Best nations & character Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“American exceptionalism is the recurring character in the nation's narrative.”

Character Nations Narrative Recurring Exceptionalism American Exceptionalism

“As the nation watches, Democrats and Republicans should reflect the interspersed character of America itself. Perhaps, by sitting with each other for one night, we will begin to rekindle that common spark that brought us here from 50 different states and widely diverging backgrounds to serve the public good.”

Should Different States Character America Night Nations Common Watches Republican Sitting Democrat Backgrounds Sparks One Night Public Good

Author:Mark Udall

“My father is a man of impeccable character who has worked tirelessly for the United Nations for many years. His integrity is beyond reproach.”

Men Years Character Father Nations United Integrity United Nations Reproach Impeccable

Author:Kojo Annan

“A prolonged war in which a nation takes part is bound to impoverish the breed, since the character of the breed depends on the men who are left.”

Men War Character Science Left Nations He Man Depends Bounds

Author:J. Arthur Thomson

“The glory of the nation rests in the character of her men. And character comes from boyhood. Thus every boy is a challenge to his elders.”

Men Character Nations Challenges Boys Glory Elders Boyhood

Book:Addresses Upon the Road: World War II, 1941-1945

Source: Addresses Upon the Road: World War II, 1941-1945

“Love of peace is common among weak, short-sighted, timid, and lazy persons; and on the other hand courage is found among many men of evil temper and bad character. Neither quality shall by itself avail. Justice among the nations of mankind, and the uplifting of humanity, can be brought about only by those strong and daring men who with wisdom love peace, but who love righteousness more than peace.”

Men Love Persons Character Hands Age Humanity Evil Found Strong Nations Justice Common Quality Mankind Weak Uplifting Lazy Righteousness Temper Daring Peace Love Short Sighted Bad Character Love Wisdom

Book:Bully!

Source: Bully!

“A nation has character only when it is free.”

Character Nations Liberty

Author:Bill Vaughan

“The true key to the declension of the Roman empire which is not to be found in all Gibbon 's immense work may be stated in two words: the imperial character overlaying, and finally destroying, the national character. Rome under Trajan was an empire without a nation.”

May Two Character Found Nations Keys Empires Destroying Rome Immense Roman Empire

Book:Specimens of the table talk

Source: Specimens of the table talk

“It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation.”

Character Law Nations Observance

Author:Calvin Coolidge

“I believe that during the intervention of NATO in Kosovo there is an element nobody can question: the air attacks, the bombs, are not caused by a material interest. Their character is exclusively humanitarian: What is at stake here are the principles, human rights which have priority above state sovereignty. This makes it legitimate to attack the Yugoslav Federation, although without the United Nations mandate.”

“From the time of the North Briton of the unprincipled Wilkes , a notion has been entertained that the moral spine in Scotland is more flexible than in England. The truth however is, that an elementary difference exists in the public feelings of the two nations quite as great as in the idioms of their respective dialects. The English are a justice-loving people, according to charter and statute; the Scotch are a wrong-resenting race, according to right and feeling: and the character of liberty among them takes its aspect from that peculiarity.”

People Has Beens Two Character Feelings Nations Differences Justice Race Liberty Moral Aspect England Notion Scotland Flexible Spine Charter Scotch Dialect Statutes Idiom Britons Two Nations

Author:John Galt

“Education is the chief remedy for all those great evils which afflict the country. Education will not only cultivate and improve the intellect of the nation, but will also purify its character.”

Country Character Evil Nations Intellect Chiefs Remedy

Author:Keshub Chandra Sen

“Portugal was born in the shadow of the Catholic Church and religion, from the beginning it was the formative element of the soul of the nation and the dominant trait of character of the Portuguese people.”

People Soul Character Nations Born Church Elements Shadow Catholic Traits Dominant Catholic Church Portugal Portuguese

Author:Antonio de Oliveira Salazar

“Experience serves to prove that the worth and strength of a state depend far less upon the form of its institutions than upon the character of its men; for the nation is only the aggregate of individual conditions, and civilization itself is but a question of personal, improvement.”

Men States Character Form Individual Nations Conditions Depends Civilization Prove Institutions Improvement Personal Improvement

Book:Self-help; with Illustrations of Character, Conduct, and Perseverance

Source: Self-help; with Illustrations of Character, Conduct, and Perseverance

“As the places where Americans dwell become evermore depressing and impossible, Disneyworld is where they escape to worship the nation in the abstract, a cartoon capital of a cartoon republic enshrining the falsehoods, half-truths, and delusions that prop up the squishy thing the national character has become--for instance, that we are a nation of families; that we care about our fellow citizens; that history matters; that there is a place called home.”

Source: The geography of nowhere: the rise and decline of America's man-made landscape

“No single character is ever so great that a nation can afford to form itself upon it. Imitation belittles. This appears in the instance of the Chinese. The Chinese are so many Confucii; in miniature. And so with the Jews. Moses, the lawgiver, is poorly represented by Moses, the old clothesman ; or even by Dives, the hanker.”

Character Form Nations Jew Instance Chinese Imitation Moses Belittle Miniatures

Author:Christian Nestell Bovee

“Children model the behavior of adults, on whatever scale is available to them. Ours are growing up in a nation whose most important, influential men - from presidents to the coolest film characters - solve problems by killing people. ... We have taught our children in a thousand ways, sometimes with flag-waving and sometimes with a laugh track, that the bad guy deserves to die.”

