patriotism Quotes

Surely so many countries can’t all be worth dying for.

“As the Nazi emphasis on nonintellectual virtues (patriotism, loyalty, duty, purity, labor, simplicity, ‘blood,’ ‘folk-ishness’) seeped through Germany, elevating the self-esteem of the ‘little man,’ the academic profession was pushed from the very center to the very periphery of society. Germany was preparing to cut its own head off. By 1933 at least five of my ten friends (and I think six or seven) looked upon ‘intellectuals’ as unreliable and, among these unreliables, upon the academics as the most insidiously situated.”

“We loved our country as much as they; we went courageously into every action; but also we distinguished the false from true, we had suddenly learned to see.”

″‘Hitler made only one big mistake when he built his Atlantic Wall’, the paratroopers liked to say. ‘He forgot to put a roof on it.‘”

“Dr. Y. Hiraiwa, professor of Hiroshima University of Literature and Science, and one of my church members, was buried by the bomb under the two storied house with his son, a student of Tokyo University. Both of them could not move an inch under tremendously heavy pressure. And the house already caught fire. His son said, ‘Father, we can do nothing except make our mind up to consecrate our lives for the country. Let us give Banzai to our Emperor.’ Then the father followed after his son, ‘Tenno-heika, Banzai, Banzai, Banzai!’ . . . In thinking of their experience of that time Dr. Hiraiwa repeated, ‘What a fortunate that we are Japanese! It was my first time I ever tasted such a beautiful spirit when I decided to die for our Emperor.”

“America makes no claim to the banal. America believes itself exceptional, the greatest and noblest nation to ever exist, a lone champion standing between the white city of democracy and the terrorists, despots, barbarians, and other enemies of civilization.”

“ ‘In my time,’ said the grandmother, folding her thin veined fingers, ‘children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then. Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!’ she said and pointed to a Negro child standing in the door of a shack. ‘Wouldn’t that make a picture now?’ ”

“I am not a Polack. People from Poland are Poles, not Polacks. But what I am is a one hundred percent American, born and raised in the greatest country on earth and proud as hell of it, so don’t ever call me a Polack.”

“I contemn the man who sets his friend Before his country.”

“I wondered if anybody thought what we were doing was unpatriotic. It was weird. Thinking that to protest was somehow un-American . . . This was very American.”

“That public virtue, which among the ancients was denominated patriotism, is derived from a strong sense of our own interest in the preservation and prosperity of the free government of which we are members. Such a sentiment, which had rendered the legions of the republic almost invincible, could make but a very feeble impression on the mercenary servants of a despotic prince; and it became necessary to supply that defect by other motives, of a different, but not less forcible nature—honor and religion.”

“Lincoln was not great because he was born in a log cabin, but because he got out of it.”

“Patriotic pieces make people emotional. And Mr Howard told me that when you and Franklin played it at the orphanage, everyone was quite moved by your rendition.”

“I profess in the sincerity of my heart that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country.”

“Therefore, let no man talk to me of other expedients: […] of being a little cautious not to sell our country and consciences for nothing.”

“The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.”

“He’d never had any particular ideas about America. He’d never been very patriotic. It was something you took without even thinking. But now it seemed to him . . . For the first time in his whole life he felt that it would be a little pleasant a little comforting to be in the hands of his own people.”

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.”

“Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.”

“In this installment they befriend a little girl who is a Syrian refugee and through her they learn some important lessons about kindness, forgiveness, and patriotism.”

He fell as fall the mighty ones, / Nobly undaunted to the last, / And death has now united him / With Erin’s heroes of the past.

“I gave my best to the country I love, and kept my tears till he was gone.”