Most American Sayings

#1. For more than 220 years - from the 1620s to the 1840s - most American schooling was independent of government control, subsidy, and influence. From this educational freedom the American Republic was born.

Marshall Fritz

#2. The mammary fixation is the most American of the sex fetishes.

Molly Haskell

#3. I went to public schools, and while Gary was, like most American cities, racially segregated, it was at least socially integrated - a cross section of children from families of all walks of life.

Joseph Stiglitz

#4. Most American diets, even bad ones, provide more than enough calcium for bone health, especially for men.

Andrew Weil

#5. Most American elementary schools and high schools, and nearly all colleges and universities, teach everything that is significant from a liberal/Left perspective.

Dennis Prager

#6. Washington's address is virtually unknown today and has not been seen in most American history textbooks in nearly four decades. Perhaps it is because of all the religious warnings Washington made in his 'Farewell Address.'

David Barton

#7. The problem with most American churches is that they teach too much and don't do enough.

Rick Warren

#8. The number of fighters that are ISIS fighters wouldn't fill up most American football stadiums. This is not a large group of individuals, but they're tenacious, and they rule with absolute terror.

James Lankford

#9. Mandelstam is the sort of poet who comes along very, very rarely. Even the two Russian poets whose work is often linked with his - Anna Akhmatova and Marina Tsvetaeva - though their work is more "urgent" than most American poetry, seem to me to operate at a lesser charge than Mandelstam.

Christian Wiman

#10. No man in America has ever stood up so persistently and effectively for the dignity of human nature, knowing himself for a man, and the equal of any and all governments. In that sense he was the most American of us all.

Henry David Thoreau

#11. Whether they know it or not, most American playgoers owe an incalculably great debt to translators. Were it not for their work, comparatively few of us would be able to enjoy the plays of Chekhov, Ibsen or Moliere.

Terry Teachout

#12. When American life is most American it is apt to be most theatrical.

Ralph Ellison

#13. Most American actors are taught the Stanislavsky method ... Method acting, but I really think that as an actor you have to develop what works for you. There is really not one way of doing anything. There are many ways of achieving the same goal.

Ving Rhames

#14. Forgiveness is hard for me, man. It is for most American-Western males. It's a sign of weakness.

Art Alexakis

#15. Americans are overreaching; overreaching is the most admirable and most American of the many American excesses.

George Will

#16. 'Job Killer.' Those are the two words you are most likely to hear uttered by most American CEOs when confronted with proposals to enact family-friendly work policies.

Madeleine M. Kunin

#17. Unbeknownst to most American investors, significant portions of their public pension, mutual fund, life insurance and private portfolios are comprised of stocks of privately held companies that partner with state sponsors of terror.

Frank Gaffney

#18. To debate political objectives, views, and goals is the most American thing conceivable.

Lou Reed

#19. Every company in America should be on its knees thanking Jesus for being born. Without Christmas, most American businesses would be far less profitable. More than enough reason for business to be screaming 'Merry Christmas.'

Bill O'Reilly

#20. Most American women are very uncomfortable about having servants. They don't know what to do while you are there.

Lucia Berlin

#21. He was a cowboy with the soul of a poet. To this day, he is the most American American I've ever met.

Seth Grahame-Smith

#22. In the past the intrinsic pleasures of parenthood for most American families were increased by the extrinsic economic return thatchildren brought. Today, parents have children despite their economic cost. This is a major, indeed a revolutionary, change.

Kenneth Keniston

#23. We are in a world where most American citizens over the age of 12 share things with each other online.

Clay Shirky

#24. Most American cities shop to their best advantage when seen from a height or from a distance, at a point where the ugliness of the buildings dissolves into the beauty of an abstraction.

Lewis H. Lapham

#25. In France, I am so free. I have more freedom than most American directors could dare to even imagine.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet

#26. When you ask most American parents why they want to have kids, it's to bring more joy into their lives. So, when you don't feel that all-encompassing joy, it must be that something is wrong with you. I think it's dissatisfaction that the expectation was different than the reality.

