"Old age is no place for sissies"

Bette Davis, Actress

Small: Bette Davis

"He who has the gold makes the rules"

Tyler Perry, Actor

"A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit"

Arnold H. Glasow, Businessman

Small: Arnold H. Glasow

"Remember the words of Chairman Mao: 'It's always darkest before it's totally black.'"

John McCain, Politician

Small: John McCain

"Between two groups of people who want to make inconsistent kinds of worlds, I see no remedy but force"

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Poet

Small: Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

"All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions is called a philosopher"

Ambrose Bierce, Journalist

Small: Ambrose Bierce

"Republican comes in the dictionary just after reptile and just above repugnant"

Julia Roberts, Actress

Small: Julia Roberts

"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so"

Mark Twain, Author

Small: Mark Twain

"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man"

Elbert Hubbard, Writer

Small: Elbert Hubbard

"Give me a child and I'll shape him into anything"

B. F. Skinner, Psychologist

Small: B. F. Skinner

"Genius is never understood in its own time"

Bill Watterson, Cartoonist

Small: Bill Watterson

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