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Quotes about patriotism

116 quotes from 83 people

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Winds of the World, give answer! They are whimpering to and fro⁠—
And what should they know of England who only England know?
Rudyard Kipling1865–1936The English Flag, Stanza 1 (1891).
I yield to no one precedence in love for the South. But because I love the South, I rejoice in the failure of the Confederacy.
Woodrow Wilson1856–1924Essay on John Bright, Virginia University Magazine, 19:354-370 (March 1880)
A great and lasting war can never be supported on this principle [patriotism] alone. It must be aided by a prospect of interest, or some reward.
George Washington1732–1799Letter to John Banister, Valley Forge (21 April 1778)
- War & Peace
I hate the idea of causes, and if I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.
E. M. Forster1879–1970What I Believe (1938)
- Friendship
Thinking men and women the world over are beginning to realize that patriotism is too narrow and limited a conception to meet the necessities of our time.
Emma Goldman1869–1940Patriotism: A Menace to Liberty
That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775), Inch Kenneth
In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.
Mark Twain1835–1910Mark Twain’s Notebook (1935), p. 413
- Courage
They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for ones country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.
Ernest Hemingway1899–1961Notes on the Next War (1935)
- War & Peace
True patriotism sometimes requires of men to act exactly contrary, at one period, to that which it does at another, and the motive which impels them — the desire to do right — is precisely the same.
Robert E. Lee1807–1870Letter to General P.G.T. Beauregard (3 October 1865)
I return you many thanks for the honour you have done me; but Europe is not to be saved by any single man. England has saved herself by her exertions, and will, as I trust, save Europe by her example.
William Pitt the Younger1759–1806Speech at the Guildhall, City of London (9 November 1805), quoted in The War Speeches of William Pitt (1915), p. 351
- Leadership
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.
Edward Abbey1927–1989A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)
- Government
Such then is the human condition, that to wish greatness for one’s country is to wish harm to one’s neighbors.
Voltaire1694–1778“Fatherland” (1764)
The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American.
Patrick Henry1736–1799Speech in the First Continental Congress (6 September 1774), as recorded in John Adams’s notes of the debates
- America
England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality.
George Orwell1903–1950The Lion and the Unicorn (1941)
We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.
Edward R. Murrow1908–1965See It Now (1954)
- Justice