Items with the red CP logo are available in our Cafepress.com store. Click on the logo to view all products (hats, t-shirts, mugs, and other gift items) for that author or quote.

Quotes about Americans

An Englishman is a person who does things because they have been done before. An American is a person who does things because they haven't been done before.
- Mark Twain, US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910)

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
- H. L. Mencken, US editor (1880 - 1956)

Americans adore me and will go on adoring me until I say something nice about them.
- George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 - 1950)

CP Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hard-working, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then--we elected them.
- Lily Tomlin, US actress & comedienne (1939 - )

Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn't block traffic.
- Dan Rather, US television newscaster (1931 - )

How much longer are we going to think it necessary to be ''American'' before (or in contradistinction to) being cultivated, being enlightened, being humane, and having the same intellectual discipline as other civilized countries?
- Edith Wharton, US novelist (1862 - 1937)

The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.
- Henry David Thoreau, US Transcendentalist author (1817 - 1862)

Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.
- Gore Vidal, US author & dramatist (1925 - )

The American, by nature, is optimistic. He is experimental, an inventor and a builder who builds best when called upon to build greatly.
- John F. Kennedy, 35th president of US 1961-1963 (1917 - 1963)

I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American.
- Daniel Webster, US diplomat, lawyer, orator, & politician (1782 - 1852)

I sometimes think that the saving grace of America lies in the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans are possessed of two great qualities- a sense of humor and a sense of proportion.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd president of US (1882 - 1945)

Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner, unless you eat some of what's on that plate. Being here in America doesn't make you an American. Being born here in America doesn't make you an American.
- Malcolm X, US black nationalist leader (1925 - 1965)

Americans are overreachers; overreaching is the most admirable of the many American excesses.
- George F. Will, US editor, commentator, & columnist (1941 - )

The people of the United States, perhaps more than any other nation in history, love to abase themselves and proclaim their unworthiness, and seem to find refreshment in doing so... That is a dark frivolity, but still frivolity.
- Robertson Davies

CP In every American there is an air of incorrigible innocence, which seems to conceal a diabolical cunning.
- A. E. Housman, English classical scholar, poet, & satirist (1859 - 1936)

It is, I think, an indisputable fact that Americans are, as Americans, the most self- conscious people in the world, and the most addicted to the belief that the other nations are in a conspiracy to under-value them.
- Henry James, British (US -born) author (1843 - 1916)

CP Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are malevolently well informed about the United States.
- J. Bartlett Brebner

Americans never quit.
- General Douglas Macarthur, US WWII general & war hero (1880 - 1964)

CP George Washington had a vision for this country. Was it three days of uninterrupted shopping?
- Jeff Melvoin