self-conscious quotes

It is, I think, an indisputable fact that Americans are, as Americans, themost self-conscious people inthe world, and themost addictedtothebeliefthattheothernations of the earth are in a conspiracy to under value them.

- Henry James
  Hawthorne, ch.6.

Every race which has become self-conscious and idea- bound in the past has perished.

- D(avid) H(erbert) Lawrence
  Fantasia of the Unconscious, ch.7.