The metaphor of the melting pot is unfortunate and misleading. A more accurate analogy would be a salad bowl, for, though the salad is an entity, the lettuce can still be distinguished from the chicory, the tomatoes from the cabbage. – Carl N. Degler

I have fallen in love with American names, the sharp, gaunt names that never get fat. – Stephen Vincent Benet

Americans are so enamored of equality, they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom. – Alexis de Tocqueville