Patriot: The person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.
Mark Twain Quotes
My kind of loyalty was to one’s country, not to it’s institutions or to 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.
The Gospel of the Monarchical Patriotism is: “The King can do no wrong.” We have adopted it with all its servility, with an unimportant change in the wording: “Our Country, right or wrong!”
We have thrown away the most valuable asset we have – the individual right to oppose both flag and country when he (just he by himself) believes them to be in the wrong. We have thrown it all away: and with it, all that was really respectable about that grotesque and laughable word, Patriotism.
Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. And it is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of pulpit, press, government, or the empty catch phrases of politicians. Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is […]
There are two kinds of patriotism – monarchical patriotism and republican patriotism. In the one case, the government and the king may rightfully furnish you their notions of patriotism: in the other, neither government nor the entire nation is privileged to dictate to any individual what the form of his patriotism shall be. The Gospel […]
For the majority of us, the past is a regret, the future an experiment.
I said there was but one solitary thing about the past worth remembering and that was the fact that it is past – and can’t be restored.
It is easier to stay out than get out.
Difference between savage and civilized man: one is painted, the other gilded.
