Best American Tradition Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

Source: Smoke & Oak: The Shared Legacy of Bourbon and Cigars: An American Story of Craft, Culture & the Science of a Perfect Pairing

“The gratification of helping others is a very American tradition and a Judeo-Christian tradition. Now it is great to see young people creating funds and giving back in all sorts of productive ways. It's a terrifically satisfying thing.”

People Way Giving Helping Christian Young Creating Tradition Helping Others Productive Fund Satisfying Giving Back Gratification American Tradition

Author:Evelyn Lauder

“I cannot help but wonder whether, by continuing and expanding the school lunch program, we aren't witnessing, if not encouraging, the slow demise of yet another American tradition: the brown bag. Perhaps we are beholding yet another break in the chain that links child to home.”

Ifs Children Helping Home School Politics Wonder Break Program Tradition Chains Brown Bags Links Lunch Continuing Expanding Demise American Tradition School Lunch

Author:Charles Mathias

“It is in the American tradition to stand up for one's rights--even if the new way to stand up for one's rights is to sit down.”

Ifs Way Rights Tradition New Ways American Tradition

Author:John F. Kennedy

“Offering thanks in the midst of tragedy is an American tradition, . even during a bloody Civil War.”

War Civilization Tradition Tragedy Thanks Civil War Midst Offering Bloody American Tradition

Author:Abraham Lincoln

“For us to ignore by inaction the slaughter of American civilians and American soldiers, whether in nightclubs or airline terminals, is simply not in the American tradition. Self-defense is not only our right, it is our duty.”

Self Duty Tradition Soldier Defense Civilians Airline Inaction Slaughter Self Defense Nightclubs American Soldier American Tradition

Book:Speaking my mind: selected speeches

Source: Speaking my mind: selected speeches

“American traditions and the American ethic require us to be truthful, but the most important reason is that truth is the best propaganda and lies are the worst. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. It is as simple as that.”

Important Reason Truth Lying Simple Worst Truth Is Ethics Tradition Propaganda Truthful Credible Believable Persuasive Being Truthful American Tradition

Author:Edward R. Murrow

“As to the American tradition of non-meddling, Anarchism asks that it be carried down to the individual himself.”

Asks Individual Tradition Anarchy Anarchism Meddling American Tradition

Book:Anarchism and American Traditions

Source: Anarchism and American Traditions

“If we move away from the American tradition of lawyers defending those with whom they vehemently disagree -- as we temporarily did during the McCarthy period -- we weaken our commitment to the rule of law... So beware of an approach which limits advocacy to that which is approved by the standards of political correctness.”

Source: Letters to a Young Lawer (Easyread Large Edition)

“The word is important in Native American tradition. You speak the path on which you walk. Your words make the trail.”

Important Speak Walks Path Tradition Native Native American Trails American Tradition

Book:Claiming Breath

Source: Claiming Breath

“The Anglo-American tradition is much more linear than the European tradition. If you think about writers like Borges, Calvino, Perec or Marquez, they're not bound in the same sort of way. They don't come out of the classic 19th-century novel, which is where all the problems start. 19th-century novels are fabulous and we should all read them, but we shouldn't write them.”

Ifs Thinking Way Should Writing Problem Novel Century Tradition Bounds Classic Fabulous 19th Century Linear Borges American Tradition Marquez

Author:Jeanette Winterson

“Thanksgiving is one of my favorite American traditions. I quickly picked it up when I moved to the U.S. from Sweden.”

Tradition Moved My Favorite Sweden American Tradition

Author:Marcus Samuelsson

“It is within the established American tradition of satire, if America surrenders on this point, the freedom of speech is a relic of history.”

Ifs America Freedom Speech Tradition Surrender Satire Freedom Of Speech Relics American Tradition

Author:Pamela Geller

“There was no singles problem until singles got so single-minded that they stopped wasting time with anyone ineligible. Before that, it was understood that one of society's main tasks was matchmaking. People with lifelong friendships and ties to local nonprofessional organizations did not have to fear that isolation would accompany retirement, old age, or losing a spouse. Overburdened householders could count on the assistance not only of their own extended families, but of the American tradition of neighborliness.”

“To say that the Afro American created jazz doesn't mean anything bad about Anglo Americans, and I always teach my younger jazz musicians that at this point the entirety of the American tradition is your heritage, and you need to know it.”

Knows Needs Mean Teach Musician Tradition Jazz Heritage Jazz Music Jazz Musician Entirety Afros American Tradition

Author:Wynton Marsalis

“We do Him [God] honor in our pledge of allegiance, in all our public ceremonies. There's nothing wrong with that. It is in the best of American traditions, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise. I think we have to fight that tendency of the secularists to impose it on all of us through the Constitution.”

