Selected patriotism quotes

1. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him, who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty.

2. America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

3. Bolshevism is knocking at our gates, we can't afford to let it in...We must keep America whole and safe and unspoiled. We must keep the worker away from red literature and red ruses; we must see that his mind remains healthy.

4. I am amazed that Congressmen can pass a bill imposing severe penalties on anyone who burns the American flag, whereas they are responsible for burning that for which the flag stands: the United States as a territory, as a people, and as a biological manifestation. That is an example of our perennial confusion of symbols with realities.

5. Every good citizen makes his country's honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense and its conscious that he gains protection while he gives it.

6. Liberals hate America, they hate flag-wavers, they hate abortion opponents, they hate all religions except Islam, post 9/11. Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do. They don't have the energy. If they had that much energy, they'd have indoor plumbing by now.

7. I know that my works are a credit to this nation and I dare say they will endure longer than the McCarran Act.

8. I have never had any [enemies] other than those of the state.

9. In love of home, the love of country has its rise.

10. The vanquished know war. They see through the empty jingoism of those who use the abstract words of glory, honor, and patriotism to mask the cries of the wounded, the senseless killing, war profiteering, and chest-pounding grief.

11. True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else.

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

13. There ought to be system of manners in every nation which a well-formed mind would be disposed to relish. To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.

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

15. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.

16. This is, I say, the time for all good men not to go to the aid of their party, but to come to the aid of their country.

17. It's time for America to get right.

18. I am conscious of having served England as I served my own country.

19. We love the indomitable bellicose patriotism that sets you apart; we love the national pride that guides your muscularly courageous race; we love the potent individualism that doesn't prevent you from opening your arms to individualists of every land, whether libertarians or anarchists.

20. I have defined the hundred per cent American as ninety-nine per cent an idiot.

21. Hello my Country I once came to tell everyone your story Your passion was my poetry And your past my most potent glory Your promise was my prayer Your hypocrisy my nightmare And your problems fill my present Are we both going somewhere?

22. I, with other Americans, have perhaps unduly resented the stream of criticism of American life... more particularly have I resented the sneers at Main Street. For I have known that in the cottages that lay behind the street rested the strength of our national character.

23. My greatest happiness is to serve my gracious King and Country and I am envious only of glory; for if it be a sin to covet glory I am the most offending soul alive.

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

25. One certain effect of war is to diminish freedom of expression. Patriotism becomes the order of the day, and those who question the war are seen as traitors, to be silenced and imprisoned.

26. A patriotic song is an emotion and you must not embarrass an audience with it, or they will hate your guts.

27. The soil out of which such men as he are made is good to be born on, good to live on, good to die for and to be buried in.

28. The highest treason in the USA is to say Americans are not loved, no matter where they are, no matter what they are doing there.

29. We are Republicans. But we are Americans first. It is as Americans that we express our concern with the growing confusion that threatens the security and stability of our country.

30. I can't bear Britain in decline. I just can't.

31. A man may climb Everest for himself, but at the summit he plants his country's flag.

32. I believe that the royal family are a focus of patriotism, of loyalty, of affection and of esteem. That is a rare combination, and we should value it highly.

33. My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death.

34. Resisting overreaching by the federal government is appropriate and, yes, even patriotic.

35. The Wisconsin senator gets up and says out loud what half of the country is thinking and talks about every day. This President broke the law and lied about it; he trashed the Constitution and hides himself in the flag.

36. Let us take a patriot, where we can meet him; and, that we may not flatter ourselves by false appearances, distinguish those marks which are certain, from those which may deceive; for a man may have the external appearance of a patriot, without the constituent qualities; as false coins have often lustre, though they want weight.

37. Some claim a place in the list of patriots, by an acrimonious and unremitting opposition to the court. This mark is by no means infallible. Patriotism is not necessarily included in rebellion. A man may hate his king, yet not love his country.

38. Governor, why wouldn't anyone want to say the Pledge of Allegiance, unless they detested their own country or were ignorant of its greatness?

39. Totalitarianism is patriotism institutionalized.

40. The man who loves other countries as much as his own stands on a level with the man who loves other women as much as he loves his own wife.

41. I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country. And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics.

42. A lot of white people like to scream they're American as if they've got something to do with the country being the way it is : like they was on the Mayflower or some shit.

43. Whatever job they give me, I'll try to be useful to the country. That's what I intend.

44. So to be patriots as not to forget we are gentlemen.

45. As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense, that always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory.