“Uncontrollable consumerism has become a watchword of our culture despite regular and compelling calls for its end. The United States has more malls than high schools; Americans spend more time shopping than reading. ... Some of the most insightful writing about the American character over the nation's history has been about neither freedom nor democracy but about the crazed impulse to acquire things.”

Source: Loud and Clear

“What you do is as important as anything government does. I ask you to seek a common good beyond your comfort; to defend needed reforms against easy attacks; to serve your nation, beginning with your neighbor. I ask you to be citizens: citizens, not spectators; citizens, not subjects; responsible citizens, building communities of service and a nation of character.”

Doe Important Character Government Asks Nations Easy Community Common Subjects Building Needed Citizens Comfort Responsible Neighbor Reform Spectators Common Good Building Community

Author:George W. Bush

“Movies both reflect and create social conditions, but their special charm is to offer fantasy clothes as virtual reality, a world where people consume without the tedium of labor. Characters float in a world where the bill never comes due ... and we wonder why we're a debtor nation!”

People World Character Reality Nations Social Wonder Fantasy Special Conditions Offers Clothes Labor Bills Dues Movie Charm Floats Virtual Reality Tedium Debtors Social Conditions

Author:Molly Haskell

“Since the moment of the United Nations' inception, untold energies have been expended by governments not only toward the exclusion of persons of principle and distinction from the organization's leading positions, but toward the installation of men whose character and affiliations would as far as possible preclude any serious challenge to governmental sovereignty.”

“Of all ennobling sentiments, patriotism may be the most easily manipulated. On the one hand, it gives powerful expression to what is best in a nation's character: a commitment to principle, a willingness to sacrifice, a devotion to the community by the choice of the individual. But among its toxic fruits are intolerance, belligerence and blind obedience, perhaps because it blooms most luxuriantly during times of war.”

“'Revelation assures us that 'righteousness exalteth a nation.' Communities are dealt with in this world by the wise and just Ruler of the Universe. He rewards or punishes them according to their general character. The diminution of public virtue is usually attended with that of public happiness, and the public liberty will not long survive the total extinction of morals.”

World Long Character Universe Nations Community Liberty Moral Virtue Wise This World Rewards Revelations Righteousness Rulers Extinction

Author:Samuel Adams

“As the United Nations pushes for jurisdiction over the globe, it is important to remember how it has acted in Bosnia. The character of an institution, no less than of an individual, is revealed through actions, not words.”

Important Character Action Remember Individual Nations United Institutions Globes United Nations Jurisdiction Bosnia Action Not Words

Author:Wendy McElroy

“What the tender and poetic youth dreams to-day, and conjures up with inarticulate speech, is to-morrow the vociferated result of public opinion, and the day after is the character of nations.”

Character Dream Nations Results Opinion Youth Speech Poetic Public Opinion Morrow Inarticulate

Author:Ralph Waldo Emerson

“What was it that obliged Jerome to write his book, Concerning Illustrious Men? It was the common reproach of old cast upon Christians, 'That they were all poor, weak, unlearned men.' The sort of men sometime called 'Puritans' in the English nation have been reproached with the same character. . . But when truth shall have liberty to speak, it will be known that Christianity never was more expressed unto the life than in the lives of the persons that have been thus reproached.”

Men Writing Persons Has Beens Book Character Christian Speak Nations Poor Common Known Liberty Christianity Weak Casts Obliged Reproach Puritan

Author:Cotton Mather

“I have but one request to ask at my departure from this world; it is-THE CHARITY OF ITS SILENCE. Let no man write my epitaph; for as no man who knows my motives dare now vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let them and me rest in obscurity and peace, and my name remain uninscribed, until other times and other men can do justice to my character. When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written.”

Source: Irish eloquence: The speeches of the celebrated Irish orators, Philips, Curran and Grattan

“There has been abroad many times some criticism of our Government, of our people, and our ways, but that has demonstrated, I think, that when they are in real trouble and real difficulty over there, they turn to us as a nation that will be fair with them--one in whose judgment and in whose character they can rely; and that not withstanding differences that have seemed to exist, they are willing to abide by the faith that they have in us, and I think that is a very substantial accomplishment.”

People Thinking Way Has Beens Real Character Government Turns Nations Differences Trouble Willing Pride Judgment Fairs Criticism Difficulty Accomplishment Rely Patriotism Withstanding

Author:Calvin Coolidge

“Alike for the nation and the individual, the one indispensable requisite is character.”

Character Individual Nations Indispensable

Book:In the Words of Theodore Roosevelt: Quotations from the Man in the Arena

Source: In the Words of Theodore Roosevelt: Quotations from the Man in the Arena

“I am certain that a solution of the general problem of peace must rest on broad and basic understanding on the part of its peoples. Great single endeavors like a League of Nations, a United Nations, and undertakings of that character, are of great importance and in fact absolutely necessary, but they must be treated as steps toward the desired end.”

Ends Character Facts Problem Certain Nations Understanding United Steps Solutions Importance Treated League Broads Endeavor United Nations Undertakings League Of Nations

Author:George C. Marshall

“What are the characters that I discern most clearly in the so-called Anglo-Saxon type of man? I may answer at once that two stickout above all others. One is his curious and apparently incurable incompetence--his congenital inability to do any difficult thing easily and well, whether it be isolating a bacillus or writing a sonata. The other is his astounding susceptibility to fears and alarms--in short, his hereditary cowardice.... There is no record in history of any Anglo-Saxon nation entering upon any great war without allies.”

Source: Mencken Chrestomathy

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