Studs Terkel Quotes

Reagan was all about America, and you talked about it. Obama is, 'We are above that now. We're not just parochial, we're not just chauvinistic, we're not just provincial. We stand for something.' I mean, in a way, Obama's standing above the country, above - above the world. He's sort of God. He's going to bring all different sides together.

Here we encounter two conflicting concepts with which we must come to grips in our time: the idea of national solidarity and the idea of international cooperation.

To contrast national solidarity and international cooperation as two opposites seems foolish to me.

We must get away from the idea that America is to be the leader of the world in everything.

Well, I think the United States first of all has to recognize the world for what it is.

Any nation that refuses to hold intercourse with other nations must expect to be excluded from this family.

I believe that national sovereignties will shrink in the face of universal interdependence.

Neighbor is no longer confined to the vocabulary of the individual. It is a national word. Modern inventions have annihilated distance. Commercial relations have broken down barriers of race and religion, and the family of nations is a recognized fact.

The world before 1914 was already a world in which the welfare of each individual nation was inextricably bound up with the prosperity of the whole community of nations.

I'm suggesting that, ironically, the secret to becoming a world 'hyperpower' is tolerance. If you look at history, you see great powers being very tolerant in their rise to global dominance.

Our civilization is now in the transition stage between the age of warring empires and a new age of world unity and peace.

The countries that share this conception should be able to go further together, without excluding the others, since they can still live in a greater community of exchange and co-operation.

I have long believed this interdependence defines the new world we live in.

Let us mingle with other nations as one of them and not stand as one apart. Let us seek their friendship not their hate.

I think where Trump just has it dead wrong is this is a world of us versus them.

It's important that we have a global perspective and look abroad and learn from our neighbors.

I believe that our national security lies not just in protecting our borders, but in bridging divides.

We don't want an America that is closed to the world. What we want is a world that is open to America.

Europe must learn to live in and with the world, not to dominate it nor to assume it is superior or more virtuous.

International politics is no longer a zero-sum game but a multi-dimensional arena where cooperation and competition often occur simultaneously. Gone is the age of blood feuds. World leaders are expected to lead in turning threats into opportunities.

Isolationism is over.

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.

The whole notion of an embassy is like 'The Other.' That's what makes Washington interesting.

But to be self-obsessed is simply not o.k. for the most important country in the world, the United States, which affects every other country in the world.

America believes what's good for us is good for the world. It's very difficult to understand that that's not necessarily true.