I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice. I don't want just any greatness for it, particularly a greatness born of blood and falsehood. I want to keep it alive by keeping justice alive.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Patriotism should not require compromising justice. A country stays alive through fairness, not glory built on violence.
- In plain terms
- Love your country by upholding justice, not by seeking greatness through blood and lies.
- What can you take from it?
- True patriotism means keeping justice alive for your nation.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Can you love a country that acts unjustly?
- How do you define national greatness?
Another view
Some may view justice as secondary to national security or unity.
More from Albert Camus
I loathe none but executioners.
Permalink to quote #147 If one believes Homer, Sisyphus was the wisest and most prudent of mortals. According to another tradition, however, he was disposed to practice the profession…
Permalink to quote #149 I have shared and I still share many of the contemporary frenzies. But I have never been able to get myself to spit, as so many others do, on the word 'honor.'
Permalink to quote #146
Related quotes
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 mea…
Erich FrommErich Fromm quote #22 Patriots always talk of dying for their country, and never of killing for their country.
Bertrand RussellBertrand Russell quote #56 My passion for social justice has often brought me into conflict with people, as did my aversion to any obligation and dependence I do not regard as absolutely…
Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein quote #114