America rests on shared values rather than shared ethnicity.
Interpretation
America is built on common beliefs and principles rather than a unified ethnic background.
This quote emphasizes the foundational idea of the United States as a nation characterized by diverse backgrounds united by core values such as freedom, democracy, and equality. Joseph Nye suggests that the strength of America lies in its ability to bring together individuals from various ethnicities, under a shared commitment to these ideals, rather than being defined solely by their ethnic identities.
In practice
In a speech about national identity, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of shared values in building a cohesive society.
Leadership experts and the public alike extol the virtues of transformational leaders - those who set out bold objectives and take risks to change the world. We tend to downplay 'transactional' leaders, whose goals are more modest, as mere managers.
We live in a world of diverse cultures, and we know very little about social engineering and how to 'build nations.' And when we cannot be sure how to improve the world, hubristic visions pose a grave danger.
Terrorism is like jujitsu: The small players win if they make the large player use his strength against himself.
As we think of power in the 21st century, we want to get away from the idea that powerβs always zero sum β my gain is your loss and vice versa. Power can also be positive sum, where your gain can be my gain.
That we find a crystal or a poppy beautiful means that we are less alone, that we are more deeply inserted into existence than the course of a single life would lead us to believe.
When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous
Things that are done, it is needless to speak about...things that are past, it is needless to blame.
If there's anything you absolutely hate, why, it must be unconstitutional. Or, if there's anything you absolutely have to have, it must be required by the Constitution. That's where we are. That is utterly mindless.
Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free.
If you want to be a grocer, or a general, or a politician, or a judge, you will invariably become it; that is your punishment. If you never know what you want to be, if you live what some might call the dynamic life but what I will call the artistic life, if each day you are unsure of who you are and what you know you will never become anything, and that is your reward.
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