Best nations & firsts Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Moral decay first hampers and then strangles honest government, regular commerce, and even the ability to take genuine pleasure in the goods of this world. Compulsion is applied from above as self-discipline relaxes below, and the last liberties expire under the weight of a unitary state.... Since religion has lost its empire over the souls of men, the most prominent boundary that divided good from evil is overthrown; kings and nations are guided by chance and none can say where are the natural limits of despotism and the bound of license.”

“Imagine filling a college with the first 1,000 students to get perfect SATs. Whatever the racial composition of that class would be, the notion seems absurd because we know that college in America is supposed to be about creating citizens and leaders in a diverse nation.”

Knows Firsts Seems Would Be America Nations Perfect Leader Class Imagine Students College Citizens Creating Notion Absurd Supposed To Be Sat Diverse Composition Filling

Author:Eric Liu

“On the Native American front, we have turned a new page in the 400-year history of the interface between the American settlers of this country and the nation's first Americans. That's included a new relationship where the sovereignty of tribes is in fact recognized.”

Years Firsts Country Facts Nations Fronts Pages Native Native American Tribes Sovereignty Interfaces Settlers New Relationship

Author:Ken Salazar

“The spirit of Ubuntu, that once led Haiti to emerge as the first independent black nation in 1804, helped Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador attain liberty, and inspired our forefathers to shed their blood for the United States' independence, cannot die. Today, this spirit of solidarity must and will empower all of us to rebuild Haiti.”

“So that’s what we want is a secure and sovereign nation and, you know, I don’t know that all of you are Latino. Some of you look a little more Asian to me. I don’t know that. What we know, what we know about ourselves is that we are a melting pot in this country. My grandchildren are evidence of that. I’m evidence of that. I’ve been called the first Asian legislator in our Nevada State Assembly.”

“The Declaration of Independence was a denial, and the first denial of a nation, of the infamous dogma that God confers the right upon one man to govern others.”

Men Firsts Nations Independence Denial One Man Dogma Declaration Declaration Of Independence Infamous

Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

Source: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

“Many communities throughout the nation still do not have the communications infrastructure in place for first responders to communicate with one another during an emergency.”

Firsts Stills Nations Community Communication Communicate Emergencies Infrastructure

Author:Susan Collins

“We are the first nation in the history of the world to go to the poorhouse in an automobile.”

World Firsts Nations History Car World History Automobile

Author:Will Rogers

“We must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a World Government, patterned after our Own Government with a legislature, executive and judiciary, and police to enforce its international laws and keep the peace.”

World Firsts Government Nations United Steps Police Historical Executives First Steps United Nations Legislature Judiciary Conspiracy Theory World Government One World Government

Author:Walter Cronkite

“Conservation of our resources is the fundamental question before this nation, and that our first and greatest task is to set our house in order and begin to live within our means.”

Firsts Mean Order House Nations Resources Tasks Fundamentals Conservative Conservation

Book:Presidential addresses and state papers

Source: Presidential addresses and state papers

“In a nation of millions and a world of billions, the individual is still the first and basic agent of change.”

World Firsts Stills Individual Nations Millions Billions Agents

Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966

“Way back last summer I asked some of the most outstanding educational minds in this Nation to tackle this problem. I gave them a single instruction: find out how we can best invest each education dollar so that it will do the most good. Your support and the support of every leading education group proves that they did their job better than I had hoped, because for the first time we have succeeded in finding goals which unite us rather than divide us.”

Way Mind Firsts Problem Jobs Lasts Nations Goal Education Support Groups Prove Findings Summer First Time Dollars Educational Divides Instruction Outstanding Last Summer

Author:Lyndon B. Johnson

“We decided that our first job was to help the schools serving the children from the very lowest income groups. Those families constitute the number one burden, the number one burden in this Nation on the school systems.”

Firsts Children Helping School Jobs Nations Numbers Education Groups Decided Burden Income Serving Lowest School System

Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965

“First, we could have defied both of them and could have gone to war against both of these nations for this violation of international law and interference with our neutral rights.”

