Emma Goldman Quotes

Every nation feels itself to be superior, but in America it's a jaunty feeling, and in some cases a rather ominous one among the super-patriots.

Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.

Each nation feels superior to other nations. That breeds patriotism - and wars.

That kind of patriotism which consists in hating all other nations.

Nationalism made us feel as if we were a unique, chosen people. That's what led us down the path of aggression.

Nationalism ... is like cheap alcohol. First it makes you drunk, then it makes you blind, then it kills you.

Many studies have discovered a close link between prejudice and "patriotism" . . . Extreme bigots are almost always super-patriots.

All classes in proportion to their lack of travel and familiarity with foreign literature are bellicose, prejudiced against foreigners, fond of fighting as a cruel sport - in short, dog-like in their notions of foreign policy.

The pamphlet was very patriotic. That is, it talked about killing foreigners.

The unattractive thing about chauvinism is not so much the aversion to other nations as the love of one's own.

The nationalist has a broad hatred and a narrow love.

I loathe nationalism. It is a form of tribalism--the idolatry of the 20th century.

Americans and Englishmen, when they become acquainted with the Balkans, feel an astonished contempt when they study the mutual enmities of Bulgarians and Serbs, of Hungarians and Rumanians. It is evident to them that these enmities are absurd and that the belief of each little nation in its own superiority has no objective basis. But most of them are quite unable to see that the national pride of a Great Power is essentially as unjustifiable as that of a little Balkan country.

It graduates to 'our state is better than your state', and 'our nation is better than your nation.' And it circles all the way around to where it started: 'Our God is better than your God.'

I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event. Has England ever been quite so foul with patriotism? The 'dazzling royals' have, quite naturally, hi-jacked the Olympics for their own empirical needs, and no oppositional voice is allowed in the free press.

Nationalism is a silly cock crowing on its own dunghill.

In Europe … nationalism is nothing more than a mania.

National pride may be a valuable possession, but when it becomes consciousness of racial superiority it ceases to be an Imperial virtue.

Nationalism … may be regarded as the greatest obstacle to mutual understanding between peoples.

Nationalism has nothing to do with democratic values: Authoritarians can be nationalists; indeed, most are.

There's a reason nationalists build walls, denigrate foreigners, and denounce immigrants: Because our people are better than those people. There's a reason nationalism has so often become violent in the past. For if we - our nation - are better, then what right do others have to live beside us? Or to occupy land that we covet?

Nationalism and patriotism are the two most evil forces that I know of in this century or in any century and cause more wars and more death and more destruction to the soul and to human life than anything else.

Someone said that patriotism is the last refuge of cowards; those without moral principles usually wrap a flag around themselves, and those bastards always talk about the purity of race.

Politically speaking, tribal nationalism [patriotism] always insists that its own people are surrounded by 'a world of enemies' - 'one against all' - and that a fundamental difference exists between this people and all others. It claims its people to be unique, individual, incompatible with all others, and denies theoretically the very possibility of a common mankind long before it is used to destroy the humanity of man.

The English, the English, The English are best: So Up with the English and Down with the Rest!