“One cannot, at once, claim to be superhuman and then plead mortal error. I propose to take our countrymen's claims of American exceptionalism seriously, which is to say I propose subjecting our country to an exceptional moral standard.”

— Ta-Nehisi Coates, book Between the World and Me

Source: Between the World and Me (2015), p. 8.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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writer, journalist, and educator 1975

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“One cannot, at once, claim to be superhuman and then plead mortal error. I propose to take our countrymen's claims of American exceptionalism seriously, which is to say I propose subjecting our country to an exceptional moral standard.”

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Ta-Nehisi Coates36

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