Jay Parini Quotes

America was not founded to improve health care or housing; it was founded for freedom.

The Declaration calls us to recognize the inherent equality of all people. And when it becomes unmistakably evident that a government is denying the governed life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it's the right of people to establish a new government to secure these unalienable rights.

America is not just a country, it's an idea, and real Americans are getting busy.

As Members of Congress, we swear an oath to uphold the United States Constitution. It means something to be an American because we believe in our country, we believe in our people, and we believe in our constitution.

Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in this world must first come to pass in the heart of America.

People say America is exceptional. I agree, but it's not the complexion of our skin or the twists in our DNA that make us unique. America is exceptional because we were founded upon the notion that everyone should be free to pursue life, liberty, and happiness.

America is a nation founded by immigrants and built on the ideal that anyone can be an American if he or she believes in the principles and values of the Constitution.

The essence of what it is to be American is the deep moral urge to be free, to freely express yourself and have the right to do so, and to look at all people as equals.

U.S.A. is the speech of the people.

Henceforth, we shall be happy to be a free citizen in an independent country.

I think the average American has forgotten the great feel for liberty and accountability that the framers of the Constitution believed.

Scotland is my country, the nation that shaped me, that taught me my values. A nation whose achievements inspired and inspire me, a community whose failings drive me - drive my overwhelming desire to fight for social justice and equality.

Men of New England, I hold you to the doctrines of liberty which ye inherit from your Puritan forefathers.

Russian democracy is the power of the Russian people with their own traditions of national self-government, and not the realisation of standards foisted on us from outside.

What are the American ideals? They are the development of the individual for his own and the common good; the development of the individual through liberty; and the attainment of the common good through democracy and social justice.

I truly appreciate the special qualities that America and American national myths offer me.

The independence of the United States is not only more precious to ourselves but to the world than any single possession.

This is not a time to back away from the principles that this country was founded on.

Each country has a soul, and France's soul is equality.

When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: Liberty, sir, was the primary object.

I've always been hopeful about Scotland's prospects. And I now believe more than ever that Scotland is within touching distance of achieving independence and equality.

In the United States, nobody needs to remind people of their own role or their own power in creating the future they want to see. Perhaps it is something that is almost written into your cultural DNA: a desire to answer your Founding Fathers' call to create a 'more perfect union.'

It is not the Government, the members of Parliament to whom the ultimate decision belongs, it is up to you to go forward sure of your sacred right of free opinion, sure of your patriotism.

We, the people of the United States, we are a great Nation with a great vision.

Unlike other peoples the United States found their origin in a deliberate act of corporate self-assertion, and ever since the Revolution every little American has been taught to associate himself personally with this creative act.