“Let's not be too rough on our own ignorance; it's what makes America great!”

—  Frank Zappa

A appearance on The Tonight Show (29 June 1988)
Variant: Let's not be too rough on our own ignorance, it's what makes America great!

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update March 25, 2024. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Let's not be too rough on our own ignorance; it's what makes America great!" by Frank Zappa?
Frank Zappa photo
Frank Zappa 129
American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and fil… 1940–1993

Related quotes

Hillary Clinton photo

“Let’s remember where Trump makes many of his own products. Because it sure is not America. … One positive thing Trump could do to make America great again is actually make great things in America again.”

Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady

Presidential campaign (April 12, 2015 – 2016), Speech in Warren, Michigan (August 11, 2016)

Marcus Garvey photo

“God and Nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own created genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow always that great law. Let the sky and God be our limit and Eternity our measurement.”

Marcus Garvey (1887–1940) Jamaica-born British political activist, Pan-Africanist, orator, and entrepreneur
Robert F. Kennedy photo

“Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land.”

Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) American politician and brother of John F. Kennedy

On the Mindless Menace of Violence (1968)
Context: Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution. But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can. Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again.

Donald J. Trump photo

“No dream is too big, no challenge is too great. Nothing we want for our future is beyond our reach. America will no longer settle for anything less than the best.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Victory Speech http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/us/politics/trump-speech-transcript.html (9 November 2016)
2010s, 2016, November

Martin Luther King, Jr. photo

“Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, I've Been to the Mountaintop (1968)
Context: Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you.

Hassan Nasrallah photo

“Let the entire world hear me. Our hostility to the Great Satan [America] is absolute […] Regardless of how the world has changed after 11 September, Death to America will remain our reverberating and powerful slogan: Death to America.”

Hassan Nasrallah (1960) Secretary General of Hezbollah

Al-Manar, BBC Monitoring. September 27, 2002
Quote, 2002
Source: Camera: Hassan Nasrallah: In His Own Words http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&x_issue=11&x_article=1158.

Ronald Reagan photo

“America is too great for small dreams.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson photo

“Yea, let all good things await
Him who cares not to be great
But as he saves or serves the state.
Not once or twice in our rough island-story
The path of duty was the way to glory.”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate

Source: Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington (1852), St. VIII
Context: Yea, let all good things await
Him who cares not to be great
But as he saves or serves the state.
Not once or twice in our rough island-story
The path of duty was the way to glory.
He that walks it, only thirsting
For the right, and learns to deaden
Love of self, before his journey closes,
He shall find the stubborn thistle bursting
Into glossy purples, which outredden
All voluptuous garden-roses.

Charles Moose photo

“In America, we vote, we decide as a group of people what our policies are, and that's the way we do business. We don't let violence make those determinations for us.”

Charles Moose (1953) Amerocan police officer and writer

Town hall meeting http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/AttacksU (8 October 2001)

Related topics