“We should freely take from every other nation whatever we can make of use, but we should adopt and develop to our own peculiar needs what we thus take, and never be content merely to copy.”
1910s, Address to the Knights of Columbus (1915)
Context: Four centuries and a quarter have gone by since Columbus by discovering America opened the greatest era in world history. Four centuries have passed since the Spaniards began that colonization on the main land which has resulted in the growth of the nations of Latin-America. Three centuries have passed since, with the settlements on the coasts of Virginia and Massachusetts, the real history of what is now the United States began. All this we ultimately owe to the action of an Italian seaman in the service of a Spanish King and a Spanish Queen. It is eminently fitting that one of the largest and most influential social organizations of this great republic, a republic in which the tongue is English, and the blood derived from many sources, should, in its name, commemorate the great Italian. It is eminently fitting to make an address on Americanism before this society. We of the United States need above all things to remember that, while we are by blood and culture kin to each of the nations of Europe, we are also separate from each of them. We are a new and distinct nationality. We are developing our own distinctive culture and civilization, and the worth of this civilization will largely depend upon our determination to keep it distinctively our own. Our sons and daughters should be educated here and not abroad. We should freely take from every other nation whatever we can make of use, but we should adopt and develop to our own peculiar needs what we thus take, and never be content merely to copy.
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Theodore Roosevelt 445
American politician, 26th president of the United States 1858–1919Related quotes
Source: "Statement at the General Debate Of The 71th Session Of The United Nations General Assembly On “the Sustainable Development Goals: A Universal Push To Transform Our World”" https://www.un.int/mongolia/statements_speeches/statement-his-excellency-mr-tsakhia-elbegdorj-president-mongolia-general-debate (20 September 2016)
Speech at the 52nd session of the United Nations General Assembly (excerpts) (1997)
Chester Bowles, "The Azores," White House Memorandum to President John F. Kennedy, Washington, DC, June 4, 1962. Quoted in Alexander Cooley and Hendrik Spruyt, Contracting States: Sovereign Transfers in International Relations, Princeton University Press (2009), pg. 100.
L’extrême plaisir que nous prenons à parler de nous-mêmes nous doit faire craindre de n’en donner guere à ceux qui nous écoutent.
Translation by E.H. Blackmore et. al., in Collected Maxims and Other Reflections, de La Rochefoucauld, Oxford University Press (2008) : ISBN 019162313X
Maxim 314
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
As quoted in "Baltimore schools have returned millions in state funds for heating repairs" by Luke Broadwater in The Baltimore Sun (4 January 2018) https://www.baltimoresun.com/education/bs-md-ci-schools-money-returned-20180104-story.html
