Josiah Strong Quotes

In international relations, in foreign policy, a great deal has to do with historical circumstances, a great deal has to do with the sense and perception of people.

Once the state has been founded, there can no longer be any heroes. They come on the scene only in uncivilized conditions.

I see the great continuities in New Zealand history as being decency and common sense and up until now when we've confronted these things we've been able to talk them through, and I'm sure we will with this issue as well.

A battle lost or won is easily described, understood, and appreciated, but the moral growth of a great nation requires reflection, as well as observation, to appreciate it.

I believe in all the qualities of being a liberal. I keep going back to all the great social events in our country's history, starting with the Salem witch trials, where the conservative view was that they're witches and should be burned at the stake, and the liberal view was there's no such thing as witches.

If we compare the present time with former ages, we find that the same tendencies and desires have at all times governed states and peoples.

The British have never historically thought of themselves as being European. The average Britain has much more in common with an American than with a Frenchman.

Much of how Americans have always understood their history, culture, and identity depends on positioning Europe as the 'other,' as that 'old world' against which they define themselves.

What a magnificent land and race is this Britain! Everything about them is of better quality than the corresponding thing in the U.S.... Yet I believe (or suspect) that ours is eventually the bigger destiny, if we can only succeed in living up to it.

There seems to be an interest in connecting the history of the past to the present and asking whether things have really changed. Films like 'The Contender' and 'Bulworth' seem quaint compared with Trump!

I would like people to get a differentiated historical view of Germany.

Most Americans are exceptionalists; we think we live outside of history.

From John Kennedy to Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, presidents have rhetorically opened the door to the frontier for us, and each time, we have turned away to fight over destinations, technologies, and timing.

Maintaining America's role as the greatest nation in the world means we must stay the course.

I don't think it's a coincidence that 'The War Room' and 'A Perfect Candidate' are films that have been consistently shown and available for rental for 20 years. These are films that are more about the moment in which they were filmed: they also have a great deal to say about larger issues about who we are as a country.

I work with history because I come from a country that has a tremendous thirst for reality.

I don't know what it is to feel very British, but I feel that it's home, so I'm very happy to represent Great Britain.

My Britishness waters my music down!

There's a distinct American culture that evolved from the United States founding, and that is what made America great, is what allowed the human being to become.

The left can't wait to condemn this country. The left can't wait to tell stories of how we have, I don't know, just made messes of things, as their justification for chopping us down to size and for disqualifying us superpower status. We haven't earned it. We've built our nation on the backs of slaves and other discrimination and so forth.

There is no Croatian dream. There is no European Union dream. There is no Chinese communist dream, except maybe to get out. But there is and always has been an American dream. And the dream is possible. The dream can become real.

The intensity of a national culture should be represented by... the general education level and... the exceptional merit of a small elite of pioneers.

My books have done extremely well, I know. But I don't honestly feel much different from when I began to write. I still think we have a long way to go. I suppose my name means more in Nigeria today than it did five years ago. But I feel the job that literature should do in our community has not even started. It's not yet part of the life of the nation. We are still at the beginning. It's a big beginning, because now we are catching the next generation in the schools. When I was their age, I had nothing to read that had any relevance to my own environment.

Yeah, this country's founding fathers are a bunch of dead rich white men, but they did set things up so you could come and sit at the table, so don't piss in the finger bowls, all right? Thank you. In return for unfettered economic opportunity and no government death squads, try to get along with your new stepmotherland, and don't be resentful if there's a set of house rules already in place.

There are some nasty, nasty incidents taking place in the world, but [it's] much better than it used to be.