Robert Graves on patriotism

Love is a universal migraine.
A bright stain on the vision
Blotting out reason.

To be a poet is a condition rather than a profession.

A perfect poem is impossible. Once it had been written, the world would end.

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