46. You in America should trust to that volcanic political instinct which I have divined in you.

47. I was able to get a sense of his soul; a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country.

48. I think people attack me because they are fearful that I will then say that you're not equally as patriotic if you're not a religious person. ... I've never said that. I've never acted like that. I think that's just the way it is. (Washington Times, 12 January 2005)

49. No, I don't know that atheists should be regarded as citizens, nor should they be regarded as patriotic. This is one nation under God.

50. If I were to characterize George Washington's feelings toward his country, I should be less inclined than most people to stress what is called Washington's love of his country. What impresses me as far more important is what I should call Washington's respect for his country.

51. 'I wave the flag for the principles of our nation: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights and that among those rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our principles and our potential: That's why I wave the flag.'

52. Patriotism is as sickening today as it has ever been. I was watching the news before you came and there was a lot of coverage of Kosovo and the problems there. They showed footage of people burning an American flag. And the newscaster got all broken up and teary-eyed. He says, 'I guess [sob] I just feel something here, folks, when I see the American flag being burned.' And I said, 'You fucking asshole. Whatever happened to the news?'

53. We are in a troublesome period, and some 'nonsense' as you term it - but this is a great nation with a high purpose, and we shall come to our senses and resume our course.

54. Those who abandon their duties do not deserve from the native land even a piece of bread. The German women and adolescents are invited to receive them, not with compassion, but instead with depreciation and ridicule, and especially heavy, vigilant blows to their foreheads with broomsticks.

55. He was a great patriot, a great man; above all, a great American. His country was the ruling, mastering passion of his life from the beginning even unto the end.

56. O brave flag, O bright flag, O flag to lead the free! The glory of thy silver stars, Engrailed in blue above the bars Of red for courage, white for truth, Has brought the world a second youth And drawn a hundred million hearts to follow after thee.

57. Where is the G-ddamn f**king flag? I want the G-ddamn f**king flag up every f**king morning at f**king sunrise.

58. 'Isn't it amazing that there's such a sizable number of people in the media and in the liberal community that despise this country and its freedoms, and they're doing everything they can to undermine it?'

59. Hail to the land whereon we tread, Our fondest boast! The sepulchres of mighty dead, The truest hearts that ever bled, Who sleep on glory's brightest bed, A fearless host: No slave is here:-our unchained feet, Walk freely as the waves that beat Our coast.

60. I first drew in New England's air, and from her hardy breast Sucked in the tyrant-hating milk that will not let me rest.

61. [Introducing a raw version version of The Queen live in England] 'In fact it'd sound better if you'd stand up, for your country, and your brother ... and start singin'! And if you don't, fuck it.'

62. 'We're not trying to take away the greatness that America is supposed to have, but we're playing it [ Star-Spangled Banner ] the way the air is in America today... The air is slightly static, isn't it?'

63. I know well that these English will put me to death, because they think that after I'm dead, they will win the Kingdom of France. But even if there were hundred thousand more Godons than there are now, still they will never have the Kingdom!

64. Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.

65. This is the most magnificent movement of all! There is a dignity, a majesty, a sublimity, in this last effort of the patriots that I greatly admire. The people should never rise without doing something to be remembered - something notable and striking. This destruction of the tea is so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid and inflexible, and it must have so important consequences, and so lasting, that I can't but consider it as an epocha in history!

66. That flag and I are twins, born in the same hour from the same womb of destiny. We cannot be parted in life or in death.

67. Citizenship? We have none! In place of it we teach patriotism which Samuel Johnson said a hundred and forty or a hundred and fifty years ago was the last refuge of the scoundrel -- and I believe that he was right. I remember when I was a boy and I heard repeated time and time again the phrase, 'My country, right or wrong, my country!' How absolutely absurd is such an idea. How absolutely absurd to teach this idea to the youth of the country.

68. We, who are dying, are doing better, than they, who will live. For Crete doesn't need householders, she needs madmen like us. These madmen make Crete immortal.

