Patriotism Quotes

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.__John F. Kennedy

It is the love of country that has lighted and that keeps glowing the holy fire of patriotism.
–J. Horace Mcfarland

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it._George Bernard Shaw

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.~~Edward Abbey

Patriots always talk of dying for their country but never of killing for their country. Bertrand Russell

“You’ll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.”

The essence of patriotism is the sacrifice of personal interest to public welfare. WILLIAM H. BURNHAM

My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one’s country, not to its institutions or its office-holders.-Mark Twain

Real patriotism is a willingness to challenge the government when it’s wrong.–Ron Paul

Patriotism is voluntary. It is a feeling of loyalty and allegiance that is the result of knowledge and belief. A patriot shows their their patriotism through their actions, by their choice.__Jesse Ventura

If our country is worth dying for in time of war let us resolve that it is truly worth living for in time of peace.–Hamilton Fish

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._George William Curtis

It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen._Aristotle

To oppose corruption in government is the highest obligation of patriotism. G. Edward Griffin

“The greater the state, the more wrong and cruel its patriotism, and the greater is the sum of suffering upon which its power is founded.”

We’re being sold a brand new idea of patriotism. It never occurred to me that patriotism had to be advertised. Patriotism is something you deeply felt. You didn’t have to wear it on your lapel or show it in your window or on a bumper sticker. That kind of patriotism does not appeal to me at all. SAM SHEPARD

“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.”

“They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s 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 Hemingway

“In the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.”― Barack Obama

“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. Chesterton

Patriotism is a thing of the heart. A man is a patriot if his heart beats true to his country.__CHARLES E. JEFFERSON

One of the great attractions of patriotism – it fulfills our worst wishes. In the person of our nation we are able, vicariously, to bully and cheat. Bully and cheat, what’s more, with a feeling that we are profoundly virtuous.
–Aldous Huxley

The love of one’s country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border__Pablo Casals

He loves his country best who strives to make it best._Robert G. Ingersoll

Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.__Mark Twain

Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious. Oscar Wilde

Patriotism is a lively sense of collective responsibility. Nationalism is a silly cock crowing on its own dunghill and calling for larger spurs and brighter beaks. RICHARD ALDINGTON

“In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, Brave, Hated, and Scorned. When his cause succeeds however,the timid join him, For then it costs nothing to be a Patriot.”

“In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the People.”― Eugene Victor Debs

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

“It’s not unpatriotic to denounce an injustice committed on our behalf, perhaps it’s the most patriotic thing we can do.”― E.A. Bucchianeri

“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official.”― Theodore Roosevelt

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.__SAMUEL JOHNSON

A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.–Napoleon Bonaparte

Our country is not the only thing to which we owe our allegiance. It is also owed to justice and to humanity. Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong.
–James Bryce

Men love their country, not because it is great, but because it is their own._Seneca

There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people for a purpose which is unattainable._Howard Zinn

A love for tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril. Winston S. Churchill

“Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.”

Patriotism is a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood and narrows the mind.

“It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.”

“I love my country, not my government.”― Jesse Ventura

“Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes”― Bertolt Brecht

“The hand that gives is among the hand that takes. Money has no fatherland, financiers are without patriotism and without decency, their sole object is gain.”― Napoleon Bonaparte

Those who love their country never wish to rule it.__ABRAHAM MILLER

One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, One Nation evermore!–Oliver Wendell Holmes

It is sweet to serve one’s country by deeds, and it is not absurd to serve her by words.–Sallust

Patriotism is easy to understand in America – it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.__Calvin Coolidge

The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously.
–Julian Barnes

Patriotism is like religion–it is best when least ostentatious._CHARLES E. JEFFERSON

“Patriotism is a pernicious, psychopathic form of idiocy.”

“Patriotism has nothing to do with Conservatism. It is actually the opposite of Conservatism, since it is a devotion to something that is always changing and yet is felt to be mystically the same.”― George Orwell

“It’s such a shame that we know so little about our own country, that we can’t find it in our hearts to love our own kind. Instead we admire those who show our country disrespect and betray its people.”― Orhan Pamuk

“Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched.”

I am an American; free born and free bred, where I acknowledge no man as my superior, except for his own worth, or as my inferior, except for his own demerit._Theodore Roosevelt

If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen. Ronald Reagan

The patriot blood of my father was warm in my veins. Clara Barton

“He who is ready to die for his country is a fool. For he didn’t choose where he was born; and where he was born didn’t choose him.”― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“What is patriotism but the love of the food one ate as a child?”― Lin Yutang

“The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure.”