Jessica Valenti

#27. Subtract miracles from Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, or Toaism, and you have essentially the same religion left. Subtract miracles from Christianity, and you have nothing but the cliches and platitudes most American Christians get weekly (and weakly) from their pulpits.

Peter Kreeft

#28. The most American thing you can do is to stifle dissent.

Utah Phillips

#29. Till the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, most American men wore hats to work. What happened? Did our guys - suddenly scouting overhead for worse Sunday raids - come to fear their hatbrims' interference?

Allan Gurganus

#30. She behaves as if she was beautiful. Most American women do. It is the secret of their charm.

Oscar Wilde

#31. I was trained to serve the writer and director as an actor before I serve myself. Not to say that's gotten in my way, but that's a different way of working than most American actors work.

Robert Englund

#32. Most American Jews came from the lower middle classes, and therefore they brought with them not a lot of Jewish culture. The American Jewish story starts with Ellis Island, and the candy store in the Bronx.

Arthur Hertzberg

#33. Most American white men are trained to be fags. For this reason it is no wonder their faces are weak and blank ...

Amiri Baraka

#34. Most American and European scholars believe that the Chinese speak their languages, only that they "talk" in Chinese.

Thorsten J. Pattberg

#35. Because the blues is the basis of most American music in the 20th century. It's a 12-bar form that's played by jazz, bluegrass and country musicians. It has a rhythmic vocabulary that's been used by rock n' roll. It's related to spirituals, and even the American fiddle tradition.

Wynton Marsalis

#36. To understand American Indians is to understand America. This is the story of the paradoxically least and most American place in the twenty-first century. Welcome to the Rez.

David Treuer

#37. Most American media outlets that are controlled by Jews seem to be reflexively, or at least habitually, anti-Israel.

Conrad Black

#38. By the age of twenty, any young man should know whether or not he is to be a specialist and just where his tastes lie. By postponing the question we have set on immaturity a premium which controls most American personality to its deathbed.

Bill Vaughan

#39. There is a terrible garrulousness in most American writing, legacy of the old Frontier.

Gore Vidal

#40. Many of my students assume that government protection is the only thing ensuring decent wages for most American workers. But basic economics shows that competition between employers for workers can be very effective at preventing businesses from misbehaving.

Christina Romer

#41. Most American writers don't get asked their opinion on current affairs, whereas in Europe and England, we still do. There are writers here who are the most sophisticated commentators, but they're not asked. Like Don DeLillo, who sort of forecast most of the modern world before it happened.

Salman Rushdie

#42. Urban design as a discipline barely exists in most American and Canadian cities. In Singapore, there are innovative transportation strategies at work.

Moshe Safdie

#43. What interested me was the story of Bennet Omalu. You hear his narrative: Immigrant from Nigeria, landing in Pittsburgh, only to learn and tell the truth about this most American - and sacrosanct - cultural institution: the NFL.

Peter Landesman

#44. The hometown economic elite - rich local families or individuals whom people used to praise or revile, read about in the society pages, and gossip about incessantly - disappeared from most American cities decades ago.

Timothy Noah

#45. Before it became a ubiquitous part of urban life, Starbucks was, in most American cities, a radically new idea.

Virginia Postrel

#46. Most American children suffer too much mother and too little father.

Gloria Steinem

#47. Everyone knows dogs. Most people love dogs. I think most American families probably have a dog, but I don't think people really realize or understand just how wonderful and special dogs are.

Robert Crais

#48. If most American cities are about the consumption of culture, Los Angeles and New York are about the production of culture - not only national culture but global culture.

Barbara Kruger

#49. I was always intrigued with European cinema, and hated most American cinema. I didn't like the one, two, three - boom! style, with a neat and tidy ending. That was never my scene.

Lee Daniels

#50. It is the instinctive wish of most American businesspeople, even those unlikely to be directly affected, that General Motors not go bankrupt.

