Donald Kagan Quotes

You know, the Brits had a way of - running an empire. And I don't think America is comfortable with an empire.

The United States although a superpower was never an empire..

How is the Empire?

Whereas the British were generally quite open about the fact that they were running an empire, few Americans politicians today would use the “e” word as anything other than a term of abuse.

If you look at the history of the U.S., we were an empire long before we were a nation.

The American empire will not disappear... because America does not have an empire.

America has been an empire ever since Theodore Roosevelt.

Whatever was the conduct of England, I am equally arraigned.

When I was a girl, the idea that the British Empire could ever end was absolutely inconceivable. And it just disappeared, like all the other empires. You know, when people talk about the British Empire, they always forget that all the European countries had empires.

I was born too late and missed the dream of empire. Its shadow, the Commonwealth, coincides with my life but rarely connected with it.

At the height of the British Empire very few English novels were written that dealt with British power. It's extraordinary that at the moment in which England was the global superpower the subject of British power appeared not to interest most writers.

Nothing the European mind ever devised was meant to do anything but to facilitate the European's control over the world.

Take care always to remember that you are a Roman.... Have a care you are not too much of a Caesar!

America has never been an empire. … We may be the only great power in history that had the chance, and refused.

For Carolina once ruined and destroyed, the extermination of her [England's] colonial dependencies will follow.

From the very beginning, Americans have exhibited a taste for expansion, an appetite for empire. One of the fundamental reasons for this is very clear. Like every other western empire that has ever existed, Americans may claim to have inherited the mantle of ancient Rome.

In the past, Britons were scathing about the cruelties of the old Roman empire and the excesses of Catholic empire builders such as the Spanish and the French. They convinced themselves that their empire was different and benign because it rested on sea power and trade rather than on armies.

Empire in the past was always a far harsher and much more accident-prone business than conventional history books imply. And the costs of these overseas invasions were borne not just by those on the receiving end but - frequently - by ordinary, vulnerable people among or associated with the invaders.

I think the parallels of a giant power with overwhelming military superiority and might, with America and Rome, it seems obvious to me.

Indeed, China may never acquire the geo-political influence and reach that Great Britain enjoyed in the 19th century and the United States of America did in the 20th, even though it may have already surpassed the geo-economic clout the two major powers enjoyed in the heyday of their empires.

There seems to be no end of books about the British empire, and the fascination it holds for historians of all descriptions is inexhaustible.

So what if America loses its empire? We never should have had one in the first place.

America is the new Roman Empire. Remember what happened to Rome.

Actually, the phrase "national security" is barely used until the 1930s. And there's a reason. By then, the United States was beginning to become global. Before that the United States had been mostly a regional power - Britain was the biggest global power. After the Second World War, national security is everywhere, because we basically owned the world, so our security is threatened everywhere. Not just on our borders, but everywhere - so you have to have a thousand military bases around the world for "defense."

The American empire should be destroyed.