Thinking Fighting Honor Tradition Constitution Tendencies Ceremony Pledge Allegiance Melting Pledge Of Allegiance American Tradition

Author:Antonin Scalia

“A lot of things occurred to me with shamans in Peru.There were a number of different kinds of experiences that you learn from doing ritual and taking ayahuasca [a common tropical forest hallucinogen] is the key to understanding the native consciousness and perception of the world with the Peruvian shamans that you wouldn't get unless you had been with them, but every shamanic tradition, including the Native American tradition of medicine and cleansing ritual, like the Sun Dance or the sweat lodge.”

“The principle of self defense is an American tradition that began at Lexington and Concord.”

Self Principles Tradition Defense Self Defense American Tradition Lexington

Author:Robert F. Williams

“In American tradition a certain kind of, I would say, desperate American friendliness in which the poet tries to reach out through the page to make a connection by the side of the road with some other person.”

Trying Kind Persons Certain Sides Poet Pages Tradition Connections Desperate Reach Out Friendliness American Tradition

Author:Edward Hirsch

“I don't feel the individualist anarchists, particularly in the American tradition, including the Transcendental tradition of New England, in any way deserve the derogatory comments that are often made about them by the left. When one gets down to it ultimately, my anarcho-communism stems from a commitment to true individuality. My attempt to recover the power and the right of the individual to control his or her life and destiny is the basis to my anarcho-communism.”

“My concern is to develop a North American type of anarchism that comes out of the American tradition, or that at least can be communicated to Americans and that takes into consideration that Americans are not any longer people of European background.”

People Type Concern Tradition Backgrounds Consideration Anarchism American Tradition

Author:Murray Bookchin

“The American tradition of foreign policy exceptionalism, our grand strategy as a nation, reaches back much further. Really at the turn - the end of the 19th century, when we achieved power a generation after the Civil War, the outlines of an American vision came into focus, and what we - it was based on two things. One, our realization that our values and our interests were the same, and that our business interests would advance as our values advanced in the world.”

“I think that Hillary Clinton has an appreciation that American power needs to be put in the service of American values, which is an American tradition and a pretty good one, and I think she was willing to do that.”

Thinking Needs Values Willing Tradition Clinton Appreciation American Values American Tradition American Power

Author:Daniel Fried

“It's time for a recovery and reassessment of North American thinkers. Marshall McLuhan, Leslie Fiedler and Norman O. Brown are the linked triad I would substitute for Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, whose work belongs to ravaged postwar Europe and whose ideas transfer poorly into the Anglo-American tradition.”

Ideas Europe Tradition Recovery Brown Substitutes Thinker Linked Transfers American Tradition Lacan Derrida Leslie Triads

Author:Camille Paglia

“Another term for preventive war is aggressive war - starting wars because someday somebody might do something to us. That is not part of the American tradition.”

War Might Term Tradition Starting Someday Aggressive American Tradition Preventive War

Author:Ron Paul

“Well, first of all, I don't want to debate the word conservative, but by my definition, a conservative is someone who wants to conserve the Constitution of the United States and the American tradition and law that no one is above the law.”

Want Firsts Wells States Law United United States Tradition Constitution Definitions Conservative Debate Constitution Of The United States Above The Law American Tradition

Author:Dan Rather

“Ever since the 1860s when photographers travelled the American West and brought photographs of scenic wonders back to the people on the East Coast of America we have had a North American tradition of landscape photography used for the environment.”

People America Used Wonder Environment Photography Tradition West Photographer Photograph East Landscape Coast East Coast American Tradition American West Landscape Photography Scenic

Author:Galen Rowell

“Anyone in any walk of life who is content with mediocrity is untrue to himself and to American tradition.”

Walks Tradition Mediocrity Untrue Walks Of Life American Tradition

Author:George S. Patton

“No! Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.”

Source: ArtFolds: Yoda: Yoda and the Force

“Rank imperialism and warmongering are not American traditions or values. We do not need to dominate the world.”

World Needs Values Tradition Imperialism American Tradition

Author:Molly Ivins

“The United States of America is still run by its citizens. The government works for us. Rank imperialism and warmongering are not American traditions or values. We do not need to dominate the world. We want and need to work with other nations. We want to find solutions other than killing people. Not in our name, not with our money, not with our children's blood.”

“Our American tradition of neighbor helping neighbor has always been one of our greatest strengths and most noble traditions.”

Helping Tradition Noble Neighbor American Tradition

Book:Ronald Reagan

Source: Ronald Reagan

“I believe in the American tradition of separation of church and state which is expressed in the First Amendment to the Constitution. By my office - and by personal conviction - I am sworn to uphold that tradition.”

“Curtailment of free speech is rationalized on grounds that a more compelling American tradition forbids criticism of the government when the nation is at war... Nothing can be more destructive of our fundamental democratic traditions than the vicious effort to silence dissenters.”

