The vast majority of Americans are good: the mothers and fathers, the working people, the children, the vast overwhelming majority — millions and millions and millions. A small, small percentage are otherwise. They get the attention. But we mustn’t forget the tremendous good we have within us as a people. I have a very positive opinion of America and our citizens. My opinion of the media and what they try to tell us about ourselves is perhaps not quite as high (although there, too, the majority of them are good and mean well). The media play up what’s wrong more than what’s right, and most of what we have is right. As we work to correct what is wrong, we must always keep in mind all the things that are right with America and Americans.

Among the many eminent qualities which the Americans possess, it is, above all, their spirit of enterprise, their sense of order, and their inventive capacity, which attract the attention of the whole world.

The American public highly overrates its sense of humor. We're great belly laughers and prat fallers, but we never really did have a real sense of humor. Not satire anyway. We're a fatheaded, cotton-picking society. When we realize finally that we aren't God's given children, we'll understand satire. Humor is really laughing off a hurt, grinning at misery.

What makes America great is the idea that when government is limited and decisions are made closest to the people they impact, people are free — free to work, free to live, free to choose, free to fail and free to achieve. The America I know provides everyone an equal opportunity to be as unequaled as they choose to be. The America I know gives back. Americans, regardless of financial status, are the most giving people on the planet. On their own, without government requirement, our people give their money, their time and their attention to causes, communities and people in need whether it is across the street or around the world. I’ve experienced this generosity throughout my life and during my battle with cancer. I am so grateful.

Americans are generous and strong and decent, not because we believe in ourselves, but because we hold beliefs beyond ourselves. When this spirit of citizenship is missing, no government program can replace it. When this spirit is present, no wrong can stand against it.

The American people are a very generous people and will forgive almost any weakness, with the possible exception of stupidity.

Some have forgotten the math of America — whenever you divide you diminish. What I know is that the goodness and compassion of the American people is a multiplier that simply cannot be measured. The goodness and greatness of our country is multiplied when neighbors help neighbors, when we reach out to those in need and build better citizens and more heroic communities. You see, the America I know is built by citizens and leaders who respect, strengthen and serve each other not based on race, gender or economic status but because we are Americans! We all have a role to play in uniting the country around the principles that have made us extraordinary.

A sense of humour is a sense of proportion.

In citizens like these, we see the best of our country – resilient and hopeful, caring and strong. These virtues give me an unshakable faith in America. We have faced danger and trial, and there is more ahead. But with the courage of our people and confidence in our ideals, this great Nation will never tire … never falter … and never fail.

Those people with a sense of humor get by more comfortably than those who don’t.

If humor be the safety of our race, then it is due largely to the infusion into the American people of the Irish brain.

Humor is like a good eye for design, it comes when you have a strong sense of proportion along with the grace to step back and not take every little thing too seriously.

The genius of American culture and its integrity comes from fidelity to the light. Plain as day, we say. Happy as the day is long. Early to bed, early to rise. American virtues are daylight virtues: honesty, integrity, plain speech. We say yes when we mean yes and no when we mean no, and all else comes from the evil one. America presumes innocence and even the right to happiness.

Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our hardnesses yield, all our irritations and resentments flit away and a sunny spirit takes their place.