69. He defended Faurrison. He championed the Khmer Rouge. His condemnations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are one hundred percent one-sided, based on the (obviously) false notion that the Arab nations and the Palestinian people have been trying to arrange a peace with Israel for decades. He viewed the rescue mission undertaken in Kosovo as nothing more than the extension of imperial power. He accuses the United States of perpetrating a holocaust in Afghanistan and thinks that the mistaken attack on the pharmaceutical factory in Somalia [sic] was as bad if not worse than the attack on the Twin Towers. One could go on, but it all adds up to, I fear, the mirror image of the ignorant jingoism of Bennett, Krauthammer, Kelly, Will, etc. And I find it amazing that intelligent people take it seriously. --Eric Alterman, June 2002 [219]

70. Mourir pour le pays est un si digne sort, Qu'on briguerait en foule une si belle mort.

71. When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart.

72. It is patriotic, not partisan, to help the President see the truth.

73. Si pequena es la patria, uno grande la suena.

74. We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah. For patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land [Iran] burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world.

75. It's so simple: I am a conservative who puts the country first, not a political party or a particular nominee.

76. How many times are we going let George Bush and Dick Cheney say, 'You guys don't support the troops. You're not patriotic,' and let them push us around? We have to stand up to them.

77. [Rutherford B. Hayes] was a patriotic citizen, a lover of the flag and of our free institutions, an industrious and conscientious civil officer, a soldier of dauntless courage, a loyal comrade and friend, a sympathetic and helpful neighbor, and the honored head of a happy Christian home. He has steadily grown in the public esteem, and the impartial historian will not fail to recognize the conscientiousness, the manliness, and the courage that so strongly characterized his whole public career.

78. It ought to be deeply impressed on the minds of all who have voices in this national deliberation, that no man can deserve a seat in parliament, who is not a patriot. No other man will protect our rights: no other man can merit our confidence. A patriot is he whose publick conduct is regulated by one single motive, the love of his country; who, as an agent in parliament, has, for himself, neither hope nor fear, neither kindness nor resentment, but refers every thing to the common interest.

79. A man sometimes starts up a patriot, only by disseminating discontent, and propagating reports of secret influence, of dangerous counsels, of violated rights, and encroaching usurpation. This practice is no certain note of patriotism. To instigate the populace with rage beyond the provocation, is to suspend publick happiness, if not to destroy it. He is no lover of his country, that unnecessarily disturbs its peace. Few errours and few faults of government, can justify an appeal to the rabble; who ought not to judge of what they cannot understand, and whose opinions are not propagated by reason, but caught by contagion. The fallaciousness of this note of patriotism is particularly apparent, when the clamour continues after the evil is past.

80. The United States, for all its faults, is still the greatest nation in the country.

81. I believe in America. I believe it exists. My gut tells me I live there. I feel that it extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and I strongly believe it has fifty states. And I cannot wait to see how the Washington Post spins that one tomorrow.

82. Yes, Shakespeare foremost and forever (Darwin too). But also teach about the excellence of pygmy bushcraft and Fuegian survival in the world's harshest climate. Dignity and inspiration come in many guises. Would anyone choose the tinhorn patriotism of George Armstrong Custer over the eloquence of Chief Joseph in defeat?

83. I cannot tell you of what infinitesimal importance I regard this incident as compared with the great issues at stake in this campaign, and I ask it not for my sake, not the least in the world, but for the sake of common country, that they make up their minds to speak only the truth, and not use that kind of slander and mendacity which if taken seriously must incite weak and violent natures to crimes of violence. Don't you make any mistake. Don't you pity me. I am all right. I am all right and you cannot escape listening to the speech either.

84. The harp that once through Tara's Hall The soul of music shed, Now hangs as mute on Tara's wall As if that soul were fled.

85. It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government.

86. So many minority youths had volunteered...that there was literally no room for patriotic folks like myself.

87. Qui sert bien son pays n'a pas besoin d'aieux.

88. In this, our land, we are called upon to give but little in return for the advantages which we receive. Shall we give that little grudgingly? Our definition of patriotism is often too narrow. Shall the lover of his country measure his loyalty only by his service as a soldier? No! Patriotism calls for the faithful and conscientious performance of all of the duties of citizenship, in small matters as well as great, at home as well as upon the tented field.

89. 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 emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.

90. [at Rock the Bells, San Bernardino, California, 2007] 'Sixty-eight years ago just after World War II, they claimed they were the greatest generation.. And I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure. All the potential for greatness is in this generation right here. 'Cause I know that this fucking government took this country to war for a lie to withstand its empire and millions of you across this country said no. Stood up, and said no! And with the whole world watching, this generation here, in this country, we have to step up! We have to step up! We have to take it from the concert stage, from the crowd, and into the streets and prove that we won't let these fascists rule us any longer. This generation. Are you standing in line? Are you believing the lies? Are you bowing to the flag, you got a bullet in your head...'

