Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes

A great nation cannot throw off the responsibilities which its past history and its position in the world have imposed upon it.

Japan is a great nation. It should begin to act like one.

Politics is really religion. Politics is about sacredness. Politics is about offering a vision that will bind the nation together to pursue greatness.

Our economy of allegiance simply is not infinitely expandable. If we become more Virginian or Georgian, surely we will also feel more remote, less responsible for the poor of Kentucky or of the ghettoes of Chicago. If we became more Virginian, we would be less American.

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.

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

The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the Nation's greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power or power uses us

All colors and blends of Americans have somewhat the same tendencies. It's a breed — selected out by accident. And so we're overbrave and overfearful — we're kind and cruel as children. We're overfriendly and at the same time frightened of strangers. We boast and are impressed. We're oversentimental and realistic. We are mundane and materialistic — and do you know of any other nation that acts for ideals?

Nationalism is the most powerful force on earth today.

It is claimed that religious unity is also a factor in the formation of nations. Whereas, we see the contrary in the Turkish nation. Turks were a great nation even before they adopted Islam. This religion did not help the Arabs, Iranians, Egyptians and others to unite with Turks to form a nation. Conversely, it weakened the Turks’ national relations; it numbed Turkish national feelings and enthusiasm. This was natural, because Mohammedanism was based on Arab nationalism above all nationalities.

I believe that a strong man makes a strong country.

There's nothing wrong with loving your country. There's nothing wrong with caring about who gets into your country. There's nothing wrong about wanting your country to be great. There's nothing wrong with thinking that the country comes before the world. There's nothing wrong at all, and that's been wrong in the past and we're gonna make it right. We're gonna love America, we're gonna unify, we're gonna make America great again.

The idea of American exceptionalism doesn't extend to Americans being exceptional.

You can't kill America. We're more than a nation. We're a notion. We're an idea. The American Dream. You never heard of the Afghanistani Dream have you. Except by bearded hermetic recluses with a fetish for uneducated women dressed as giant shuttlecocks.

If we only have great companies, we will merely have a prosperous society, not a great one. Economic growth and power are the means, not the definition, of a great nation.

With us, the people of India, rests the real power to decide our collective future.

A nation is a thing that lives and acts like a man and men are the particles of which it is composed.

We are... living in a free society without the faith that built that society - and without the conviction and dedication needed to sustain it... We still have the cathedral of freedom but how long will it last without the faith?

If we have to use force, it is because we are America.

America has never been an empire. We may be the only great power in history that had the chance, and refused - preferring greatness to power and justice to glory.

It is character that counts in a nation as in a man.

It is by no means necessary that a great nation should always stand at the heroic level. But no nation has the root of greatness in it unless in time of need it can rise to the heroic mood.

A stand can be made against invasion by an army; no stand can be made against invasion by an idea.

America is a new country, and maybe patriotism helps Americans create unity, since it is a melting pot. But nationalism in Europe has a strong history, as you may know.