Carol Loomis

#51. I play a curator, the most American part you can think of. My work is to protect the Declaration of Independence. I work at the National Archives in Washington.

Diane Kruger

#52. The faces of most American women over thirty are relief maps of petulant and bewildered unhappiness.

F Scott Fitzgerald

#53. Norman Rockwell, the Brueghel of the 20th century bourgeoisie, the Holbein of Jell-O ads and magazine covers; by common assent, the most American artist of all.

Jerry Adler

#54. Many medical students, like most American patients, confuse science and technology. They think that what it means to be a scientific doctor is to bring to bear the maximum amount of technology on any given patient. And this makes them dangerous.

Alice Dreger

#55. I was taught from a very early age that it was probably the most American thing you can do is to question what's going on and to try to fix things that you see that aren't right. I believed that as a young person, and I believe that today.

Michael Moore

#56. She was one of her kind, the most American she would ever be, the last American left in this hundred-year flood.

Matthew Salesses

#57. Since most American students cannot simply pay their full tuition out of pocket, financing a college education often takes the form of loans, both private and from the government.

Charles B. Rangel

#58. Most American heroes of the Revolutionary period are by now two men, the actual man and the romantic image. Some are even three men - the actual man, the image, and the debunked remains.

Esther Forbes

#59. It was surreal to step out of my own existence and see how most American children experience things.

Ellar Coltrane

#60. Most American fascists are enthusiastically supporting the war effort. They are doing this even in those cases where they hope to have profitable connections with German chemical firms after the war ends.

Henry A. Wallace

#61. Most American homes have alternating current, which means that the electricty goes in one direction for a while, then goes in the other direction. This prevents harmful electron buildup in the wires.

Dave Barry

#62. Most American men are repressors.

Ayn Rand

#63. The fault I find with most American newspapers is not the absence of dissent. it is the absence of news. With a dozen or so honorable exceptions, most American newspapers carry very little news. Their main concern is advertising.

I. F. Stone

#64. It's true that most American citizens think of themselves as living in a democratic country. But when was the last time that any Americans actually sat down and came to a collective decision? Maybe if they are ordering pizzas, but basically never.

David Graeber

#65. Others? He dares to call us others? He's the other. The one who looks most American - and he's the one who is least American! The man is unfit. He shouldn't be there. He shouldn't be there, and it's as simple as that!

Philip Roth

#66. I always felt slightly grubbier than most American people.

Ashley Jensen

#67. My dad and I once had a fight because I refused to put ketchup on my hot dogs," I said.
"That's possibly the most American sentence I've ever heard.

Heather Cocks

#68. It's all very Italian (and decidedly un-American): to insist that doing the right thing is the most pleasurable thing, and that the act of consumption might be an act of addition rather than subtraction.

Michael Pollan

#69. I get most my information about what's happening in the United States from reports and studies, which are often in conflict with what you read on the editorial pages, or handouts from right wing institutions like the American Enterprise Institute.

Ishmael Reed

#70. 'Revelations' is one of the most important pieces to the African American arts. It assesses the hope and despair of a people and overcoming the struggle with our faith.

Robert Battle

#71. You got what you deserved. Now be a man and confess to what most of us already know.

Stacy Buck

#72. We just start putting our ideas out there, yet how do we actually attack contemporary problems? We do what some of the most successful American businesses do. We outsource and collaborate

Baratunde R. Thurston

#73. Today, in American imperialism, the commodity has reached its most grandiose historical manifestation.

C.L.R. James

#74. I can only speak as an American, but most journalism here isn't doing its job any more. It's about selling stuff.

Lance Reddick

#75. American Psychological Association, the girlie-girl culture's emphasis on beauty and play-sexiness can increase girls' vulnerability to the pitfalls that most concern parents: depression, eating disorders, distorted body image, risky sexual behavior.

Peggy Orenstein

#76. For the most part, the American film market has become very corporatised, even independent film to a degree, and because of the corporate management mentality, they want to take the safe way.