Firsts War Law Nations Gone Rights International Violation Interference International Law

Book:Fighting Liberal: The Autobiography of George W. Norris

Source: Fighting Liberal: The Autobiography of George W. Norris

“A man must first care for his own household before he can be of use to the state. But no matter how well he cares for his household, he is not a good citizen unless he also takes thought of the state. In the same way, a great nation must think of its own internal affairs; and yet it cannot substantiate its claim to be a great nation unless it also thinks of its position in the world at large.”

Thinking Men World Way Firsts Wells Matter States Use Care Nations Position Citizens Claims Affair Internals Household Great Nations Good Citizen Internal Affairs

Author:Theodore Roosevelt

“When the Jewish people, after nearly 2,000 years of exile, under relentless persecution, became a nation again on 14 May 1948 the 'fig tree' put forth its first leaves. Jesus said that this would indicate that He was 'at the door,' ready to return.”

People Years Firsts May Said Jesus Nations Doors Tree Ready Return Persecution Exile Relentless Figs

Book:The Late Great Planet Earth

Source: The Late Great Planet Earth

“None of us lie or guard our secrets when we sing, and India is a nation of singers whose first love is the kind of song we turn to when crying just isn't enough.”

Firsts Kind Enough Lying Song Turns Nations Love Is Secret Cry India Singers First Love

Book:Shantaram: A Novel

Source: Shantaram: A Novel

“First, Poland has been again overrun by two of the great powers which held her in bondage for 150 years but were unable to quench the spirit of the Polish nation. The heroic defense of Warsaw shows that the soul of Poland is indestructible, and that she will rise again like a rock which may for a spell be submerged by a tidal wave but which remains a rock.”

Source: The Churchill War Papers: At the Admiralty, September 1939-May 1940

“The very first words that we, the American nation, spoke were right here in Philadelphia. You know those words: "We the people." It wasn't, "We the conglomerates." It wasn't, "We the corporations." It was, "We the people."”

People Knows Firsts Nations Corporations Spokes Philadelphia

Author:Al Gore

“Nations die first in the big cities.”

Firsts Bigs Dies Nations Cities Big Cities

Author:Austin O'Malley

“Wherever we turn we find that the real obstacles to peace are human will and feeling, human convictions, prejudices, opinions. If we want to get rid of war we must get rid first of all of its psychological causes. Only when this has been done will the rulers of the nations even desire to get rid of the economic and political causes.”

Source: Ends and Means: An Inquiry into the Nature of Ideals

“Those of us who have the privilege to serve this country have an obligation to do our job as best we can. We come from different parties, but we are Americans first. And that's why disagreement cannot mean dysfunction. It can't degenerate into hatred. The American people's hopes and dreams are what matters, not ours. Our obligations are to them. Our regard for them compels us all, Democrats and Republicans, to cooperate, and compromise, and act in the best interests of our nation - one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”

“The realization that American power could and should be used for the defense of pluralism and as a punishment for fascism came to me in Sarajevo a year or two later... That was an early quarrel between me and many of my Nation colleagues, and it was also the first time I found myself in the same trench as people like Paul Wolfowitz and Jeane Kirkpatrick: a shock I had to learn to get over. The only real radicalism in our time will come as it always has from people who insist on thinking for themselves and who reject party-mindedness.”

“Choosing education is a very good decision, not only good for the student, but also for our country. The United States was the first nation in history to recognize that public education for every citizen, regardless of class or station, was vital to its future . . .”

Firsts Country States Nations Decision United Class United States Students Citizens Very Good Our Country Stations Public Education Good Decision

Book:No Apology: The Case for American Greatness

Source: No Apology: The Case for American Greatness

“The great goal of the backlash is to nurture a cultural class war, and the first step in doing so, as we have seen, is to deny the economic basis of social class. After all, you can hardly deride liberals as society's "elite" or present the GOP as the party of the common man if you acknowledge the existence of the corporate world - the power that creates the nation's real elite, that dominates its real class system, and that wields the Republican Party as its personal political sidearm.”

“I want our nation to take responsibility to make sure that every single child can look out the window in the morning and see a whole community getting up and going to work. We want these young people to know the thrill of the first paycheck, the challenge of starting that first business, the pride in following in a parent's footsteps.”

“Slavery was a central concern of governance form the time of the first nation-state. The Code of Hammurabi, the earliest know set of laws for governing an empire, prescribed death for anyone who harbored a fugitive or otherwise helped a slave to escape. The relationship between the law and bondage goes back even farther: Indeed, the oldest extant legal documents don't concern the sale of land, houses, or even animals, but slaves.”

