American Quotations by William J. Federer 2024

Sir Winston Churchill (November 30, 1874-January 24, 1965) was the British statesman who led Great Britain through World War II. The son of Lord Randolph Churchill, he was a direct descendant of the 1st Duke of Marlborough. He served as a war correspondent when Cuban guerrillas fought the Spanish, 1895; transferred to Bombay, India, 1896; attempted to cover the Greco-Turkish War, 1897; witnessed fighting the Pashtun tribe in Pakistan, 1897; reported on British fighting in Egypt and the Sudan, 1898; and covered the South African Boer War,1899. Churchill joined Parliament in 1900. After holding several positions, he rejoined the army...

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (May 29, 1874-June 14, 1936) was a modern British poets and novelists. His fondness of paradox is seen in his great works: Heretics; Orthodoxy; Outline of Sanity; All Is Grist; and All I Survey. In English Men of Letters, Chesterton wrote very enlightening sketches about both Browning and Dickens. In What's Wrong with the World, 1910, Gilbert Keith Chesterton wrote: <The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.> 1874GC001 G.K. Chesterton wrote a poem titled "Lepanto" to commemorate one of the most important naval battles in history, the...

Robert Frost (March 24, 1874-January 29, 1963) was an American poet and teacher. He had been a farmer in New Hampshire; taught at Amherst College; was poet in residence at the University of Michigan; and professor of poetry at Harvard University, 1936. He won the Pulitzer prize for poetry, 1924, 1931, 1937, and 1943; was named consultant in poetry for the Library of Congress; and received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1960. His works include: A Boy's Will, 1913; North of Boston, 1914; Mountain Interval, 1916; West-Running Brook, 1928; A Way Out, 1929; From Snow to Snow, 1936; A Witness Tree,...

John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. (January 29, 1874-May 11, 1960) was the son of industrialist and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller. He was an assistant to his father in managing the Rockefeller enterprises, 1897; and upon his father's retirement, assumed the general superintendency, 1911. He later concerned himself mainly with the Rockefeller philanthropies, being the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Rockefeller Foundation; a director of the General Education Board, and president of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. He build Rockefeller Center in mid-Manhattan, New York City, 1935; and donated the land bordering the East River between 41st and 47th to...

Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873-October 4, 1944) was the four-term Governor of New York, 1919-21, 1923-29; and the Democratic Presidential candidate in 1928. He had also served as an Assemblyman in the New York State Legislature, 1903; Sheriff of New York City, 1915-17; and leader of the American Liberty League, 1939-44. Alfred E. Smith, a Catholic, came under attack during his campaign for the Presidency. He responded in May of 1927: <I am unable to understand how anything I was taught to believe as a Catholic could possibly be in conflict with what is good citizenship. The essence of my...