C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
America
Child of the earth’s old age.
The home of the homeless all over the earth.
America,—half-brother of the world!
America is rising with a giant’s strength. Its bones are yet but cartilages.
I was born an American; I live an American; I shall die an American.
America is a fortunate country. She grows by the follies of our European nations.
The enterprise of America precedes that of Europe, as the industry of England precedes that of the rest of Europe.
America has begun her career at the culminating point of life, as Adam did at the age of thirty.
America has furnished to the world the character of Washington! And if our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind.
Cease to brag to me of America, and its model institutions and constitutions. America, too, will have to strain its energies, crack its sinews, and all but break its heart, as the rest of us have had to do, in thousand-fold wrestle with the Pythons and mud-demons, before it can become a habitation for the gods.
Young man, there is America—which at this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories of savage men and uncouth manners; yet shall, before you taste of death, show itself equal to the whole of that commerce which now attracts the envy of the world.
Our country, whether bounded by the St. John’s and the Sabine, or however otherwise bounded or described, and be the measurement more or less,—still our country, to be cherished in all our hearts, to be defended by all our hands.