#patriot

If patriotism were defined, not as blind obedience to government, not as submissive worship to flags and anthems, but rather as love of one's country, one's fellow citizens (all over the world), as loyalty to the principles of justice and democracy, then patriotism would require us to disobey our government, when it violated those principles. ↗

— Howard Zinn

#patriotism #love

Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious ↗

— Oscar Wilde

#nationalism #patriotism #virtue

Anders als die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika haben sich die meisten europäischen Nationalstaaten auf der Grundlage von Homogenisierungen entwickelt; historisch liegt ihnen das Ideal einer Einheit von Blut, Kultur, Sprache und Religion zugrunde. Dieser Drang zur Vereinheitlichung war kaum irgendwo stärker als in Deutschland, eben weil es sich erst spät zu einer Nation herausgebildet hat, und das Deutsche niemals ein so natürlicher oder unumstrittener Bezugspunkt war wie England für die Engländer oder Frankreich für die Franzosen. ↗

— Navid Kermani

#nationality #patriotism #religion

The last time I heard an orthodox Marxist statement that was music to my ears was from a member of the Rwanda Patriotic Front, during the mass slaughter in the country. 'The terms Hutu and Tutsi,' he said severely, 'are merely ideological constructs, describing different relationships to the means and mode of production.' But of course! ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#ideology #marxism #rwanda #rwandan-genocide #rwandan-patriotic-front

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. ↗

— George Orwell

#change

If you took the most ardent revolutionary, vested him in absolute power, within a year he would be worse than the Tsar himself. ↗

— Mikhail Bakunin

#anarchist #chomsky #communism-patriotism-inspiration #lenin #leninism

France is to me the heroine in the romance of all the nations of all time. This feeling was born in me years ago when I read how her noble sons had defended America in its cradle. Today I am proud that I am one of the millions who will come to save our heroine from the clutches of the villain from across the Rhine. ↗

— William Arthur Sirmon

#france #germany #historical-romance #history #inspirational

The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law and particularly to deny him the judgement of his peers is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist. ↗

— Winston Churchill

#liberty #patriot-act #politics #freedom

Nationalism is a silly cock crowing on his own dunghill. ↗

— Richard Aldington

#dunghill #his #nationalism #own #silly

Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive. ↗

— Henry Steele Commager

#authority #criticism #dangerous #equate #find