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
As for the just and noble idea, that nations, as well as individuals, are parts of one wondrous whole, it has hardly passed the lips or pen of any but religious men and poets.—It is the one great principle of the greatest religion which has ever nourished the morals of mankind.
—Harriet Martineau (1802–76) English Sociologist, Economist, Essayist, Philosopher
States are as the men, they grow out of human characters.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
God made the country and man made the town.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
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
No nation can be destroyed while it possesses a good home life.
—Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819–81) American Editor, Novelist
The best thing I know between France and England is the sea.
—Douglas William Jerrold (1803–57) English Writer, Dramatist, Wit
Poor nations are hungry, and rich nations are proud; and pride and hunger will ever be at variance.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
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
Frenchmen have an unlimited capacity for gallantry and indulge it on every occasion.
—Moliere (1622–73) French Playwright
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
Nations! What are nations? Tartars! and Huns! and Chinamen! Like insects they swarm. The historian strives in vain to make them memorable. It is for want of a man that there are so many men. It is individuals that populate the world.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Nationality is the miracle of political independence; race is the principle of physical analogy.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
A people always ends by resembling its shadow.
—Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Children’s Books Writer, Short story, Novelist, Poet, Journalist
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
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
The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations 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
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
In the youth of a state, arms do flourish; in the middle age, learning; and then both of them together for a time; in the declining age, mechanical arts and merchandise.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
The soil of their native land is dear to all the hearts of mankind.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
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
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 strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It’s a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.
—Jimmy Carter (b.1924) American Head of State, Military Leader
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 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 greatest nations have all acted like gangsters and the smallest like prostitutes.
—Stanley Kubrick (1928–99) American Film Director, Writer, Film Producer, Photographer
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
How can you govern a country with two hundred and forty six varieties of cheese?
—Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) French General, Statesman
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
It is equality of monotony which makes the strength of the British Isles.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
I am the state.
—Louis XIV of France (1638–1715) King of France
A nation is the same people living in the same place.
—James Joyce (1882–1941) Irish Novelist, Poet
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 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
A nation’s character is the sum of its splendid deeds; they constitute one common patrimony, the nation’s inheritance. They awe foreign powers, they arouse and animate our own people.
—Henry Clay (1777–1852) American Politician
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
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
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
France is the country where the money falls apart and you can’t tear the toilet paper.
—Billy Wilder (1906–2002) American Filmmaker
The best protection of a nation is its men; towns and cities cannot have a surer defense than the prowess and virtue of their inhabitants.
—Francois Rabelais (1494–1553) French Humanist, Satirist
I suffer more from the humiliations inflicted by my country than from those inflicted on her.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks. Methinks I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
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
Territory is but the body of a nation.—The people who inhabit its hills and valleys are its soul, its spirit, its life.
—James A. Garfield (1831–81) American Head of State, Lawyer, Educator
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
France has neither winter nor summer nor morals. Apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
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
There is always something new out of Africa.
—Pliny the Elder (23–79CE) Roman Statesman, Scholar
Great countries are those that produce great people.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat