James Salter Quotes

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.

Conceit, arrogance and egotism are the essentials of patriotism... Patriotism assumes that our globe is divided into little spots, each one surrounded by an iron gate. Those who have had the fortune of being born on some particular spot consider themselves nobler, better, grander, more intelligent than those living beings inhabiting any other spot. It is, therefore, the duty of everyone living on that chosen spot to fight, kill and die in the attempt to impose his superiority upon all the others.

I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.

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

Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism—how passionately I hate them!

I dislike loud-mouthed patriots who suggest they like our country more than I do. Some people's idea of patriotism is hating other countries.

Patriotism is nationalism, and always leads to war.

Patriotism: The first resort of a scoundrel.

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

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.

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

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

This self-congratulatory notion Americans have that their country is Number One is borne of ignorance and bad manners.

America is the only country that believes it was born perfect and constantly strives to improve itself.

… all that loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism.

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.

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

You never can say too much in praise of your country and its inhabitants. Two nations in Europe are really almost ridiculous in their own exaggerated praises of themselves; these are the English and the French.

I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in in Greek exceptionalism.

It's easy to deprecate some of the puffery and jingoism that often go with affirmations of 'American greatness.' It's also easy to confuse greatness with perfection, as if evidence of our shortcomings is proof of our mediocrity.

There is a lot of learned material written about nationalism - scholarly books and papers, histories of it, theories of it - but most of us understand that nationalism, at its heart, at its very deepest roots, is about a feeling of superiority: We are better than you. Our country is better than your country.

When I wrote 'Pink Houses,' nobody was talking about that, right? The next thing I know, you can't see the TV without hearing commercials with 'Listen to the heartbeat of America,' or 'Born the American way.' That whole America thing now - I hate it.

Most Americans are exceptionalists; we think we live outside of history.

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