Political Quotes

On the recordMay 20, 2010
I certainly agree. And I would add to this that it is one of my very solidly held beliefs, and if you look across history and the forces of culture and civilization, that the single most powerful unifying force for humanity known throughout all of history is a common language. When you look, the most successful institutions over the last 200 years have been the nation states. And the borders of nation states have been shaped around the lines where people speak a common language. Why is France France? Because they speak French there. Why is Germany the reunified Germany? Because they speak German there. In Switzerland it's a little bit different. But that's a lot longer story. And they have actually not had a lot of agreement there for the last 700 years until after World War II. But it's a powerful unifying force. And if you look back 2,500 years ago in China, there was an emperor there. He was the first emperor of China. And I can never pronounce this in Chinese, so somebody out there is going to cringe. I can probably spell it, but it's close to Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China.
Said by
Steve King
Republican · Iowa
Source
govinfo.gov
May 20, 2010

Editor's note · Context

The speaker discusses the importance of a common language as a unifying force in history and nation-building.

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