Quotes about patriotism

"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government."

Abbey, Edward on patriotism
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"What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country."

Addison, Joseph on patriotism   

"It is the patriotic duty of every man to lie for his country."

Adler, Alfred on patriotism   

"Love of country is like love of woman -- he loves her best who seeks to bestow on her the highest good."

Adler, Felix on patriotism   

"Yippies, Hippies, Yahoos, Black Panthers, lions and tigers alike -- I would swap the whole damn zoo for the kind of young Americans I saw in Vietnam."

Agnew, Spiro T. on patriotism   

"True patriots we; for be it understood we left our country for our country's good."

Barrington, George on patriotism   

"Patriotism. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name."

Bierce, Ambrose on patriotism   

"Patriotism must be founded on great principles and supported by great virtue."

Bolingbroke, Henry on patriotism   

"Who saves his country violates no law."

Bonaparte, Napoleon on patriotism   

"Next to the love of God, the love of country is the best preventive of crime."

Borrow, George on patriotism   

"God and Country are an unbeatable team; they break all records for oppression and bloodshed."

Bunuel, Luis on patriotism   

"To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely."

Burke, Edmund on patriotism
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"Though I love my country, I do not love my countrymen."

Byron, Lord on patriotism
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"I realize that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone."

Cavell, Edith on patriotism   

"My country wrong or right, is like saying my mother, drunk or sober."

Chesterton, Gilbert K. on patriotism
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"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."

Chesterton, Gilbert K. on patriotism   

"Many a bum show has been saved by the flag."

Cohan, George M. on patriotism   

"Patriotism is easy to understand in America; it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country."

Coolidge, Calvin on patriotism   

"A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle."

Curtis, George William on patriotism   

"The love of their country is with them only a mode of flattering its master; as soon as they think that master can no longer hear, they speak of everything with a frankness which is the more startling because those who listen to it become responsible."

Custine, Marquis De on patriotism   

"Our country right or wrong."

Decatur, Stephen on patriotism   

"Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong."

Decatur, Stephen on patriotism   

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"Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it."

Diderot, Denis on patriotism   

"Never was patriot yet, but was a fool."

Dryden, John on patriotism   

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"Everyone loathes his own country and countrymen if he is any sort of artist."

Durrell, Lawrence on patriotism   

"No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots."

Ehrenreich, Barbara on patriotism   

"Patriotism has its roots deep in the instincts and the affections. Love of country is the expansion of dutiful love."

Field, D. D. on patriotism   

"Nationalism is our form of incest, is our idolatry, is our insanity. Patriotism is its cult. It should hardly be necessary to say, that by patriotism I mean that attitude which puts the own nation above humanity, above the principles of truth and justice; not the loving interest in one's own nation, which is the concern with the nation's spiritual as much as with its material welfare --never with its power over other nations. Just as love for one individual which excludes the love for others is not love, love for one's country which is not part of one's love for humanity is not love, but idolatrous worship."

Fromm, Erich on patriotism
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"The citizen who criticizes his country is paying it an implied tribute."

Fulbright, J. William on patriotism   

"I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

Hale, Nathan on patriotism   

"I wonder that we Americans love our country at all, it having no limits and no oneness; and when you try to make it a matter of the heart, everything falls away except one's native State; --neither can you seize hold of that, unless you tear it out of the Union, bleeding and quivering."

Hawthorne, Nathaniel on patriotism   

"I've seen a lot of patriots and they all died just like anybody else if it hurt bad enough and once they were dead their patriotism was only good for legends; it was bad for their prose and made them write bad poetry. If you are going to be a great patriot i.e. loyal to any existing order of government (not one who wishes to destroy the existing for something better) you want to be killed early if your life and works won't stink."

Hemingway, Ernest on patriotism   

"It seems that American patriotism measures itself against an outcast group. The right Americans are the right Americans because they're not like the wrong Americans, who are not really Americans."

Hobsbawm, E. J. on patriotism   

"Without a sign, his sword the brave man draws, and asks no omen, but his country's cause."

Homer on patriotism   

"It is a sweet and seemly thing to die for one's country."

Horace on patriotism   

"I think patriotism is like charity -- it begins at home."

James, Henry on patriotism
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"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

Johnson, Samuel on patriotism   

"... ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

Kennedy, John F. on patriotism   

"When a nation is filled with strife, then do patriots flourish."

Lao-Tzu on patriotism   

"Intellectually I know that America is no better than any other country; emotionally I know she is better than every other country."

Lewis, Sinclair on patriotism