War Government Religion Nations Effort Silence Atheism Speech Tradition Criticism Fundamentals Democratic Destructive Free Speech Compelling Vicious American Tradition

Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Traditional people of Indian nations have interpreted the two roads that face the light-skinned race as the road to technology and the road to spirituality. We feel that the road to technology.... has led modern society to a damaged and seared earth. Could it be that the road to technology represents a rush to destruction, and that the road to spirituality represents the slower path that the traditional native people have traveled and are now seeking again? The earth is not scorched on this trail. The grass is still growing there.”

“The Old Religion, as we call it, is closer in spirit to Native American traditions or to shamanism of the Arctic. It is not based on dogma or a set of beliefs, nor on scriptures or a sacred book revealed by a great man. Witchcraft takes it's teachings from nature, and reads inspiration in the movements of the sun, moon, and stars, the flight of birds, the slow growth of trees, and the cycles of the seasons.”

“It’s like an American tradition. A person gets successful and then he’s supposed to change for the worse. It’s silly.”

Persons Successful Tradition Silly American Tradition

Author:Barbra Streisand

“Satan is attacking the great institutions of America, using those great vices of pride, vanity, and sensuality as the root to attack all of the strong plants that has so deeply rooted in the American tradition.”

America Strong Pride Tradition Roots Institutions Plant Vices Sensuality Vanity Satan Rooted Attacking American Tradition

Author:Rick Santorum

“In the Native American tradition... a man, if he's a mature adult, nurtures life. He does rituals that will help things grow, he helps raise the kids, and he protects the people. His entire life is toward balance and cooperativeness. The ideal of manhood is the same as the ideal of womanhood. You are autonomous, self-directing, and responsible for the spiritual, social and material life of all those with whom you live.”

“And I should like to assure you, my Islamic friends, that under the American Constitution, under American tradition, and in American hearts, this Center, this place of worship, is just as welcome as could be a similar edifice of any other religion. Indeed, America would fight with her whole strength for your right to have here your own church and worship according to your own conscience. This concept is indeed a part of America, and without that concept we would be something else than what we are.”

“An auctioneer is such a uniquely American thing. I keep thinking in my head, perhaps it's not as American as I think, but it feels so Southern. It feels so American. Like, hundreds of years of American tradition is involved in it.”

Thinking Feels Years Involved Tradition Southern American Tradition

Author:Jack White

“In view of the tide of religiosity engulfing a once secular republic it is refreshing to be reminded by Freethinkers that free thought and skepticism are robustly in the American tradition. After all the Founding Fathers began by omitting God from the American Constitution.”

Father Views Tradition Constitution Republic Tides Skepticism Secular Founding Refreshing Freethinker Free Thought American Tradition American Constitution Omitting Engulfing

Author:Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

“For 180 years, we voted in English. That is the true American tradition, and this amendment is true to our heritage, not what has existed unnaturally for the last 20 years.”

Years Lasts Tradition Heritage Amendments American Tradition

Author:Spencer Bachus

“The only way to be true to our American tradition is to maintain absolute governmental neutrality regarding religious beliefs and practices”

Way Belief Religious Practice Atheism Tradition Absolutes Positive Atheism Being True Religious Belief Neutrality American Tradition

Author:Bill Bradley

“Is the American tradition of self-reliance disappearing? That's a painful question for conservatives to ponder. After all, we're dedicated to reducing the role of government and promoting individual freedom and opportunity. But the facts, while sad, are clear: More Americans today depend more heavily on government than ever before.”

“When they talk about family values, it's in a repressive way, as if our American tradition were only the Puritan tradition or the 19th century oppressive tradition. The Christian tradition.”

Ifs Way Christian Values Century Tradition 19th Century Puritan About Family Family Values American Tradition

Author:James Hillman

“Settling other people's land is an American tradition.”

People Land Tradition Settling American Tradition

Book:Atlas of the Human Heart

Source: Atlas of the Human Heart

“When we give what we can, and give it with joy, we don't just renew the American tradition of giving, we also renew ourselves.”

Giving Joy Tradition Service To Others American Tradition

Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 2000-2001

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 2000-2001

“Philanthropy, charity, giving voluntarily and freely... call it what you like, but it is truly a jewel of an American tradition.”

Giving Tradition Charity Philanthropy Jewels Giving To Charity American Tradition

Author:John F. Kennedy

“I don't like political poetry, and I don't write it. If this question was pointing towards that, I think it is missing the point of the American tradition, which is always apolitical, even when the poetry comes out of politically active writers.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Political Literature Missing Tradition Active Pointing American Tradition Apolitical

Author:Diane Wakoski

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American Tradition Quotes