Anthony LaPaglia

#77. New York State is giant and has some of the most beautiful landscape on the Eastern seaboard. There is so much history in New York State, from the Erie Canal to the Catskills, the birth of American stand-up comedy.

Adam Savage

#78. The best way to get a sense of what kinds of emergencies might present themselves in your community is by contacting local chapters of the American Red Cross or offices of emergency management in the region or state. Most large cities will have their own offices of emergency management.

Irwin Redlener

#79. Highway spending, which I think most everybody says is badly needed in this country, creates American jobs, and also makes America more competitive.

Kent Conrad

#80. Unlike most major American cities, Honolulu is geographically insulated from the rest of the country. When disaster strikes we cannot call on neighboring states for assistance.

Daniel Akaka

#81. We have the most flexible and adaptive economy. Making sure we sustain the ability of the American economy to perform well is really the priority of economic policy.

John W. Snow

#82. It's important for American soldiers to be culturally sensitive when deployed in foreign countries. But it's just as important for the U.S. never to renounce the most fundamental American values, which, after all, are also universal values.

Gary Bauer

#83. The people in the United States are some of the most generous people in the world. We saw it in Haiti. We saw it with Katrina. When devastation strikes, American people want to step up.

Ertharin Cousin

#84. No American is so old and poor and friend-less that he cannot make a collection of some of the most exquisite little ironies in town.

Kurt Vonnegut

#85. Our national motto is 'In God we Trust,' reminding us that faith in our Creator is the most important American value of all.

Marco Rubio

#86. One of the most constant aspects of American life is change - and nowhere is it more evident than in our financial markets.

Henry Paulson

#87. Titanic I thought was the most dreadful piece of work I've ever seen in my entire life. Another film that I think is equally bad was American Beauty. So badly acted and directed. But people like that.

Robert Altman

#88. Mention the name George W. Bush in mixed company, and you're likely to spark a lot of debate and emotion - hot and cold, good and bad. Not a lot of neutral reaction. He was elected in the most controversial contest in American electoral history and governed during one of the most tumultuous decades.

Mark McKinnon

#89. One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly."
~ (1919-), American writer, producer, humorist.

Andy Rooney

#90. The single most important duty of the federal government is to protect and defend our national sovereignty. There are new and disturbing reports of American nuclear submarines passing though Canadian waters without obtaining the permission of, or even notifying, the Canadian government.

Stephen Harper

#91. Strangely enough, 'I've Seen All Good People' is, I think, the second most played Yes song on American radio after 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart.' And then I think 'Roundabout' is third.

Chris Squire

#92. The most foreign fighters in Iraq are wearing British and American uniforms. The level of self-delusion is bordering frankly on the racist. The vast majority of the people of Iraq are against the occupation of Iraq by the American and British forces.

George Galloway

#93. Ask most kids about details about Auschwitz or about how the American Indians were assassinated as a people and they don't know anything about it. They don't want to know anything. Most people just want their beer or their soap opera or their lullaby.

Marlon Brando

#94. We are living in a time when American popular music is finally being recognized as one of our most successful exports. The demand is huge.

Billy Joel

#95. American democracy must be a failure because it places the supreme authority in the hands of the poorest and most ignorant part of the society.

Thomas Babington Macaulay

#96. The American woman is a charming creature. She is of a type most unusual and delightful ... And their feet and ankles are the most perfect in the world.

Jean Patou

#97. Every American has a unique identity. I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American.

Peter Thiel

#98. In the past generation, the American educational system has decided not to seek the very best teachers, give them lots of kids to teach, and pay them more - which would help children the most. It has decided to hire every teacher it can get its hands on and pay them less.

Malcolm Gladwell

#99. I don't care what your politics are, I would wager that if you asked any American woman which administration would she have most liked to work for as social secretary, she would pick Jacqueline Kennedy's White House as the place to be.

Letitia Baldrige

#100. For all our current troubles, Americans are still the hardest working, most innovative people on the face of the earth. By trusting the American people, instead of government, we'll continue to surprise and inspire the world.

Rob Portman