Arthur C. Clarke on patriotism

The goal of the future is full unemployment, so we can play. That’s why we have to destroy the present politico-economic system.

Perhaps our role on this planet is not to worship God — but to create Him.

Behind every man now alive stand 30 ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living.

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