Eugene V. Debs on patriotism

The most heroic word in all languages is REVOLUTION.

Denial of one’s better self seals the lips or pollutes them. Fidelity to conviction opens them and truth blossoms in eloquence.

If ever I become entirely respectable I shall be quite sure that I have outlived myself.

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