Oscar Wilde on patriotism

True friends stab you in the front.

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

A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

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)