Naomi Wolf Quotes

Americans' great and secret fear is that America may turn out to be a phenomenon rather than a civilization.

Americans, perhaps more than most people, have pondered the question of who they are and what their country is.

Reagan won because he was real. He believed in America. He told people he was gonna make it great again coming out of a disastrous four years of Jimmy Carter and Watergate before that.

You're always more critical of your own country. People will talk about stuff in Britain, and I'll go: 'Aw, it's not that bad,' but at home, it's different. It's inside you.

We, the people. Manifest Destiny. Conceived in liberty. Fear itself. Ask not. Morning in America. United we stand. Yes, we can. In times of great change and tumult, presidents seek to inspire beleaguered Americans by reminding them of their national identity.

The United States of America - once great, grand and free - is on the path to becoming just another country.

France will always be France no matter what, but America involves striving toward an ideal.

In a sense I've made the same film over and over again. In all of them I've asked, 'Who are we as Americans?

America is not static. America is striving. And sometimes, America requires critique. Jingoism is an avoidance of realism. You can simultaneously love and be disappointed in the object of your love, wanting it to be better than it is. In fact, that is a measure of love. Honest critique is a pillar of patriotism.

American politicians who dwell on American exceptionalism only dishonor us by suggesting we play dumb to our past.

Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealistic nation in the world.

Ronald Reagan was 3 parts optimism and 1 part nostalgia.

The problem with some of our noisier exponents of 'American exceptionalism' is that they lack Reagan's moral maturity.

I think, at the end of the day, we're Americans: that's what we are, and we believe in America.

We are Americans, and the future belongs to us.

I truly believe we can be the greatest nation on Earth.

We Italians are always criticising ourselves.

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

My father was convinced that America was the greatest place in the world. I'm afraid I didn't have the family I would have dreamed of.

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.

Political people give speeches and espouse positions declaring that America is the best and strongest nation in the world.

I don't want to be another country. I want to be the United States of America, the greatest country in the world.

We have to bring back that Reagan optimism.

People talking about making America great again? America's never been great. The greatness of America is in its pursuit of greatness.

The Hollywood of Frank Capra's era, when Reagan became a minor star, sold the world an image of American pith and patriotism in many ways as defining as the moon landing or the A-bomb.