Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Churchill acknowledges admiration for a leader's patriotism despite disagreeing with their system.
In plain terms
You can dislike a system but respect patriotic effort.
What can you take from it?
Separate ideology from national devotion.

Where it applies

  • national crisis
  • political debate
  • historical analysis

Putting it to work

  • assess motives
  • distinguish methods from goals

Questions to consider

  • Can patriotism be separated from policy?
  • How do we judge leaders?

Another view

Admiring such achievements risks normalizing harmful systems.

More from Winston Churchill

  1. It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr. Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer of the type well-known in the East, now posing as a fakir, striding half…

    Permalink to quote #32
  2. We cannot tell whether Hitler will be the man who will once again let loose upon the world another war in which civilisation will irretrievably succumb, or whe…

    Permalink to quote #34
  3. India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the equator. ** Speech at Royal Albert Hall, London (18 March 1931)

    Permalink to quote #31

Related quotes

  1. England expects that every man will do his duty.

    Horatio NelsonHoratio Nelson quote #22
  2. I am tired of being categorized as immoral and unpatriotic because I am a democrat and because I oppose this war. Why is liberal a bad word? It comes from the …

    Wesley ClarkWesley Clark quote #30
  3. Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emb…

    William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare quote #38