Knows Firsts States Form Law House Nations Animal Land Concern Slavery Slave Code Empires Documents Bondage Governance Governing Fugitive

Book:The Culture of Make Believe

Source: The Culture of Make Believe

“By making college more affordable for all and more accessible for minority students, the first new higher education authorizing legislation in a decade will help strengthen our nation and America's middle class, and spur a new age of innovation and ingenuity in our country.”

“A political life, I've often said, is a continuing education in human nature, including one's own. My involvement on the ground floor of two presidential campaigns and my duties as First Lady took me to every state in our union and to seventy-eight nations. In each place, I met someone or saw something that caused me to open my mind and my heart and deepen my understanding of the universal concerns that most of humanity shares.”

“As time goes by, I'm increasingly impressed by how very special and timely it was that we got the degree of national commitment needed to put people on the Moon. For the first time, this nation was united in trying to develop an interplanetary capability. We've been trying to repeat that situation ever since.”

People Trying Firsts Nations United Situation Special Needed Moon Degrees Commitment First Time Repeats Capability Impressed Timely Time Goes By

Author:Buzz Aldrin

“To engage in war is always to pick a wild card. And war must always be a last resort, not a first choice. I truly must question the judgment of any president who can say that a massive unprovoked military attack on a nation which is over 50 percent children is ‘in the highest moral traditions of our country.'”

Firsts Children War Country Lasts Choices Nations Peace President Moral Military Judgment Highest Picks Percent Tradition Cards Our Country Fifty Massive Resorts

Author:Robert Byrd

“Nations, as well as man, almost always betray the most prominent features of their future destiny in their earliest years. When I contemplate the ardour with which the Anglo-Americans prosecute commercial enterprise, the advantages which befriend them, and the success of their undertakings, I cannot refrain from believing that they will one day become the first maritime power of the globe. They are born to rule the seas, as the Romans were to conquer the world.”

Source: Democracy in America

“But the United States is neither a Christian nation nor the exclusive home of any particular religious group. Non-Christians are not guests. We are as much hosts as any Mayflower-descendant Protestant. It is our home as well as theirs. And in a home with so many owners, there can be no official sectarian prayer. That is what the First Amendment is all about, and the first act by the new administration was in defiance of our Constitution.”

“It is contended by many that ours is a Christian government, founded upon the Bible, and that all who look upon the book as false or foolish are destroying the foundation of our country. The truth is, our government is not founded upon the rights of gods, but upon the rights of men. Our Constitution was framed, not to declare and uphold the deity of Christ, but the sacredness of humanity. Ours is the first government made by the people and for the people. It is the only nation with which the gods have had nothing to do.”

“We are going through historic times, and my vision is a world, first of all, in which America continues to be that one indispensable nation. Because we're taking care of our own people, because our economy is strong and our middle class is growing, and people feel like hard work is rewarded, and we are continuing to expand opportunity and diversity and tolerance and respect.”

“I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today - my own government.... There is something strangely inconsistent about a nation and a press that would praise you when you say, 'Be nonviolent toward Jim Clark,' but will curse and damn you when you say, 'Be nonviolent toward little brown Vietnamese children!' There is something wrong with that press.”

World Firsts Children Littles Government Today Nations Voice My Own Violence Praise Raises Presses Damn Curse Brown Oppressed World Today Ghetto Inconsistent Vietnamese Damn You

Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.

“In any nation in which people's rights have been subordinated to the rights of the few, in any totalitarian nation, the first institution to be dismantled is the jury. I was, I am, afraid.”

People Firsts Has Beens Nations Rights Institutions Jury

Book:Trial by fire: the true story of a woman's ordeal at the hands of the law

Source: Trial by fire: the true story of a woman's ordeal at the hands of the law

“Necessity is always the first stimulus to industry, and those who conduct it with prudence, perseverance and energy will rarely fail. Viewed in this light, the necessity of labor is not a chastisement, but a blessing,--the very root and spring of all that we call progress in individuals and civilization in nations.”

