“I deigned to suggest to him that it was also the American thing -- America was nothing if not good intentions.”

“When good Americans die, they go to Paris'.'Where do bad Americans go?''They stay in America'.”

“I am reminded once again that the best things about America are the little things, the little freedoms that Americans don't think twice about.”

“The best of America drifts to Paris. The American in Paris is the best American. It is more fun for an intelligent person to live in an intelligent country. France has the only two things toward which we drift as we grow older—intelligence and good manners.”

“One cannot be an American by going about saying that one is an American. It is necessary to feel America, like America, love America and then work.”

“Whenever people in that part of the world asked Patterson about the wonders of America, the possibilities and the hope of America, Patterson would say that it was a good and fine place but all the Americans were running it into the ground and that it would be a far better place if it had no Americans.”