A Quote by Henry Louis Gates

America is the greatest nation ever founded. The ideals are the greatest ever espoused in human history, and we just need the country to live up to them. But what I worry about are the 1 million black men in the prison system.

Henry Louis Gates

Quote Topics

About America Black Country Ever Founded Greatest History Human Human History Ideals Just Live Men Million Nation Need Prison Prison System System Them Up Worry

Quote Author

Henry Louis Gates
American - Critic
Born: September 16, 1950

This is the greatest society in all of human history, the greatest country ever. Many of the decisions being made in Washington today by both parties are threatening that greatness. And if we stay on this road we're on right now, our children are going to be the first Americans ever to inherit a diminished country.

Marco Rubio

Were I to make the announcement and to run, the reasons I would run is because I have a great belief in this country [America]. ... There's more natural resources than any nation in the world; the greatest education population in the world; the greatest technology of any country in the world; the greatest capacity for innovation in the world; and the greatest political system in the world.

Edward Kennedy

America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.

Pat Buchanan

Only black people in the whole neighborhood, so let's break it down: Me, I'm a decent comedian, I'm a'ight. Mary J. Blige, one of the greatest R&B singers to ever walk the Earth. Jay-Z, one of the greatest rappers to ever live. Eddie Murphy, one of the funniest actors to ever, ever do it. Do you know what the white man that lives next door to me does for a living? He's a f*****g dentist.

Chris Rock

The greatest poet who ever wrote about rowing is Virgil, the greatest historian is Thucydides, but the greatest imagination ever to turn its attention to the sport is that of painter, Thomas Eakins.

Barry S. Strauss

The United States is truly remarkable, a nation founded on a set of Enlightenment ideals so beautifully expressed by the Declaration of Independence and codified in the U.S. Constitution. We should feel good about our ideals, even when we don't quite manage to live up to them.

Jay Parini

There's no such thing as the greatest album ever. There's no greatest book, greatest human, greatest movie. At a push, the closest record to perfection I know is What's Going On by Marvin Gaye or The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds but possibly because they are widely recognized as such.

Richard Norris

If we make ourselves worthy of America's ideals, if we do not forget that our nation was founded on the premise that all men are creatures of God's making, the world will come to know that it is free men who carry forward the true promise of human progress and dignity.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

For too long, our immigration system has failed to live up to the ideals and principles our nation was founded on.

Alex Padilla

The United States of America was the first place on earth where average people had the opportunity to become the greatest among all people. It was the first time in human history where people were allowed to pursue the best of their abilities to whatever desire they wanted, because it was a nation founded under the concept of human beings being born free.

Rush Limbaugh

I don't have the need to be the greatest of all-time anymore, 'cause I'm just a speck of the greatest energy to ever exist.

The D.O.C.

The United States, per capita, at a certain period in its history, had the most junkies of any country ever in the world - right after the Civil War. The most brutal war, the greatest amount of casualties that America's ever had.

Al Lewis

Those who have enjoyed the benefits of our system more than ever now owe a duty to protect the system that has created the greatest nation on this planet.

Kenneth C. Griffin

About Mahatma Gandhi: Great in taking decisions, great in executing them, Mahatma Gandhi was incomparably great in the last stand which he made on behalf of his country. He is undoubtedly one of the greatest men the world has ever seen. The world hath need of him, and if he is mocked and jeered at by "the people of importance," "the people with a stake in this country," - the Scribes and Pharisees of the days of Christ - he will be gratefully remembered, now and always, by a nation which he led from victory to victory.

Chittaranjan Das

What's most remarkable about the conservative activists who promote a small, hysterical group of conspiracy theorists claiming a Muslim theocracy is the greatest threat facing America today is that they are also promoters of the mythology that America was founded and should be governed as a Christian nation - or, when they're feeling magnanimously ecumenical, a "Judeo-Christian" nation.