Carl Schurz Quotes

I confidently trust that the American people will prove themselves ... too wise not to detect the false pride or the dangerous ambitions or the selfish schemes which so often hide themselves under that deceptive cry of mock patriotism: "Our country, right or wrong!" They will not fail to recognize that our dignity, our free institutions and the peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism: "Our country - when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right."

There can be no greater privilege in life than to be chosen to lead your country.

My country right or wrong; when right, to keep her right; when wrong, to put her right.

Let us abandon this narrow conception of patriotism, which consists of the doctrine, "My country right or wrong." There is a nobler doctrine, ... "My country must always be right.

To criticize one's country is to do it a service and to pay it a compliment. It is a service because it may spur the country to do better than it is doing; it is a compliment because it evidences a belief that the country can do better than it is doing.

If you love your country you’ll find ways somehow to speak out to do what you think is right.

Let eternal vigilance be the price of liberty and integrity of the country hereafter.

I'd like to say is that I am a patriotic, loyal American. I love my country and the values that it stands for. And I am a Muslim.

The Senator from Wisconsin cannot frighten me by exclaiming, My country, right or wrong. In one sense I say so too. My country; and my country is the great American Republic. My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.

True patriotism is not worship of our nation but rather, in the light of our worship of the God of justice, to conform our nation's ways of justice.

Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families. The Amor Patriae love of ones country is both a moral duty and a religious duty. It comprehends not only the love of our neighbors but of millions of our fellow creatures, not only of the present but of future generations. This virtue we find constitutes a part of the first characters of history.

A patriot is someone who stands for his country always, and for his government when it is deserved.

If patriotism were defined, not as blind obedience to government, not as submissive worship to flags and anthems, but rather as love of one's country, one's fellow citizens (all over the world), as loyalty to the principles of justice and democracy, then patriotism would require us to disobey our government, when it violated those principles.

You're not patriotic just because you back whoever's in power today or their policies. You're patriotic when you work to improve the lives of the people of your country, your community and your family. Sometimes that means making hard choices, choices that go against your personal interest.

I love my country, not my government.

He loves his country best who strives to make it best.

May our country be always successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right.

There is no patriotic art and no patriotic science.

The way to be patriotic in America is not only to love America, but to love the duty that lies nearest to our hand, and to know that in performing it we are serving our country.

Stand Firm for your country, and become a man Honour'd and lov'd: It were a noble life, To be found dead, embracing her.

I did not get an opportunity to die for the country, but I have got an opportunity to live for the country.

Love your country, not for her power or wealth, but for her selflessness and her idealism.

Standing up to your government can mean standing up for your country.

Let us both small and great push forward in this work, in this pursuit, if to our country, if to ourselves we would live dear.

When I die, I desire no better winding sheet than the Stars and Stripes, and no softer pillow than the Constitution of my country.