Oscar Wilde on patriotism

True friends stab you in the front.

Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

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”

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

Winston Churchill1874–1965Speech in the House of Commons, after taking office as Prime Minister (13 May 1940)