Devotion to Country Quotes

… loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death.

… my kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its office-holders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous.

It is rather for us here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.

To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.

There are no points of the compass on the chart of true patriotism.

And even if I were alone, ... I should have the consolation ... to the last moment of my existence ... that no word of mine has tended to the squandering of my country's treasure or the spilling of one single drop of my country's blood.

I have already given two cousins to the war and I stand ready to sacrifice my wife's brother.

Loyalty must arise spontaneously from the hearts of people who love their country and respect their government.

America has many glories. The last one that she would wish to surrender is the glory of the men who have served her in war. While such devotion lives, the nation is secure. Whatever dangers may threaten from within or without, she can view them calmly. Turning to her veterans, she can say: 'These are our defenders. They are invincible. In them is our safety.'

Whoever thinks his friend more important than his country, I rate him nowhere.

There is no party that has a lock on patriotism.

I've faced the grief, I've faced the anger, and I'm ready to keep up the fight because America is worth fighting for.

We have room for but one loyalty, loyalty to the United States.

Patriotism must be founded on great principals and supported by great virtue.

Who is not patriotic cannot be considered Portuguese.

Both of them were the children of the United States. They sacrificed their children for the benefit of the others. But they were not very devoted children of the United States.

Let our object be, our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country.

Next to the love of God, the love of country is the best preventive of crime.

But my patriotism goes for something beyond what we have. We don't have something that I want to die for - anymore.

My definition, the definition that I've always believed in, is that esprit de corps means love for one's own military legion - in my case, the United States Marine Corps. It means more than self-preservation, religion, or patriotism. I've also learned that this loyalty to one's corps travels both ways: up and down.

Oh, I do understand so well. That’s just how we feel about them in Scotland.

The Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities… Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.

In the Marine Corps, we're taught to put America above ourselves.

It is really your behaviour that determines whether you're a patriot.

In prison, I fell in love with my country. I had loved her before then, but like most young people, my affection was little more than a simple appreciation for the comforts and privileges most Americans enjoyed and took for granted. It wasn't until I had lost America for a time that I realized how much I loved her.