Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.
—George Washington (1732–99) American Head of State, Military Leader
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
How much longer are we going to think it necessary to be “American” before (or in contradistinction to) being cultivated, being enlightened, being humane, and having the same intellectual discipline as other civilized countries?
—Edith Wharton (1862–1937) American Novelist, Short-story Writer
It is sinful to deceive the government regarding taxes and duties.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
The proper means of increasing the love we bear to our native country is to reside some time in a foreign one.
—William Shenstone (1714–63) British Poet, Landscape Gardener
I do love my country’s good with a respect more tender, more holy and profound than mine own life.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Some reformers may urge that in the ages distant future, patriotism, like the habit of monogamous marriage, will become a needless and obsolete virtue; but just at present the man who loves other countries as much as he does his own is quite as noxious a member of society as the man who loves other women as much as he loves his wife. Love of country is an elemental virtue, like love of home.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
Patriotism means unqualified and unwavering love for the nation, which implies not uncritical eagerness to serve, not support for unjust claims, but frank assessment of its vices and sins, and penitence for them
—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian Dissident Novelist
Every good citizen makes his country’s honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense and its conscious that he gains protection while he gives it.
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) American Head of State
Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.
—Bill Clinton (b.1946) American Head of State, Lawyer, Public Speaker
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility—I welcome it.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.
—Common Proverb
The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
It is a sweet and seemly thing to die for one’s country.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
When a nation is filled with strife, then do patriots flourish.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
Patriotism. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.
—Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) French General, Statesman
Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.
—Denis Diderot (1713–84) French Philosopher, Writer
Everyone loathes his own country and countrymen if he is any sort of artist.
—Lawrence Durrell (1912–90) British Biographer, Poet, Playwright, Novelist
A man’s country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.
—George William Curtis (1824–92) American Essayist, Public Speaker, Editor, Author
Patriotism … is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a network of lies and falsehoods; a superstition that robs man of his self-respect and dignity, and increases his arrogance and conceit.
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940) Lithuanian-American Anarchist, Feminist
A tide began to surge beneath the calm surface of Stephen’s friendliness.
This race and this country and this life produced me, he said. I shall express myself as I am.
Try to be one of us, repeated Davin. In your heart you are an Irishman but your pride is too powerful.
My ancestors threw off their language and took another, Stephen said. They allowed a handful of foreigners to subject them. Do you fancy that I am going to pay in my own life and person debts they made? What for?
For our freedom, said Davin.
No honourable and sincere man, said Stephen, has given up to you his life and his youth and his affections from the days of Wolfe Tone to those of Parnell, but you sold him to the enemy or failed him in need or reviled him and left him for another. And you invite me to be one of you. I’d see you damned first.
They died for their ideals, Stevie, said Davin. Our day will come yet, believe me.
Stephen, following his own thought, was silent for an instant…
When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets … Ireland is the old sow that eats her farrow.
—James Joyce (1882–1941) Irish Novelist, Poet
Though I love my country, I do not love my countrymen.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else.
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American Civil Liberties Lawyer
Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
It may be true that you can’t fool all the people all the time, but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Industrialist
Without a sign, his sword the brave man draws, and asks no omen, but his country’s cause.
—Homer (751–651 BCE) Ancient Greek Poet
Who saves his country violates no law.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France