Quotes About Identity

The Nazis chased the dream of a racially pure society through occupation and conquest, thus ensuring intimate contact with people of many non-Germanic nationalities and races. The Communists insisted that national identity was irrelevant but obsessively persecuted men and women because of who they were: Latvians, Poles, Ukrainians, Armenians, Finns, Chechens, Koreans, and Turks.

Among those welcoming Fascism and shouting "Viva Mussolini" that day were two hundred Jews.

scholar," wrote my father, "inescapably reads the historical record in much the same way as he would look in a mirror—what is most clear to him is the image of his own values [and] sense of . . . identity.

Cosmopolitanism, once considered a virtue, is less in vogue than nativism.

To my mind, a Fascist is someone who identifies strongly with and claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is unconcerned with the rights of others, and is willing to use whatever means are necessary—including violence—to achieve his or her goals. In that conception, a Fascist will likely be a tyrant, but a tyrant need not be a Fascist.

A self is not something static, tied up in a pretty parcel and handed to the child, finished and complete. A self is always becoming.

The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been.

Like and equal are not the same thing at all.

People are more than just the way they look.

Because you're not what I would have you be, I blind myself to who, in truth, you are.

I like to think of home as a verb, something we keep recreating.

What happened if you melted a person down layer by layer? What if there was nothing between the layers, and nothing at the centre, only quiet?

What must it feel like, I wondered, to begin again? Would I still be the same person if I woke up in a different language and another existence?

Don't ever try to be only a single thing, an unbroken human being. If so many people love you, can you honestly be one thing?

But what was fortune? She had come to believe it was being exactly the same on the inside as on the outside. What was misfortune but the quality of existing as something, or someone else, inside?

People aren't made to float through the air. Unless we know the weight of our bodies, unless we feel the force of gravity, we'll forget what we are, we'll lose ourselves without even noticing.

Unless we know the weight of our bodies, unless we feel the force of gravity, we'll forget what we are, we'll lose ourselves without even noticing.

She says that she held on to the memory as if it were a touchstone, something that could anchor her. She knows, has always believed, that there is a secret that has coloured her life, her childhood. In the last few months, she has felt as if, day by day, she is losing her footing. There are fissures, openings, that she no longer knows how to cover over.

What was misfortune but the quality of existing as something, or someone else, inside?

She wanted to ask Kai if he loved Sparrow for who he was, or if it was his talent that was the true attraction. Didn't he understand that a gift like Sparrow's could not be bought or borrowed, it could not be stolen? Did Kai love the person, or did he love what Sparrow's music made him feel? Her own thoughts surprised and upset her?

don't forget the value of who you are no matter what kind of hat you are wearing.

I should remember that I be just as worthy now as I will be when this is done.

So, I am Mr. Hampton again. It seems that I am only Julian when you forget yourself." "I...that is..." "We have known each other more than half our lives, Pen." She had not even noticed what she called him. "I do not want you to call me Mr. Hampton in private conversation ever again.

Our children cannot be assumed to follow in our footsteps, assuage our losses, or compensate for our inadequacies.