Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

What every Englishman thinks about patriotism, the last refuge of a scoundrel.

Patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings.

Patriotism: The first resort of a scoundrel.

Talking of patriotism, what humbug it is; it is a word which always commemorates a robbery.

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

Patriotism is the trump card of a scoundrel.

Patriotism, often a thinly veiled form of collective self-worship, celebrates our goodness, our ideals, our mercy and bemoans the perfidiousness of those who hate us.

The soul and substance of what customarily ranks as patriotism is moral cowardice -- and always has been.

Patriotism is seen not only the last refuge of the scoundrel bus as the first bolt-hole of the hypocrite.

… patriotism is usually the refuge of the scoundrel. He is the man who talks the loudest.

Well - Patriotism has its laws. And it also is a perfectly definite one, there are not vaguenesses about it. It commands that the brother over the border shall be sharply watched and brought to book every time he does us a hurt or offends us with an insult.

To be a patriot, one had to say, and keep on saying, "Our Country, right or wrong," and urge on the little war. Have you not perceived that that phrase is an insult to the nation?

Patriotism is the principle that will justify the training of wholesale murderers.

Patriotism, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit it is the first.

Patriotism is nationalism, and always leads to war.

Don't spread patriotism too thin.

Patriotism is the passion of fools and the most foolish of passions.

Patriotism, red hot, is compatible with the existence of a neglect of national interests, a dishonesty, a cold indifference to the suffering of millions. Patriotism is largely pride, and very largely combativeness. Patriotism generally has a chip on its shoulder.

Nationalism and patriotism are two sides of the same coin, and the most nationalistic / patriotic country in the last 300 years was Germany during the Third Reich.

A patriot is a fool in ev'ry age.

I do not mean to exclude altogether the idea of patriotism. I know it exists, and I know it has done much in the present contest. But I will venture to assert, that a great and lasting war can never be supported on this principle alone. It must be aided by a prospect of interest, or some reward.

A patriot is someone who cares what happens in their country.

Patriotism! It is used to define so many diversities, to justify so many wrongs, to compass so many ends, that its life is killed out; it becomes a dead word in the vocabulary-a blank counter, to be moved to any part of the game; and that flag which, streaming from the mast-head of our ship of state, striped with martyr-blood, and glistening with the stars of lofty promise, should always indicate our worldwide mission, and the glorious destinies that we carry forward, is bandied about in every selfish skirmish, and held up as the symbol of every political privateer.

Patriotism covers a multitude of sins.

Patriotism is a lively sense of collective responsibility.