Quotes about nations

"As long as learning is connected with earning, as long as certain jobs can only be reached through exams, so long must we take this examination system seriously. If another ladder to employment was contrived, much so-called education would disappear, and no one would be a penny the stupider."

Forster, Edward M. on nations   

"Do not on any account attempt to write on both sides of the paper at once."

Sellar, W. C. on nations   

"Examinations, sir, are pure humbug from beginning to end. If a man is a gentleman, he knows quite enough, and if he is not a gentleman, whatever he knows is bad for him."

Wilde, Oscar on nations
4 fans of this quote   

"The simplest explanation is that it doesn't make sense."

Buechner, Professor William on nations   

"There is no waste of time in life like that of making explanations."

Disraeli, Benjamin on nations
6 fans of this quote   

"Never explain -- your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe you anyway."

Hubbard, Elbert on nations
15 fans of this quote   

"A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanations."

Saki on nations   

"The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it."

Schopenhauer, Arthur on nations   

"There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all things."

Shakespeare, William on nations   

"The less you know about a subject, the longer it takes you to explain it."

Unknown, Source on nations   

"Never explain yourself. Your friend don't need it and your enemies won't believe it."

Unknown, Source on nations   

"Without a country, I am not a man."

Al-Sabah, Nawaf Al-Nasir on nations   

"In every particular state of the world, those nations which are strongest tend to prevail over the others; and in certain marked peculiarities the strongest tend to be the best."

Bagehot, Walter on nations   

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"Nations, like men, have their infancy."

Bolingbroke, Henry on nations   

"It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for Wales!"

Bolt, Robert on nations   

"The French complain of everything, and always."

Bonaparte, Napoleon on nations
3 fans of this quote   

"I like the English. They have the most rigid code of immorality in the world."

Bradbury, Malcolm on nations   

"Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are malevolently well informed about the United States."

Brebner, J. Bartlett on nations
3 fans of this quote   

"A country grows in history not only because of the heroism of its troops on the field of battle, it grows also when it turns to justice and to right for the conservation of its interests."

Briand, Aristide on nations   

"A nation is not conquered which is perpetually to be conquered."

Burke, Edmund on nations   

"Spain: A whale stranded upon the coast of Europe."

Burke, Edmund on nations   

"England can never be ruined except by a Parliament."

Burleigh, Lord on nations   

"A Canadian is someone who knows how to make love in a canoe."

Burton, Pierre on nations   

"I don't even know what street Canada is on."

Capone, Al on nations   

"A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It's a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity."

Carter, Jimmy on nations
5 fans of this quote   

"If it were not for the government, we should have nothing to laugh at in France."

Chamfort, Sebastien-Roch Nicolas De on nations   

"China has no income tax, no unemployment and not a single soldier outside its borders."

Chou En Lai on nations   

"Be England what she will, with all her faults she is my country still."

Churchill, Randolph on nations   

"Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. [About Russia]"

Churchill, Winston on nations
4 fans of this quote   

"The maxim of the British people is Business as usual."

Churchill, Winston on nations
4 fans of this quote   

"The soil of their native land is dear to all the hearts of mankind."

Cicero, Marcus T. on nations   

"I do not call the sod under my feet my country; but language -- religion -- government -- blood -- identity in these makes men of one country."

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor on nations   

"There's always something fishy about the French."

Coward, Noel on nations   

"God made the country and man made the town."

Cowper, William on nations   

"Nations have always good reasons for being what they are, and the best of all is that they cannot be otherwise."

Custine, Marquis De on nations   

"The wealth and prosperity of the country are only the comeliness of the body, the fullness of the flesh and fat; but the spirit is independent of them; it requires only muscle, bone and nerve for the true exercise of its functions. We cannot lose our liberty, because we cannot cease to think."

Davy, Sir Humphrey on nations   

"The more I saw of foreign countries the more I loved my own."

De Delloy on nations   

"Nationality is the miracle of political independence; race is the principle of physical analogy."

Disraeli, Benjamin on nations   

"Great countries are those that produce great people."

Disraeli, Benjamin on nations   

"Canada has never been a melting pot; more like a tossed salad."

Edinborough, Arnold on nations