Stephen Samuel Wise Quotes

I think the only universal thing is one individual. If you talk about a country or a nation or a culture, it's so vague. I mean what is a nation? A nation is full of nice and bad and long and tall and short and thin people. It's not like everybody is the same.

I think it would be terrific if everybody was alike.

America is not anything if it consists of each of us. It is something only if it consists of all of us.

It is an enormous simplification to speak of the American mind. Every American has his own mind. It is absurd to ascribe any achievements and virtues or any misdeeds and vices of individual Americans to America as such.... What makes the American people different from any other people is the joint effect produced by the thoughts and actions of innumerable uncommon Americans.

If America is a melting pot, then to me India is a thali--a selection of sumptuous dishes in different bowls. Each tastes different, and does not necessarily mix with the next but they belong together on the same plate, and they complement each other in making the meal a satisfying repast.

We must realize that it is best to focus on our oneness, to re emphasize what is the same about each of us rather than dwell on what is different.

Diversity hasn't a thing to do with why this country is great. Diversity is not a factor in any way when defining or explaining America's greatness.

America is a mosaic not of groups but of individuals, each of whom carries a host of cultural influences, some chosen, some inherited, some absorbed by osmosis. That mosaic is held together by the pursuit of happiness, the most powerful mortar ever conceived. Left alone, it will long endure.

As Governor, I could think of only one way to unify our State that was made up of so many different climates, political beliefs and people, and that was our music.

Here's an idea: How about just 'Americans?' That has a nice ring to it, if you ask me. Placing undue emphasis on our 'separateness' is a step backward. Bring back the melting pot.

America is a place where we all come together. It is a place of consensus.

There is no 'them' and 'us.' There is only us.

There is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and latino America and asian America - there's the United States of America.

Every person, every race, every nation, has its own particular keynote which it brings to the general chord of life and of humanity.

The melting pot was always a tension between difference and sameness.

There is no them in America.

America is woven of many strands. I would recognize them and let it so remain. Our fate is to become one, and yet many. This is not prophecy, but description.

We are all Americans, sir.

I believe in the spirit of equality and the spirit of this country as one of love and compassion and kindness.

Americans have always prized individuality - it is part of our national DNA - but America is a community that draws strength from the sum of our people and has always known that the total of that sum is worth far more than its individual parts.

No one can divide the people of India.

America to me is where I grew up: in Brooklyn, around other black and Latino people who helped and loved each other. I just want to show people that America doesn't have to be this 'I'm in the NRA, blah blah blah' type of place.

We all aren't in government, we all aren't CEOs, but we all are somebody.

We're all equal. We were all made the same.

In South Africa, we kind of like looking for things that unite people in big, big groups.