"The typical American citizen is the business man. The typical business man is a bad citizen; he is busy. If he is a 'big business man' and very busy, he does not neglect; he is busy with politics, oh, very busy and very businesslike."
Lincoln Steffens
Delivered: July 12, 2020
"Jazz is known all over the world as an American musical art form and that's it. No America, no jazz. I've seen people try to connect it to other countries, for instance to Africa, but it doesn't have a damn thing to do with Africa."
Art Blakey
Delivered: July 8, 2020
"My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."
John F. Kennedy
Delivered: July 16, 2020
"American literature has never been content to be just one among the many literatures of the Western World. It has always aspired to be the literature not only of a new continent but of a New World."
Christopher Dawson
Delivered: July 22, 2020
"As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?"
Alexis de Tocqueville
Delivered: July 27, 2020
"America must be the teacher of democracy, not the advertiser of the consumer society. It is unrealistic for the rest of the world to reach the American living standard."
Mikhail Gorbachev
Delivered: July 18, 2020
"There'd never been a more advantageous time to be a criminal in America than during the 13 years of Prohibition. At a stroke, the American government closed down the fifth largest industry in the United States - alcohol production - and just handed it to criminals - a pretty remarkable thing to do."
Bill Bryson
Delivered: July 14, 2020
"'The more expensive the better' is kind of the American way, and if you spent $600 for a sweatshirt, then that makes it better."
Macklemore
Delivered: July 29, 2020
"All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value."
Carl Sagan
Delivered: July 2, 2020
"I never thought I'd live to see the day that an American administration would denounce the state of Israel for rebuilding Jerusalem."
Mike Pence
Delivered: July 13, 2020
"Every single immigrant we have, undocumented or documented, is a future American. That's just the truth of it."
Junot Diaz
Delivered: July 11, 2020
"Policy is no longer being written by politicians accountable to the American public. Instead, policies concerning the defense budget, deregulation, health care, public transportation, job training programs, and a host of other crucial areas are now largely written by lobbyists who represent mega corporations."
Henry Giroux
Delivered: August 1, 2020
"I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."
Smedley Butler
Delivered: July 20, 2020
"In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate."
Toni Morrison
Delivered: July 24, 2020
"There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny."
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Delivered: July 9, 2020
"An important and fundamental premise of the American judicial system is the presumption of innocence, that is until proven guilty."
DMX
Delivered: July 17, 2020
"My accent does slip. When I arrived in England in 1978 at 18, I was shocked to find myself 'the American' at RADA. The English and the Americans have an intense relationship. They helped us out in the Second World War."
Mark Rylance
Delivered: July 26, 2020
"Seven out of 10 Americans are one paycheck away from being homeless."
Pras Michel
Delivered: July 31, 2020
"I'm cute - and God I hate that. Because that's not cool. I'm like your niece, and nobody wants to date their niece. It's the chubby cheeks. The whole reason people voted for me on American Idol is because I'm an everyday, normal girl."
Kelly Clarkson
Delivered: July 10, 2020
"I love African American women, but I just don't like my skin complexion."
Kodak Black
Delivered: July 19, 2020
"No matter who you are, no matter what your color, creed, how you choose to pray or who you choose to love, that if you are an American - first generation or fifth - one who is willing to work hard, play by the rules and apply your God-given talents - that you should be able to find a job that pays the bills."
Cory Booker
Delivered: July 28, 2020
"History has demonstrated time and again the inherent resilience and recuperative powers of the American economy."
Ben Bernanke
Delivered: July 5, 2020
"Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy and employ almost half of the working population. Yet because of their size, they rarely have access to the same information security resources as large firms."
Dan Lipinski
Delivered: July 6, 2020
"Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealistic nation in the world."
Woodrow Wilson
Delivered: July 3, 2020
"The American Dream is that any man or woman, despite of his or her background, can change their circumstances and rise as high as they are willing to work."
Fabrizio Moreira
Delivered: July 23, 2020
"There is nothing stronger than the American labor movement. United, we cannot and we will not be turned aside. We'll work for it, sisters and brothers. We'll stand for it. Together. Each of us. To bring out the best in America. To bring out the best in ourselves, and each other."
Richard Trumka
Delivered: July 4, 2020
"American democracy must be a failure because it places the supreme authority in the hands of the poorest and most ignorant part of the society."
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Delivered: July 15, 2020
"What is the American dream? The American dream is one big tent. One big tent. And on that big tent you have four basic promises: equal protection under the law, equal opportunity, equal access, and fair share."
Jesse Jackson
Delivered: July 25, 2020
"We have to make movies where we do not think this is for the American market or this is for the Chinese market. We have to make a good movie that anyone would just want to sit down and watch because love, language, culture transcend everything."
Michelle Yeoh
Delivered: July 7, 2020
"We must never forget that Black History is American History. The achievements of African Americans have contributed to our nation's greatness."
Yvette Clarke
Delivered: July 21, 2020
"And what does reward virtue? You think the communist commissar rewards virtue? You think a Hitler rewards virtue? You think, excuse me, if you'll pardon me, American presidents reward virtue? Do they choose their appointees on the basis of the virtue of the people appointed or on the basis of their political clout?"
Milton Friedman
Delivered: July 30, 2020