
“The United States is…a warning rather than an example to the world.”
To the twenty-fifth-anniversary meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (1857)
1850s
2014, Statement on Cuban policy (December 2014)
Context: To the Cuban people, America extends a hand of friendship. Some of you have looked to us as a source of hope, and we will continue to shine a light of freedom. Others have seen us as a former colonizer intent on controlling your future. José Martí once said, “Liberty is the right of every man to be honest.” Today, I am being honest with you. We can never erase the history between us, but we believe that you should be empowered to live with dignity and self-determination. Cubans have a saying about daily life: “No es facil” –- it’s not easy. Today, the United States wants to be a partner in making the lives of ordinary Cubans a little bit easier, more free, more prosperous.
To those who have supported these measures, I thank you for being partners in our efforts. In particular, I want to thank His Holiness Pope Francis, whose moral example shows us the importance of pursuing the world as it should be, rather than simply settling for the world as it is; the government of Canada, which hosted our discussions with the Cuban government; and a bipartisan group of congressmen who have worked tirelessly for Alan Gross’s release, and for a new approach to advancing our interests and values in Cuba.
“The United States is…a warning rather than an example to the world.”
To the twenty-fifth-anniversary meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (1857)
1850s
“How doe we create the world we want, rather than a world that just happens to us?”
Source: The World We Want (2000), Chapter 5, The World We Want, p. 207.
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 314.
Introduction to Treasury of the Free World (1946)
2000s, A Challenge to Overcome (November 2007)
“I wanted to end the world, but I'll settle for ending yours.”
Part II, Chapter 7, Attractor Points, p. 140
The Death of Economics (1994)