John Meisel Quotes

The national interest is not simply the sum of our special interests and attachments.

There is too much disagreement for disagreement's sake. In a time of persistent challenges that still call into question our most sacred aspirations as a country, we cannot afford shallow callous divisiveness in our public debate.

Citizenship in a diverse society means living with our deepest differences and committing ourselves to work for public policies that are in the best interest of all individuals, families, communities and our nation.

Our national well-being is in inverse proportion to the sharpness and extent of our theoretical differences.

It's hard to mobilize various interest groups ... when its for the benefit of everyone.

Earlier pluralist societies destroyed themselves because no one took care of the common good. They abounded in communities but could not sustain community, let alone create it.

In our personal ambitions we are individualists. But in our seeking for economic and political progress as a nation, we all go up or else all go down as one people.

Government is a progressive instrument for the common good.

I was dismayed by ... the terrible divisiveness isolating so many citizens from the great American community that makes us a people rather than an assortment of factions.

E Pluribus Unum, the Latin phrase on the great seal of the United States literally translated means one from many. We need to reattach pluribus to unum—the many to the one.

The public interest is more than the sum total of the interest groups.

When fear, especially a fear for one’s own well-being, clouds decisions on public policy, the public ends up falling into a solipsistic trap – each individual is so concerned with his or her own particular future, that one fails to consider the best interests of the community as a whole.

Our Union cannot safely stand on the cold calculation of interest alone.

No government can help the destinies of people who insist in putting sectional and class consciousness ahead of general weal.

America rests on shared values rather than shared ethnicity.

We pay a price when special interests win out over the collective national interest.

A nation is formed by the willingness of each of us to share in the responsibility for upholding the common good.

When push comes to shove, we all should know most Americans want the same things, but just disagree on how to get there, which is why it should be okay to not panic if the other party wins.

Our national purpose, not our party differences, must define the American Brand. We must change the conversation from one centered around what defines our differences to one that hangs a lantern on what binds us, supports our collective well being and makes us all stronger and more productive as a result.

The history of American patriotism is figuring out ways that we can work together to move forward and knit together the common government.

For too long in this society, we have celebrated unrestrained individualism over common community.

We have had in our nation a well-celebrated Declaration of Independence. But our success as a country will depend upon a new 'Declaration of Inter-dependence.' A belief in how much we need each other, how much we share one common destiny.

We too often prefer the individual thrill to collective responsibility.

Citizen statesmanship recognizes legitimate local or special needs, but it places the national interest first.

I will ever prefer the weal of the public and of the whole commonwealth, in making of good laws and constitutions, to any particular and private ends of mine