“Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.”
Patriotism at its best is love of country paired with the courage to make it better. These quotes explore national pride, civic duty, dissent, and the difference between blind loyalty and the kind of patriotism that demands accountability.
“We do not consider patriotism desirable if it contradicts civilized behavior.”
“Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.”
“Most Italians who came to this country are very patriotic. There was this exciting possibility that if you worked real hard, and you loved something, you could become successful.”
“The proper means of increasing the love we bear our native country is to reside some time in a foreign one.”
“Patriotism. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name.”
“I do think the patriotic thing to do is to critique my country. How else do you make a country better but by pointing out its flaws?”
“Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.”
“There is a fuzzy but real distinction that can and I believe should be made, between patriotism, which is attachment to a way of life, and nationalism, which is the insistence that your way of life deserves to rule over other ways of life.”
“Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.”
“Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them!”
“Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”
“Well, the post office is probably not the place you want to go if you want to be infused with patriotism and a renewed sense of vigor.”
“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
“Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it.”
“The greater the state, the more wrong and cruel its patriotism, and the greater is the sum of suffering upon which its power is founded.”
“I want to light the lights of patriotism.”