91. 'See right through the red, white and blue disguise'

92. 'They rally 'round the family! With a pocket full of shells.'

93. 'Ya standin' in line, believin' the lies, ya bowin' down to the flag? Ya gotta bullet in ya head'

94. Companeros, this old man is my father. He has come to offer me rewards in the name of the Spaniards. I have always respected my father but my country comes first.

95. 'If fascism ever comes to America, it will come wrapped in an American flag.'

96. Now, nephew to your work! St George for England! Hey!

97. Directly in front of me, the monument to a monumental man, George Washington, father of our country. A man of humility who came to greatness reluctantly. He led Americans out of revolutionary victory into infant nationhood. Off to one side, the stately memorial to Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration of Independence flames with his eloquence. And then, beyond the Reflecting Pool, the dignified columns of the Lincoln Memorial. Whoever would understand in his heart the meaning of America will find it in the life of Abraham Lincoln. Beyond those monuments to heroism is the Potomac River, and on the far shore the sloping hills of Arlington National Cemetery, with its row upon row of simple white markers bearing crosses of Stars of David. They add up to only a tiny fraction of the price that has been paid for our freedom. Each one of those markers is a monument to the kind of hero I spoke of earlier. Their lives ended in places called Belleau Wood, the Argonne, Omaha Beach, Salerno, and halfway around the world on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Pork Chop Hill, the Chosin Reservoir, and in a hundred rice paddies and jungles of a place called Vietnam. Under one such marker lies a young man, Martin Treptow, who left his job in a small town barber shop in 1917 to go to France with the famed Rainbow Division. There, on the western front, he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy artillery fire. We are told that on his body was found a diary. On the flyleaf under the heading, 'My Pledge,' he had written these words: 'America must win this war. Therefore, I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone.' The crisis we are facing today does not require of us the kind of sacrifice that Martin Treptow and so many thousands of others were called upon to make. It does require, however, our best effort and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds, to believe that together with God's help we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us. And after all, why shouldn't we believe that? We are Americans.

98. They feed off of your rage that they have made you believe, things like: 'You are getting shafted by everybody else, and only government can protect you and make these wrongs right.' You need to get hold of yourselves, take a look around your great country, and ask yourself why you're no longer proud of it when you used to be. 'Cause there's no reason for anybody not to be proud of this country. You all live here. You all are seeking your best performance, opportunity, because you know your country provides it. Yet some of you - not you people. I know you people are not of this mindset. But so many Americans seem to be, and so they're trying to do something positive while feeling absolutely enraged all the time. Hatred for America is real. You've seen it. You've heard it. You've read it. It's out there, and it's in larger numbers than you know. And the people who hate this country are the genuine mind-numbed robots. They have been talked into it with years and years and years of propaganda. Just ask yourself, when you have a free moment - maybe bring it up at dinner if you have a family still eats together now and then. Ask them, 'What are you proud of in America?' Don't lead 'em anywhere. Just say, 'What are proud of, when you think about America. What are you proud of?' and then deal with what you get. It will be interesting.

99. A True Red Blood American Hero

100. The State is the organized authority, domination, and power of the possessing classes over the masses the most flagrant, the most cynical, and the most complete negation of humanity. It shatters the universal solidarity of all men on the earth, and brings some of them into association only for the purpose of destroying, conquering, and enslaving all the rest. This flagrant negation of humanity which constitutes the very essence of the State is, from the standpoint of the State, its supreme duty and its greatest virtue Thus, to offend, to oppress, to despoil, to plunder, to assassinate or enslave one's fellowman is ordinarily regarded as a crime. In public life, on the other hand, from the standpoint of patriotism, when these things are done for the greater glory of the State, for the preservation or the extension of its power, it is all transformed into duty and virtue This explains why the entire history of ancient and modern states is merely a series of revolting crimes; why kings and ministers, past and present, of all times and all countries - statesmen, diplomats, bureaucrats, and warriors - if judged from the standpoint of simply morality and human justice, have a hundred, a thousand times over earned their sentence to hard labor or to the gallows. There is no horror, no cruelty, sacrilege, or perjury, no imposture, no infamous transaction, no cynical robbery, no bold plunder or shabby betrayal that has not been or is not daily being perpetrated by the representatives of the states, under no other pretext than those elastic words, so convenient and yet so terrible: 'for reasons of state.'