Clementa C. Pinckney Quotes

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

Every American in uniform, in the White House or at home - USA! USA! USA! - we must be a force for unity in America, for a vision that includes all of us. All of us. Every man and woman, every race, every ethnicity, every faith and creed, including the Americans who are our precious Muslims. And every gender and every gender orientation.

I see Americans of every party, every background, every faith who believe that we are stronger together: black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American; young, old; gay, straight; men, women, folks with disabilities, all pledging allegiance under the same proud flag to this big, bold country that we love. That's what I see. That's the America I know!

The beauty of America is that I don't have to deny my past to affirm my present. No one does. We can love this nation like a parent and still embrace our ancestral home like cherished grandparents.

While we may be of different faiths, we have a strong sense of faith, family, community. We hold the values of freedom and human rights very high and I think that those are all a part of a very strong quilt that binds us together.

In Sheffield, we need support from the community and for the community. We need integration with no loss of heritage, and a clear appreciation of what is and is not acceptable.

No matter the nationality, no matter the religion, no matter the ethnic background, America brings out the best in people.

I've been marching in every single ethnic nationality parade all throughout the City of New York. We're all Americans first and foremost, but people understand their heritage and it's good to see.

I like America, where believers eddy around each other like currents of air. Even our atheists are devout! To be an American is to be a believer. I don't have much faith in institutions, but I still believe in people.

Think about just how much we'd get accomplished if we collectively viewed the people with whom we came into contact as just an American and not an American with a prefix.

America is not held together by a common race, religion or ethnicity; it is held together by shared values.

I am proof that, as Americans, we can embrace our differences.

We care about shared values, culture and identity.

We are, by many measures, one of the more diverse cities in the country, growing more diverse all the time, and one of the more harmonious in terms of how we live together.

It may be the optimist in me, but I think America has a uniquely powerful and capacious glue internally. The American identity has always been ethnically and religiously neutral, so within one generation you have Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Jamaican-Americans - they feel American. It's a huge success story.

And we should be a welcoming nation. Our identity is not based on race or ethnicity, it's based on a set of shared values. That's American citizenship.

The greatness of Americans is that we are mosaic - we are diverse.

Society is unity in diversity.

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.

Victoria is proudly the multicultural capital of Australia; we have a diverse, harmonious community.

Kids are our future, and we hope baseball has given them some idea of what it is to live together and how we can get along, whether you be black or white.

We as Americans of Latin descent are just as American as anyone else of any other descent.

My schools were quite diverse - those who serve their country come from every race and religion - and so the military schools I attended were a wonderful melting pot.

Everyone should be proud of who they are and where they come from because America is a big melting pot of diverse ethnicities. It's great to be part of this wonderful country.

Whether our forebears were strangers who crossed the Atlantic or the Pacific or the Rio Grande, we are here only because this country welcomed them in and taught them that to be an American is about something more than what we look like, or what our last names are, or how we worship.