“It's such a shame that we know so little about our own country, that we can't find it in our hearts to love our own kind. Instead we admire those who show our country disrespect and betray its people.”

Source: Snow

Last update Oct. 2, 2023. History

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Do you have more details about the quote "It's such a shame that we know so little about our own country, that we can't find it in our hearts to love our own kin…" by Orhan Pamuk?

Orhan Pamuk55

Turkish novelist, screenwriter, and Nobel Prize in Literatu… 1952

David Lane (white nationalist) (1938–2007) American white supremacist, convicted felon

Race to Extinction
Focus Fourteen

“We can't use a double standard — there’s no room for double standards in American politics — for measuring our own and other people's policies. Our demands for democratic practices in other lands will be no more effective than the guarantee of those practices in our own country.”

Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978) Vice-President of the USA under Lyndon B. Johnson

Address to the Democratic National Convention http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/huberthumphey1948dnc.html (July 14, 1948), Convention Hall, Philadelphia.

“It is no small pity, and should cause us no little shame, that, through our own fault, we do not understand ourselves, or know who we are.”

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) Roman Catholic saint

First Mansions, Ch. 1, as translated by E. Allison Peers (1961) p. 18
Interior Castle (1577)
Context: It is no small pity, and should cause us no little shame, that, through our own fault, we do not understand ourselves, or know who we are. Would it not be a sign of great ignorance, my daughters, if a person were asked who he was, and could not say, and had no idea who his father or mother was, or from what country he came? Though that is a great stupidity, our own is incomparably greater if we make no attempt to discover what we are, and only know that we are living in these bodies and have a vague idea, because we have heard it, and because our faith tells us so, that we possess souls. As to what good qualities there may be in our souls, or who dwells within them, or how precious they are — those are things which seldom consider and so we trouble little about carefully preserving the soul's beauty. All our interest is centred in the rough setting of the diamond and in the outer wall of the castle – that is to say in these bodies of ours.

“Terrorism does not happen in a vacuum. And we would not be subject to and endangered by so-called terrorism within our own countries if we in fact kept our countries as our own heritage, our own value system. The recent terror plot in Britain, for instance was launched mostly, almost entirely by Muslims of non-European descent, who were born in Britain. Born in Britain, because of the immigration policies of our countries.”

David Duke (1950) American White nationalist, white supremacist, writer, right-wing politician, and a former Republican Louisiana …

Podcast (25 August 2006)

“What we really want to do is to be left alone. We don't want Negroes around. We don't need Negroes around. We're not asking— you know, we don't want to have them, you know, for our culture. We simply want our own country and our own society. That's in no way exploitive at all. We want our own society, our own nation….”

David Duke (1950) American White nationalist, white supremacist, writer, right-wing politician, and a former Republican Louisiana …

Interview with Evelyn Rich (March 1985)

“When we leave people out or write them off, we not only shortchange them and their dreams, we shortchange our country and our own futures.”

Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady

Presidential campaign (April 12, 2015 – 2016), Speech in Orlando, Florida (September 21, 2016)
Context: When we leave people out or write them off, we not only shortchange them and their dreams, we shortchange our country and our own futures. That’s one reason why I care so much about supporting working parents. It’s one reason why I’m such a strong supporter of comprehensive immigration reform.... It’s also one reason why we’ve got to break down barriers of systemic racism, including under-investment that has held communities of color back for generations. That’s part of building an inclusive economy, too. And it’s why I believe we need to do more to help young people, who are left behind in the wake of the Great Recession, find those strategies and opportunities that will get them moving ahead again. And we’ve got to help older Americans who’ve displaced by automation and outsourcing in our changing economy.

“All these things have happened in our history, and we need to talk about them. What kind of country are we that our history is so tragic?”

Yuan Tengfei (1972) history teacher in Beijing, China

Reported in Didi Kirsten Tatlow, "A System Afraid of Its Own History", The New York Times (September 16, 2010).