Quotes About Exceptionalism

Everything about mediocrity kills me.

My philosophy is that on a scale of 1 to 10, I will go to 15. No matter what!

When I joined the SEALs, no one knew what a SEAL was. What intrigued me was the level of commitment, the love of country and desire to be the best in the world at your vocation. Watching American exceptionalism in action.

The world has many kings but only one Michelangelo.

These have always been my legs. I train harder than other guys, eat better, sleep better and wake up thinking about athletics. I think that's probably why I'm a bit of an exception.

I think everyone else is boring. And I'm not boring.

You don't have to be in the brightest, shiniest state of being an individual to feel like you're exceptional.

The reason why I love people, and writing about them, is because they don't always respond with hate and anger. If they did I wouldn't have a story to tell. Who wants to know about someone who was brutalised and became brutal? I'm interested in the exceptions.

American politicians who dwell on American exceptionalism only dishonor us by suggesting we play dumb to our past.

It is utterly naive, futile, uninformed—to think that our species is exceptional. So designated to master the beasts of the Earth, as in the Book of Genesis!

The world is not hungry for mediocrity. We really don't need a bunch of 4s and 5s running around, doing an average job in life. This world needs 10s.

This exceptionalism is deeply present in American public rhetoric and every political leader must subscribe to it. Moreover, appeal to this exceptionalism as God's chosen people can cover a multitude of sins, for example, economic injustice and political oligarchy, all in the name of chosenness.

In fact, they're total hypocrites when it comes to opposing American exceptionalism (or whatever you want to call the belief that living here is the ultimate privilege).

Great men or men of great gifts you shall easily find, but symmetrical men never.

A man of genius is privileged only as far as he is genius. His dullness is as insupportable as any other dullness.

How young I seem; I am exceptional; I think of all I have. But really no one is exceptional, No one has anything, I'm anybody, I stand beside my grave Confused with my life, that is commonplace and solitary.

At the time of the Civil War, there were six democracies in the face of the planet. Today, there's 120 and they've been inspired by the American exceptionalism.

There's an appeal to the American sense of exceptionalism, that we're morally superior, as way to not be self-critical. I think that's a bit dangerous.

Every nation feels itself to be superior, but in America it's a jaunty feeling, and in some cases a rather ominous one among the super-patriots.

Americans, as a rule, rarely compare themselves with other countries, so convinced are we that our system is superior, that our politicians are better, that our democracy is the fairest and most robust in the world.

It is part of our human nature to want to be liked. It is part of our human nature to worry about what others think of us. It is an attribute of greatness and of American exceptionalism to not surrender to our nature, but to be guided by an inner calling to persevere and to prevail, no matter the personal cost.

Their revered minister John Cotton had instructed them that they could attack the natives "without provocation"—a procedure normally unlawful—because they had not only a natural right to their territory, but "a special Commission from God" to take their land.19 Already there were signs of the exceptionalist thinking that would in the future often characterize American politics.

In real life there is no such person as the average man.

A man is at his best when he is simply not like the rest in all his life's test.