Pierre Trudeau Quotes

The country is the people.

The nation... doesn't simply need what we have. It needs what we are.

The nation is a community. Community of individuals, community of generations.

The vision of a nation formed from many different peoples bound together by a common love of freedom was staked out long before our lifetimes or even our parents' or grandparents' lifetimes.

In Washington, the translation of E Pluribus Unum has been lost. The belief that we are one nation - united in purpose - caring about and for one another is no longer the practice.

A nation is a historical group of men of recognizable cohesion, held together by a common enemy.

Country is not a mere zone of territory. The true country is the idea to which it gives birth ... the sense of communion which united in one all the sons of that territory.

We are all Americans, sir.

Nationalism usually conquers in the name of a putative folk culture.

The motherland is the common mother, the unity within which isolated the individuals penetrate and become enmeshed. It is the holy name that expresses the voluntary fusion of all interests into one interest, of all lives into one lasting and perpetual life.

A great aggregation of men, sane of mind and warm of heart, creates a moral consciousness which is called a nation

… we need to know ourselves, not only our own little group or our own little part of the country, but the country as a whole and all its people. This will inspire in us an even greater fervor of spirit to see our country attain the ideals we have always cherished.

The first obligation is to the French people and establish solidarity among our own citizens.

A national festival is an occasion to refine and rebuild the national character.

Americans are a quarter of a billion people who have almost nothing in common except for the fact they've been told they have lots in common.

If America is an idea, which it is - we're not a nation of ethnic groups that say we're Americans because we have American blood; we have the blood of every nation in our veins - and there's something really beautiful about that, but it means that we are an idea and that we all have to buy into this idea.

One of the things that we're missing from our political dialogue right now is the idea that the United States is a home. It is more than an accounting sheet. It is more than the sum of its G.D.P., its total tax collections, or its total outlays. America is a family.

There's something really beautiful about people from all different walks of life... who are bound together by this big idea about American identity and American unity and American interests.

I am proud of the fact that, despite all the disparities that do come up often in our country, we are still Indians, and I am proud of that.

A country cannot develop without a strong identity.

I hope America manages to steer itself away from partisanship and back to patriotism; we are all Americans. And as long as I can make people laugh and feel better, I'm happy.

A healthy nation is as unconscious of its nationality as a healthy man of his bones. But if you break a person's nationality it will think of nothing else but getting it set again.

I think if you live in a country, basically you share the dominant values of a country although you may disagree on issues all the time.

Stay with us, please remain in this country and constitute a nation based on national unity.

Personally, I believe in self-determination, but in the context of one South Africa - so that my self-determination is based in this region, and with my people.