The French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
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
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
The maxim of the British people is “Business as usual.”
—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
I find that the Americans have no passions, they have appetites.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The decline of literature indicates the decline of the nation. The two keep pace in their downward tendency.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
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
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
God made the country and man made the town.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
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
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Nationality is the miracle of political independence; race is the principle of physical analogy.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
The world has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous nation because in the degradation of woman the very fountains of life are poisoned at their source.
—Lucretia Mott (1793–1880) American Abolitionist, Feminist
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
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
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
The United Nations is our one great hope for a peaceful and free world.
—Ralph Bunche (1903–71) American Political Scientist, Diplomat
The Britons are quite separated from all the world.
—Virgil (70–19 BCE) Roman Poet
Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
The best thing I know between France and England is the sea.
—Douglas William Jerrold (1803–57) English Writer, Dramatist, Wit
It is clear our nation is reliant upon big foreign oil. More and more of our imports come from overseas.
—George W. Bush (b.1946) American Head of State, Businessperson
The soil of their native land is dear to all the hearts of mankind.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
France is the country where the money falls apart and you can’t tear the toilet paper.
—Billy Wilder (1906–2002) American Filmmaker
How can you govern a country with two hundred and forty six varieties of cheese?
—Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) French General, Statesman
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
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
France has neither winter nor summer nor morals. Apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
No nation ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace or insure it victory in time of war.
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American Head of State, Lawyer
No matter how big a nation is, it is no stronger that its weakest people, and as long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you might otherwise.
—Marian Anderson (1897–1993) American Singer
There will never be a really free and enlightened state until the state comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
A nation which makes the final sacrifice for life and freedom does not get beaten.
—Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881–1938) Founder of the Turkish Republic
A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today – and in fact we have forgotten.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Each nation feels superior to other nations. That breeds patriotism – and wars.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
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
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
States are as the men, they grow out of human characters.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
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
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
No nation has friends only interests
—Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) French General, Statesman
A nation is the same people living in the same place.
—James Joyce (1882–1941) Irish Novelist, Poet
The English are predisposed to pride, the French to vanity.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.
—Abba Eban (1915–2002) Israeli Diplomat, Politician
A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.
—Alexander Hamilton (c.1757–1804) American Federalist Politician, Statesman
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
From hence, let fierce contending nations know, What dire effects from civil discord flow
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
There is no such thing as a man being too proud to fight; there is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
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
I suffer more from the humiliations inflicted by my country than from those inflicted on her.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
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