We should be proud of our country when we have done something to be proud of, when we have lived up to our own standards. But the flip side of genuine pride is being able to recognize when we have fallen short, and to hold ourselves to account.

We all love narratives where we're the captain of our boat, and Americans love them more than anybody else.

In foreign policy, even if you hold high office, you can't be sure what the effects will be of the things you do.

Patriotism demands the ability to feel shame as much as to feel pride.

There's a tremendous loss of talent to businesses who cannot make room for their employees to attend to family responsibilities. It really amounts to corporate waste: They hire really talented women and then lose them because they can't find ways to keep them productive and content the minute they can't "lean in."

The false pride of perennial celebration, of wearing flag lapel pins while betraying the values that the flag stands for, is like the self-esteem curriculum for toddlers, where everything is praised and no achievement ultimately has meaning.

Biological sex should not determine what we are capable of, what we aspire to, what we do in our life.