If you want to eat well in England, eat three breakfasts.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
Americans are like a rich father who wishes he knew how to give his sons the hardships that made him rich.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
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 soil of their native land is dear to all the hearts of mankind.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
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
The Irish ignore anything they can’t drink or punch.
—Common Proverb
Without country you have neither name, token, voice, nor rights, no admission as brothers into the fellowship of the Peoples. You are the bastards of Humanity. Soldiers without a banner, Israelites among the nations, you will find neither faith nor protection; none will be sureties for you. Do not beguile yourselves with the hope of emancipation from unjust social conditions if you do not first conquer a Country for yourselves.
—Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–72) Italian Patriot, Political Leader
I suffer more from the humiliations inflicted by my country than from those inflicted on her.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
France is the country where the money falls apart and you can’t tear the toilet paper.
—Billy Wilder (1906–2002) American Filmmaker
Historians are to nationalism what poppy-growers in Pakistan are to heroin-addicts: we supply the essential raw material for the market.
—Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012) British Historian
Bulls get rich, bears get rich, but pigs get slaughtered An Irishman is never at his best except when fighting.
—Irish Proverb
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
The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again: and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts, the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the last.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
Nothing and no one can destroy the Chinese people. They are relentless survivors.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
Switzerland is a curst, selfish, swinish country of brutes, placed in the most romantic region of the world.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Nationality is the miracle of political independence; race is the principle of physical analogy.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
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
Great countries are those that produce great people.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
The Britons are quite separated from all the world.
—Virgil (70–19 BCE) Roman Poet
Nations without a past are contradictions in terms. What makes a nation is the past, what justifies one nation against others is the past, and historians are the people who produce it.
—Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012) British Historian
The French complain of everything, and always.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
France has neither winter nor summer nor morals. Apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
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 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
The UN is not just a product of do-gooders. It is harshly real. The day will come when men will see the U.N. and what it means clearly. Everything will be all right—you know when?. When people, just people, stop thinking of the United Nations as a weird Picasso abstraction, and see it as a drawing they made themselves.
—Dag Hammarskjold (1905–61) Swedish Statesman, UN Diplomat
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
I am the state.
—Louis XIV of France (1638–1715) King of France
The best thing I know between France and England is the sea.
—Douglas William Jerrold (1803–57) English Writer, Dramatist, Wit
In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940) Lithuanian-American Anarchist, Feminist
The United Nations is our one great hope for a peaceful and free world.
—Ralph Bunche (1903–71) American Political Scientist, Diplomat
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
States are as the men, they grow out of human characters.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
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
The strength of a nation, especially of a republican nation, is in the intelligent and well-ordered homes of the people.
—Lydia H. Sigourney (1791–1865) American Poetaster, 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
National character is only another name for the particular form which the littleness, perversity and baseness of mankind take in every country. Every nation mocks at other nations, and all are right.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
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
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
Italians come to ruin most generally in three ways, women, gambling, and farming. My family chose the slowest one.
—Pope John XXIII (1881–1963) Italian Catholic Religious Leader, Pope
The English are predisposed to pride, the French to vanity.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
God made the country and man made the town.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
I find that the Americans have no passions, they have appetites.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
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
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
A nation is the same people living in the same place.
—James Joyce (1882–1941) Irish Novelist, Poet
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
The maxim of the British people is “Business as usual.”
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author