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Patriotism
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“What is love of one's country; is it hate of one's uncountry? Then it's not a good thing.”
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“No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.”
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“Question everyone in authority, and see that you get sensible answers to your questions ... questioning does not mean the end of loving, and loving does not mean the abnegation of intelligence. Vow as much love to your country as you like ... but, I implore you, do not forget to question.”
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“True patriotism doesn't exclude an understanding of the patriotism of others.”
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“Patriotism covers a multitude of sins.”
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“All of us ... should remember that no amount of flag-waving, pledging allegiance, or fervent singing of the national anthem is evidence that we are patriotic in the real sense of the word. ... Outward behavior, while important, is not the real measure of a man's patriotism. ”
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“True patriotism springs from a belief in the dignity of the individual, freedom and equality not only for Americans but for all people on earth, universal brotherhood and good will, and a constant and earnest striving toward the principles and ideasl on which this country was founded.”
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“On the contrary, I'm a universal patriot, if you could understand me rightly: my country is the world.”
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“All men should have a drop of treason in their veins, if the nations are not to go soft like so many sleepy pears.”
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“... that kind of patriotism which consists in hating all other nations ...”
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“A patriot is one who wrestles for the / soul of her country / as she wrestles for her own being, for the soul of his country / ... / as he wrestles for his own being.”
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“This is an amazing country, for all of its faults. My feeling is, dig in and let's try to change the world. Dissent is not only your right, it's your duty.”
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“American patriotism is generally something that amuses Europeans, I suppose because children look idiotic saluting the flag and because the constitution contains so many cracks through which the lawyers may creep.”
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“The more I see of other countries, the more I love my own.”
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“Liberty is the only idea which circulates with the human blood, in all ages, in all countries, and in all literature — liberty that is, and what cannot be separated from liberty, a love of country.”
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“There's a magical tie to the land of our home, / ... / Ask of any the spot they like best on the earth, / And they'll answer with pride, ''Tis the land of my birth!'”
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“My love for my country is my religion.”
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“They had lived in London and Paris all their lives, and had, before this, heard patriotism used as a reason for a variety of things, from a minister's keeping in office against the will of the country, to a newspaper's writing a country into bloodshed and bankrupty; they were quite aware of the word's elasticity.”
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“... the heart is always a patriot! — In that country where it first learns to feel, to love, to suffer, there will the associating ideas rivet the social affections; and it is thus we insensibly attach ourselves to our country from sentiment, even when we are destitute of the virtue to love it from principle.”
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“Great oxygen tanks of patriotism, generated in a hurry, gushed out volatile and inflammable from coast to coast. ... Envoys crossed word-swords and all the little men began to run, and the red threads of high-sounding idealisms and patriotism to come out in eyeballs. The inflamed voodoo dance around the cauldron brewed on the table of paternal governments began to grow ... That was the way the men went off to war, riveted with that paternal eye and inflamed with the generated oxygen, the generated phrases, and the generated idealism.”
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“Of all ennobling sentiments, patriotism may be the most easily manipulated. On the one hand, it gives powerful expression to what is best in a nation's character: a commitment to principle, a willingness to sacrifice, a devotion to the community by the choice of the individual. But among its toxic fruits are intolerance, belligerence and blind obedience, perhaps because it blooms most luxuriantly during times of war.”
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“Flag waving becomes more frantic every day. Two years ago people were 'just crazy about' the tango and the turkey trot, and now the same class has taken up patriotism. Much of the talk is the merest cant, more still the seething of small minds with the unaccustomed excitement of an idea.”
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“What has patriotism come to be but greed and false pride, when the only way it can show itself is by shedding blood to gain gold? More economic advantage, more territory, more power.”
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“You can't prove you're an American by waving Old Glory.”
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“Patriotism was a great thing but it worked best when it was tempered by common sense.”
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“Dissent is essential to democracy, although those who practice it are often accused of being unpatriotic. The idea that patriotism demands passivity and obedience, a following of orders as though citizenship is a form of military service, or as if the state is a church and citizens are required to embrace an unexamined faith, or at least act as though they do, contradicts democratic principles and is out of sync with the structure of our government, which accommodates and even demands debate, and which consists of a system of checks and balances to ensure that power is never absolute. Dissent truly is patriotism in action.”
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“Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's minds and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead.”