Quotes About Identity

A distinctive appearance and a simple set of characteristics lead to an extremely flexible brand. (pg. 38)

Some Americans need hyphens in their names, because only part of them has come over; but when the whole man has come over, heart and thought and all, the hyphen drops of its own weight out of his name.

[The Civil War] created in this country what had never existed before—a national consciousness. It was not the salvation of the Union; it was the rebirth of the Union.

Absolute identity with one's cause is the first and great condition of successful leadership.

Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealistic nation in the world.

There are blessed intervals when I forget by one means or another that I am President of the United States.

Here is a great body of our Jewish citizens from whom have sprung men of genius in every walk of our varied life; men who have conceived of its ideals with singular clearness; and led enterprises with sprit & sagacity... They are not Jews in America, they are American citizens.

Some Americans need hyphens in their names because only part of them has come over.

A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about.

When we lose twenty pounds... we may be losing the twenty best pounds we have! We may be losing the pounds that contain our genius, our humanity, our love and honesty.

People always ask me, Do you ever think you'll wake up one morning and not be funny? That thought would never occur to me--it's an odd thought and not realistic. Because funny and me are not separate. We're one.

There is always the possibility that people will change. Real change is more rare. You are who you are at a certain age in life you are pretty much a variation of that your whole life. It's conceivable that you will change but it's not likely.

Some men are heterosexual and some men are bisexual and some men don't think about sex at all, you know, they become lawyers.

My one regret in life is that I'm not someone else.

My one regret in life is that I am not someone else.

How was I supposed to know Jesus was brown?" replied Private Daniels with labored breath, dodging mortar explosions. "Blame Caucasian society for that shit, not me! Sunday School told me he looked like bearded Ewan McGregor, not the reanimated corpse of Osama bin Laden floating through the fucking sky! I thought he was coming to get us and I panicked!

I was doing the LGBTQ version of a minstrel show.

Everyone in California is from somewhere else.

In those clubs, I learned that everything my town had taught me about race was absolutely wrong. The memories of that time in my life on Auburn Avenue are great ones, and they're all mine.

The truth is that at the time, I didn't have a genuine awareness of why I was so pissed off or even specifically who I was pissed off at. I was just pissed off.

I live next to the Baptist church, where I'm told that I'm "everything that is nothing." I'm told that I'm bad. I'm terrible. I'm a sinner. I'm a real loser. In other words, I'm doomed before I even get to the third grade.

I tried to be like them, I really did. I became very athletic, but as is the case with many families, it's the firstborn who's the father's child.

Contradict yourself. In order to live, you must remain broken up.

The English certainly and fiercely pride themselves in never praising themselves.