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Eric Liu Biography

Eric P. Liu (traditional Chinese: 劉柏川; simplified Chinese: 刘柏川; pinyin: Liú Bǎichuān, born 1968) is an American writer and founder of Citizen University. Liu served as Deputy Assistant to President Clinton for Domestic Policy at the White House between 1999 and 2000. He served as Speechwriter and Director of Legislative Affairs for the National Security Council at the White House from 1993 to 1994. Liu is currently a Senior Law Lecturer at the University of Washington School of Law. President Obama nominated him in January 2015 to serve on the board of directors of the federal Corporation for National and Community Service; his term has expired in December 2017.

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Eric Liu Quotes

'The Purpose-Driven Life' is not just a mega-bestselling work of Christian faith; it is the thing that every voter, secular or not, yearns for.

Christian, Life, Purpose, Thing, Voters, Work

At the heart of our public morality is the idea that he who gives generously is most virtuous and morally praiseworthy; that there is no greater citizen than she who sacrifices; and that there is no greater measure of worth than contribution. These are values we can be proud of. After all, there is no moral system or religion on earth where the guiding ethic is grab more for yourself.

Gives, Heart, Ideas, Measure, Sacrifice, Sacrifices

The strongest streak in the American character is a fierce pragmatism that mistrust blind ideology of every stripe and insists on finding what really works.

Character, Fierce, Insists, Pragmatism, Stripes

To love country means to rise above I am because I am. It is to recognize that I am because we are.

Citizenship, Country, Love, Mean, Recognize

We're all better off. . . when we're all better off.

Better Off

You want to defend citizenship? Don't persecute or isolate those without papers. Just live like a citizen. That'd be a first-class way to be American.

Citizens, Citizenship, Class, Paper, Papers, Way

Identity in America is complicated but it's also simple: it's about whom you identify with and who identifies with you.

America, Identifies, Identity, Simple

When Bryan Price taught me how to throw a changeup, he made me see myself. All my life, I've been the equivalent of a fastball pitcher - trying to use blazing speed and brute force to wow the people around me.

Life, People, See, Speed, Trying, Use

A basic assumption shapes most Americans’ mindset about labor: the belief that the death of unions isn’t my problem because I’m not in a union. That assumption is wrong. Even if you aren’t a member, your pay is influenced by the strength or weakness of organized labor. The presence of unions sets off a wage race to the top. Their absence sets off a race to the bottom.

Race, Weakness, Shapes, Belief, Bottom, Presence

Love of country cannot be a supersized version of individual narcissism. True love of country-of this country-is love of our children, of a creed that promises them a better life before it promises us anything, and embraces the sacrifices needed to make that better life. True love of country is giving ourselves to a cause and a purpose larger than ourselves. And that cause is to make liberty worth having, to make the pursuit of happiness deeper than the quest for personal pleasure, and to leave a legacy of progress and possibility.

Children, Country, Giving, Leave, Love, Pleasure

Today, public understanding of our past and our system of government is pitifully low.

Government, Past, Pitifully, System, Understanding

Sometimes when I listen to fellow progressives, I wonder if the only lesson we took away from the '04 elections is that politics is a word game.

Election, Fellow, Games, Lessons, Progressives, Wonder

My grandfather was a general in the Nationalist Chinese Air Force during World War II, and I grew up hearing the pilot stories and seeing pictures of him in uniform.

Air, Chinese, Seeing, War

If whiteness were of no particular advantage, then having a fuller color wheel of skin tones would be purely a matter of celebration. But whiteness - just a drop of it - does still carry privilege. You learn that very young in America.

America, Color, Skin Tone, Young, Tones, Celebration

As it stands now, those of us who are lucky enough to be citizens by birth don't have to do much. Very little is asked of us.

Lucky, Citizens, Littles, Stands, Enough

There have been, in recent years, many Asian American pioneers in the public eye who've defied the condescendingly complimentary 'model minority' stereotype: actors like Lucy Liu, artists like Maya Lin, moguls like Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. They are known, often admired.

American, Artist, Complimentary, Eye, Maya, Years

What we should celebrate more than diversity is what we do with it. How do we bring everyone in the tent and create something together? In a twenty-first century way that activates our true potential, we all need to become sworn-again.

Become, Celebrate, Create, Diversity, Together, Twenties

From the right, you get demagogues shouting about brown-skinned anchor babies and clamoring to deport the undocumented. From the left, you get advocacy for the oppressed but otherwise, when it comes to national civic identity, mainly silence.

Anchors, Baby, Civic, Shouting, Silence, Undocumented

What does purpose mean? It means the deepest desire for our short lives to mean something. . . . To speak a language of purpose is to return to first principles and to be able to answer, in plain English, the plain questions of Why? Why should we chip in to help someone else? Why should we defer gratification? Why should we care about the long term? Why should we trust anyone who seems to be limiting our ability to do what we want?

Help, Lives, Long, Mean, Short Life, Trust

If half-black Barack Obama had decided years ago to call himself white - which his genes certainly entitled him to do - his story would have carried very different meaning. If millions of part-black people had followed him into whiteness, then the N. A. A. C. P. would be in true crisis.

Barack, Followed, People, White, Whiteness, Years

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