Quintessentially American Quotes & Sayings

Nashville is wicked. It's like a proper music community, but it's also quintessentially American. You bump into people there with cowboy hats that spit in jars and call you 'boy.' I just love that. — Ed Sheeran

I believe people are fundamentally good and want to find things that make life better for themselves. There are social dynamics for people that work, and there are ones that are pathological. But beneath every 'no' lays a 'yes' that had never been broken. I put my life-faith in that. — Tim O'Reilly

The Buke of Ye Chess used the game as the basis for a series of sermons on morality. Neither book illustrates play or player improvement, but uses the chessboard and pieces to 'allegorize a political community whose citizens contribute to the common good'2. — Laura Caine Ramsey

I thought it was quintessentially American - very hip, very late-'60s. I was absolutely stunned when a German production company asked me if I could do a 'Sesame Street' in Germany. It was absolutely the happiest surprise. — Joan Ganz Cooney

Baseball, football, basketball - these quintessentially American pastimes are recognizably sports because they involve play: they are games. One plays football, one doesn't play boxing ... The boxing match is the very image, the more terrifying for being so stylized, of mankind's collective aggression; its ongoing historical madness. — Joyce Carol Oates

It's wrong, and it's racist, and it's bigoted to say that guns are quintessentially American. — Alan Dershowitz

Ladies and gentleman, Tim said. May I present to you, our son, Jason Grant! — Jay Bell

Eventually, I headed to the bathroom, and I mention this only because I saw in that bathroom the most quintessentially American artifact I have ever encountered: a bright blue rubber mat resting in the bottom of the urinal emblazoned with the following legend:
Epply
World's Cleanest Airport
Omaha, NE
God bless our relentless idiotic optimism. — Steve Almond

Yes, photography saved my life. Every time I go through something scary, traumatic, I survive by taking pictures. — Nan Goldin

Due to the injuries that I will have for the rest of my life, it is physically impossible for me to consider any career in wrestling. — Brian Bosworth

Miami, in many ways, is a quintessentially American city. The juxtaposition of showy wealth with dire pennilessness, the tussle of glitz and decay doesn't come any more marked than here. — Tibor Fischer

Being religious is quintessentially American. — Denis McDonough

I've always wanted to be able to say that I come from Los Angeles, California and feel quintessentially American - even if I said that in Spanish. — Cheech Marin

I dream big, baby. I want to do thrillers, I want to do smart David Lynch-type mysteries. — Gina Rodriguez

As long as I could forever stay his little princess. — Ellen Hopkins

In life, you may face hard times. But in the face of adversity, always seek to remain positive. What we think, will eventually become our life. And if you think positive, you will have a positive life. — Sarah Wilson

My commitment to gender equality is rooted in the quintessentially American principle of equal justice under law. — Eric Schneiderman

Average household credit card debt topped the landmark of $10,000 in 2006, a hundredfold increase over the average consumer debt in the 1960s. One consequence: Much of the material buried in landfills in recent years was bought with those same credit cards, leading to the quintessentially American practice of consumers continuing to pay, sometimes for years, for purchases after they become trash. — Edward Humes

But once you strip that down, you realize it's all about a voice, like a Norah Jones - that's inspiring to me. — Taylor Dayne

I'd heard "Rhapsody in Blue" a thousand times and it always amazed me. It was so humble and then so bombastic. It was beautiful, bright, and terrifying: old and new, European and American. At times it sounded like Debussy, at times it sounded like Stravinsky, and at times it sounded like the Lower East Side in 1910.
"Rhapsody in Blue" was a quintessentially New York work of art, but it was also about moving from east to west, from the old world to the new... — Moby

The big advantage of a book is that it's very easy to rewind. Close it and you're right back at the beginning. — Jerry Seinfeld