Charles de Gaulle on patriotism

How can you be expected to govern a country that has 246 kinds of cheese?

How can one conceive of a one-party system in a country that has over 200 varieties of cheeses?

France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war.

Ask not what your country can do for you⁠—ask what you can do for your country.

John F. Kennedy1917–1963John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address (1961)

‘My country, right or wrong’ is a thing that no patriot would think of saying, except in a desperate case. It is like saying, ‘My mother, drunk or sober’.

G. K. Chesterton1874–1936The Defendant (1901), “A Defence of Patriotism”

Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.

Oscar Wilde1854–1900