National Legacy Quotes

There is no nation in the world greater, older or more honorable than the Turkish nation, nor has one been seen in the history of humanity.

I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts; she needs none. There she is. Behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston and Concord and Lexington and Bunker Hill; and there they will remain forever.

Let not England forget her precedence of teaching nations how to live.

In Germany, of course, the Holocaust will always be in our history and a big stain on our lives.

We will be remembered only if we give to our younger generation a prosperous and safe India, resulting out of economic prosperity coupled with civilizational heritage.

American history contains much matter for pride and congratulation, and much matter for regret and humiliation.

Of their serious presidential candidates, and even of their presidents, Americans demand constant reassurance that their country, their achievements and their values are extraordinary.

It is to such men as Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson and Jackson and Franklin, all most lowly born, that we owe most of our greatness as a nation.

A nation's life is about as long as its reverential memory.

America's space program has been the envy and inspiration of the world. It has made landmark scientific discoveries that are a lasting legacy of this nation's greatness. It has studied Earth in ways no other nation can match.

Americans' great and secret fear is that America may turn out to be a phenomenon rather than a civilization.

At a moment that comes rarely in the life of a country. It is a time when destiny is ours to hold.

What happens today or tomorrow is of little consequence. The tendencies of a nation are all that count.

Americans want our leaders to defend our values, our culture, our legacy of liberty and our way of life, not apologize.

This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

Every nation has a vision it lives for and is prepared to make all sacrifices. One may call it National purpose, … It is something which does not change. If it changes, a nation dies. It is supreme and therefore the nation acts and reacts with the limits laid down by it. It is the vision which allows a nation to build its future.

I love and revere the rich and proud history of America. And I am determined to take our best traditions into the future. But with all respect, we do not need to build a bridge to the past. We need to build a bridge to the future.

Big sporting events and spectacles might give the national morale a shot in the arm, but they are too transient and taste-specific to stand as robust symbols of nationhood.

America was based on a poetic vision. What will happen when it loses its poetry?

Everything I’ve ever gotten in life is largely due to the fact that I was born in this country, America, at this time with these opportunities for its citizens. It is the primary obligation of our generation to turn over a similar America to our kids.

We are no petty people. We are one of the great stocks of Burke; we are the people of Swift, the people of Emmet, the people of Parnell. We have created most of the modern literature of this country. We have created the best of its political intelligence.

Our government, conceived in liberty and purchased with blood, can be preserved only by constant vigilance. May we guard it as our children's richest legacy, for what shall it profit our nation if it shall gain the whole world and lose “the spirit that prizes liberty as the heritage of all men in all lands everywhere”?

And just as there was something of every Vietnamese in Ho Chi Minh so there is something of Ho Chi Minh in almost every present-day Vietnamese, so strong is his imprint on the Vietnamese nation.

These are facts that would make every American upset. Our birthright is being stolen, the legacy of our country is at stake, and the values of our nation are in peril. The future whispers, and the present shouts.

A nation's character is the sum of its splendid deeds; they constitute one common patrimony, the nation's inheritance. They awe foreign powers, they arouse and animate our own people.