QuoteProject
It is, I think, an indisputable fact that Americans are, as Americans, the most self-conscious people in the world, and the most addicted to the belief that the other nations of the earth are in a conspiracy to under value them.
Henry James
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote suggests that Americans are particularly aware of their own identity and perceive a global conspiracy against them.

Henry James highlights a unique aspect of American self-perception, pointing out that Americans are marked by a pronounced self-consciousness and a belief that other nations conspire to undermine their value. This view reflects a broader commentary on nationalism and the complexities of international relations, as it speaks to the insecurities that can arise from a strong national identity. It reveals how perceptions of worth and respect are intertwined with national pride and the collective psyche of a country.

Themes

Self-ConsciousnessNational IdentityInsecurityNationalismConspiracy

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about American identity, this quote can be cited to illustrate how self-awareness impacts national pride.

More from Henry James

The deepest quality of a work of art will always be the quality of the mind of the producer...No good novel will ever proceed from a superficial mind.
Henry JamesRead
What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?
Henry JamesRead
Never say you know the last word about any human heart.
Henry JamesRead
I adore adverbs; they are the only qualifications I really much respect.
Henry JamesRead
We care what happens to people only in proportion as we know what people are.
Henry JamesRead
A swift carriage, of a dark night, rattling with four horses over roads that one can’t see--that’s my idea of happiness.
Henry JamesRead

Similar quotes

When the calamity we feared is already arrived, or when the expectation of it is so certain as to shut out hope, there seems to be a principle within us by which we look with misanthropic composure on the state to which we are reduced, and the heart sullenly contracts and accommodates itself to what it most abhorred.
William GodwinRead
An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens . . . There has never been a moment of my life in which I should have relinquished for it the enjoyments of my family, my farm, my friends and books.
Thomas JeffersonRead
Spiritual principles do not change, but we do.
Marianne WilliamsonRead
I am happy to report that in the war between reality and romance, reality is not the stronger.
John SteinbeckRead
Character assassination is at once easier and surer than physical assault; and it involves far less risk for the assassin. It leaves him free to commit the same deed over and over again, and may, indeed, win him the honors of a hero in the country of his victims.
Alan BarthRead
What needs to be kept in mind is both that capitalism is a hyper-abstract impersonal structure and that it would be nothing without our co-operation.
Mark FisherRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.