Quotes About Exceptionalism

Everyone has a soul. But the great man—the truly significant soul—is rare.

Hay que ser héroe o santo. En el término medio no está la sabiduría, sino la vulgaridad

In the nineteenth century, slavery was understood to be the cornerstone of American exceptionalism. The proslavery New York Daily News mocked slavery's detractors as not understanding the foundations of American business prosperity: "If slavery was so great a sin, how comes it that through its agency this country attained the greatest amount of prosperity in the shortest space of time any nation ever attained?

Douglass had to dismantle what Americans have always treasured most: their innocence, and the sense that their history was so exceptional that they had managed to avoid the problems other nations faced.