Firsts Light Individual Energy Nations Progress Failing Industry Civilization Blessing Spring Labor Roots Perseverance Prudence Stimulus Chastisement

Book:Self-help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct

Source: Self-help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct

“I hear the tread of pioneers Of nations yet to be, The first low wash of waves where soon Shall roll a human sea.”

Firsts Humans Nations Sea Lows Wave Pioneers Emigration

Book:Poems of John Greenleaf Whittier

Source: Poems of John Greenleaf Whittier

“There are only three ways to meet the unpaid bills of a nation. The first is taxation. The second is repudiation. The third is inflation.”

Way Firsts Three Nations Thirds Bills Taxation Inflation Three Ways

Book:American ideals and the New deal ... eight addresses upon pressing national problems

Source: American ideals and the New deal ... eight addresses upon pressing national problems

“If we buy a plant of a horticulturist we ask him many questions as to its needs, whether it thrives best in sunshine or in shade, whether it needs much or little water, what degrees of heat or cold; but when we hold in our arms for the first time a being of infinite possibilities, in whose wisdom may rest the destiny of a nation, we take it for granted that the laws governing its life, health, and happiness are intuitively understood, that there is nothing new to be learned in regard to it.”

Source: Elizabeth Cady Stanton: As Revealed in Her Letters & Diary (Abridged)

“In the First Amendment to the Constitution, the Founders made it clear that this was not to be a sky-god nation with a national religion like that of England, from whom we had just separated. It is curious how little understood this amendment is-yes, everyone has a right to worship any god he chooses but he does not have the right to impose his beliefs on others who do not happen to share in his superstitions and taboos.”

Firsts Littles Doe Made Happens Religion Belief Nations Clear Sky Share Worship Understood Constitution England Curious Made It Amendments Superstitions Founders First Amendment Taboo

Author:Gore Vidal

“When two working people decide to marry, their federal income tax is usually increased. As soon as one spouse earns at least 20 percent of a married couple's total income, the couple pays a 'marriage tax.' ... The United States is the only major industrialized nation in the free world in which the tax cost of the second [married] earner's entry into the work force is higher than that of the first. On one hand, our government's social policy is to help working women earn equal salaries to those of men, but on the other we have a tax structure that penalizes them when they do so.”

“Unless legal and illegal immigration is halted and reversed, European First World nations across all of Europe from Spain to Russia, North America, Australia and New Zealand - will be destroyed and have their very culture and civilisation changed to that of the Third World. Immigration is now the single most important issue facing all First World nations, and will determine whether Western Civilisation continues to exist or not.”

“I imagine an America that can actually change. That we become a nation that prospers again but without pillaging the resources of nations that make their people hate us. That we become a nation that, as the constitution says in its preamble, its very first paragraph, 'promotes the general welfare' of its people.”

People Firsts America Hate Nations Imagine Resources Constitution Welfare Paragraph General Welfare Preamble Pillaging

Author:Richard Schiff

“My family are doctors and pilots and people involved in indigenous First Nation land rights; not overtly artistic.”

People Firsts Nations Rights Land Involved My Family Doctors Artistic Pilots Indigenous

Author:Deborah Kara Unger

“My definition of secularism is very clear. The sole religion of the Government is Nation First, the holy book is the Constitution.”

Firsts Book Government Nations Democracy Clear Holy India Constitution Election Definitions Sole Secularism Holy Books

Author:Narendra Modi

“Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns is an American masterpiece, a stupendous literary success that channels the social sciences as iconic biography in order to tell a vast story of a people's reinvention of itself and of a nation-the first complete history of the Great Black Migration from start to finish, north, east, west.”

People Firsts Stories Order Nations Social Black Sun West East Warmth Biographies Masterpiece Migration Iconic Social Science Reinvention North East

Author:David Levering Lewis

“I was standing next to a famed geo-politician when the first news of the Argentine attack [on the Faulkland Islands] was received, and heard him muse incredulously: "An old-fashioned naval battle. A war between two civilized nations, perhaps with even a declaration of war, and later a peace conference. Wow." No hostages, no nukes, no ideologies, no religious fanaticism; just a fair-and-square war over national interests - hard to believe, in this day and age.”

“A nation dies culturally and spiritually first. Its money and its army are the last to go, but go they do once the light goes out in the nation's soul.”

Firsts Soul Light Lasts Dies Nations Army

Author:Charley Reese

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