Henry David Thoreau Quotes

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.

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.

The word patriotism, or its equivalents and derivations, is upon everyone's lips at the present time. It is a magic word which is thought by most people to cover any multitude of sins. To be patriotic in whatever cause is tantamount to being virtuous, while no worse charge can be brought against a man in popular estimation than to say he is unpatriotic.

Patriotism has nothing to do with Conservatism. It is actually the opposite of Conservatism, since it is a devotion to something that is always changing and yet is felt to be mystically the same.

Leo Tolstoy ... defines patriotism as the principle that will justify the training of wholesale murderers.

Nationalism, like virtue, has its own reward.

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.

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

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

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, 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.

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

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

Patriotism is a lively sense of collective responsibility.

It may sound corny, but what's wrong with wanting to fight for your country. Why are people reluctant to use the word patriotism?

Patriotism is not sentimental nonsense. Nor something dreamed up by demagogues. Patriotism is as necessary a part of man's evolutionary equipment as are his eyes, as useful to the race as eyes are to the individual.

The difference between that which is humane and that which is patriotic is a vital difference.

Patriotism is one of the unalterable facts of man's nature. It is a virtue if you like it, and a vice if you don't like it.

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

Patriotism is the vital condition of national permanence.

My definition of patriotism is to defend your country with the truth, no matter the consequences.

There is no patriotic art and no patriotic science.

Patriotism has become a mere national self assertion, a sentimentality of flag-cheering with no constructive duties.

Patriotism is best exemplified through auto-critique.