Michael Portillo Quotes

For America, 1812 became the war in which it had finally gained its independence. For Britain, 1812 became the skirmish it had contained, while winning the real war against its greatest nemesis, Napoleon.

Americans think that they have a history, but it's nothing compared to Europe.

England as a culture has endured so much more than America has as a culture, so it's given them a different perspective.

American audiences tend to underappreciate the British, but 240 years ago they were us: They were the most powerful nation on Earth. Their mercantile empire spanned the planet. They had the most potent and experienced army and navy the world had ever seen.

The independence of America is one of the principle titles of glory to France.

Why do we not celebrate the 4th of July? The Declaration of Independence is just as precious to me today as it was twenty years ago! Has it not the same validity that it had in 1776?

I was born about 80 years too late. If you were a kid in 1910, the Fourth of July was a big deal. You knew all about the Revolution, and you still had Civil War veterans.

Nothing moves me more than the history of the United States.

We live in the United States. British settlers founded the first colony in North America. And English is our language.

It's unimaginable to meet a Pole or a German who does not know about the history of their country. But lots of English people don't know the difference between Britain and England.

I love the Royal Family and every aspect of Britain and what we have achieved in history.

But I'm a daughter of the American revolution, my grandpa fought in World War II, I have lots of family members who were in the military, and it really just was part of growing up for me.

I like American history, so I was aware of the participants and a lot of it.

We don't celebrate dependence day on the Fourth of July. We celebrate Independence Day.

The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Well, I'm a history buff, anyway. I love learning about different periods, especially in American history. I'm a fan.

In name we had the Declaration of Independence in 1776; but we gave the lie by our acts to the words of the Declaration of Independence until 1865; and words count for nothing except in so far as they represent acts.

Calvin was virtually the founder of America.

George Washington’s brother, Lawrence, was the Uncle of Our Country.

The Founding Fathers were nothing more than a bunch of snobby English shits.

There were 315,000 slave owners in the Union Army (with 200,000 in the Confederate Army) and the men who walked away from the Union Army were adamantly opposed to freeing slaves. We cite these facts and recorded statistics to point out that the principal cause of the war was not the issue of slavery.

Humor, a good sense of it, is to Americans what manhood is to Spaniards and we will go to great lengths to prove it.

Americans have only the dimmest notion of what their constitutional freedoms are - and what it took to get them...[and] the willingness to surrender what we're supposed to be fighting for is a recurring part of our history.

When I speak to students, I tell them why we have a First Amendment. I tell them about the Committees of Correspondence. I tell them how in a secret meeting of the Raleigh Tavern in Virginia, Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry, who did not agree with each other, started a Committee of Correspondence.