The Canadian spirit is cautious, observant and critical where the American is assertive.
—V. S. Pritchett (1900–97) British Short Story Writer, Biographer, Memoirist, Literary Critic
There are few virtues that the Poles do not possess and there are few errors they have ever avoided.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
The British have a remarkable talent for keeping calm, even when there is no crisis.
—Franklin P. Jones
A people always ends by resembling its shadow.
—Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Children’s Books Writer, Short story, Novelist, Poet, Journalist
I suffer more from the humiliations inflicted by my country than from those inflicted on her.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
The strength and power of a country depends absolutely on the quantity of good men and women in it.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
God made the country and man made the town.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
The history of any nation follows an undulatory course. In the trough of the wave we find more or less complete anarchy; but the crest is not more or less complete Utopia, but only, at best, a tolerably humane, partially free and fairly just society that invariably carries within itself the seeds of its own decadence.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
The maxim of the British people is “Business as usual.”
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
States are as the men, they grow out of human characters.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
The United Nations is designed to make possible lasting freedom and independence for all its members.
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
The wealth and prosperity of the country are only the comeliness of the body, the fullness of the flesh and fat; but the spirit is independent of them; it requires only muscle, bone and nerve for the true exercise of its functions. We cannot lose our liberty, because we cannot cease to think.
—Humphry Davy (1778–1829) British Chemist, Inventor
A nation is the same people living in the same place.
—James Joyce (1882–1941) Irish Novelist, Poet
There is always something new out of Africa.
—Pliny the Elder (23–79CE) Roman Statesman, Scholar
States that rise quickly, just as all the other things of nature that are born and grow rapidly, cannot have roots and ramifications; the first bad weather kills them.
—Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) Florentine Political Philosopher
We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs; we have no place to go.
—Golda Meir (1898–1978) Israeli Head of State
The French work to live, but the Swiss live to work.
—French Proverb
God how I hate new countries: They are older than the old, more sophisticated, much more conceited, only young in a certain puerile vanity more like senility than anything.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
The whole basis of the United Nations is the right of all nations—great or small—to have weight, to have a vote, to be attended to, to be a part of the twentieth century.
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–65) American Diplomat, Politician, Orator
Nations do not think, they only feel. They get their feelings at second hand through their temperaments, not their brains. A nation can be brought—by force of circumstances, not argument—to reconcile itself to any kind of government or religion that can be devised; in time it will fit itself to the required conditions; later it will prefer them and will fiercely fight for them.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Put an Irishman on the spit and you can always get another Irishman to turn him.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
The English are predisposed to pride, the French to vanity.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
The greatest nations have all acted like gangsters and the smallest like prostitutes.
—Stanley Kubrick (1928–99) American Film Director, Writer, Film Producer, Photographer
The French complain of everything, and always.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
We prefer world law, in the age of self-determination, to world war in the age of mass extermination.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Nations, like stars, are entitled to eclipse. All is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night. Dawn and resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
There was never a nation that became great until it came to the knowledge that it had nowhere in the world to go for help.
—Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) American Essayist, Novelist
Nothing and no one can destroy the Chinese people. They are relentless survivors.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
The best thing I know between France and England is the sea.
—Douglas William Jerrold (1803–57) English Writer, Dramatist, Wit
All nationalisms are at heart deeply concerned with names: with the most immaterial and original human invention. Those who dismiss names as a detail have never been displaced; but the peoples on the peripheries are always being displaced. That is why they insist upon their continuity—their links with their dead and the unborn.
—John Berger (1926–2017) English Art Critic, Novelist
I do not call the sod under my feet my country; but language—religion—government—blood—identity in these makes men of one country.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
Nothing has changed in Russias policy. Her methods, her tactics, her maneuvers may change, but the pole starworld dominationis immutable.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist
In every particular state of the world, those nations which are strongest tend to prevail over the others; and in certain marked peculiarities the strongest tend to be the best.
—Walter Bagehot (1826–77) English Economist, Journalist
I showed my appreciation of my native land in the usual Irish way: by getting out of it as soon as I possibly could.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Bulls get rich, bears get rich, but pigs get slaughtered An Irishman is never at his best except when fighting.
—Irish Proverb
It is a well-known fact that we always recognize our homeland when we are about to lose it.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
The heroes of the world community are not those who withdraw when difficulties ensue, not those who can envision neither the prospect of success nor the consequence of failure—but those who stand the heat of battle, the fight for world peace through the United Nations.
—Hubert Humphrey (1911–78) American Head of State, Politician
The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Most nations, as well as people are impossible only in their youth; they become incorrigible as they grow older.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
Nationalist pride, like other variants of pride, can be a substitute for self-respect.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
The United Nations was not set up to be a reformatory. It was assumed that you would be good before you got in and not that being in would make you good.
—John Foster Dulles (1888–1959) American Republican Public Official, Lawyer
The Irish are a fair people: They never speak well of one another.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Much may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
How I like the boldness of the English, how I like the people who say what they think!
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
Pervading nationalism imposes its dominion on man today in many different forms and with an aggressiveness that spares no one. The challenge that is already with us is the temptation to accept as true freedom what in reality is only a new form of slavery.
—Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) Polish Catholic Religious Leader
A Country is not a mere territory; the particular territory is only its foundation. The Country is the idea which rises upon that foundation; it is the sentiment of love, the sense of fellowship which binds together all the sons of that territory.
—Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–72) Italian Patriot, Political Leader
I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
I am like a doctor. I have written a prescription to help the patient. If the patient doesn’t want all the pills I’ve recommended, that’s up to him. But I must warn that next time I will have to come as a surgeon with a knife.
—Javier Perez de Cuellar (1920–2020) Peruvian & United Nations Diplomat
It is easier for a Russian to become an atheist than for anyone else in the world.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–81) Russian Novelist, Essayist, Writer
If nations always moved from one set of furnished rooms to another—and always into a better set—things might be easier, but the trouble is that there is no one to prepare the new rooms. The future is worse than the ocean—there is nothing there. It will be what men and circumstances make it.
—Alexander Herzen (1812–70) Russian Revolutionary, Writer