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PAST (THE) --- PATIENCE
PATRIOTISM

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PAST (THE)

see "MEMORIES" for related links
see "TIME" for related links


In every age "the good old days" were a myth. No one ever thought
they were good at the time. For every age has consisted of crises
that seemed intolerable to the people who lived through them.
--Brooks Atkinson (1894—1984)
American journalist and critic.
_Once Around the Sun_ [1951], "February 8"

Except among those whose education has been
in the minimalist style, it is understood that
hasty moral judgments about the past are a
form of injustice.
--Jacques Barzun (1907— )
French-born American writer, educator, and cultural historian.
_From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western
Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present_ [2000]

-

22nd Dec., 1900. The old century is very nearly out, and leaves the
world in a pretty pass, and the British Empire is playing the devil in
it as never an empire before on so large a scale. We may live to see
its fall. All the nations of Europe are making the same hell upon
earth in China, massacring and pillaging and raping in the captured
cities as outrageously as in the Middle Ages. The Emperor of Germany
gives the word for slaughter and the Pope looks on and approves. In
South Africa our troops are burning farms under Kitchener's command,
and the Queen and the two houses of Parliament, and the bench of
bishops thank God publicly and vote money for the work. The Americans
are spending fifty millions a year on slaughtering the Filipinos; the
King of the Belgians has invested his whole fortune on the Congo,
where he is brutalizing the Negroes to fill his pockets. The French
and Italians for the moment are playing a less prominent part in the
slaughter, but their inactivity grieves them. The whole white race is
reveling openly in violence, as though it had never pretended to be
Christian. God's equal curse be on them all! So ends the famous
nineteenth century into which we were so proud to have been
born....

31st Dec., 1900. I bid good-bye to the old century, may it rest in
peace as it has lived in war. Of the new century I prophesy nothing
except that it will see the decline of the British Empire. Other worse
empires will rise perhaps in its place, but I shall not live to see
the day. It all seems a very little matter here in Egypt, with the
pyramids watching us as they watched Joseph, when, as a young
man four thousand years ago, perhaps in this very garden, he
walked and gazed at the sunset behind them, wondering about
the future just as I did this evening. And so, poor wicked
nineteenth century, farewell!

--Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840—1922)
English poet and publicist.
_My Diaries, 1888—1914_ [1921].

-

Our moral criticism of past ages can easily be
mistaken. It transfers present-day desiderata
to the past. It views personalities according
to set principles and makes too little allowance
for the urgencies of the moment.
--Jacob Burckhardt (1818—1897)
Swiss historian of art and culture.
_Judgments on History_ [1865—85]

The best of prophets of the future is the past.
--Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824)
English Romantic poet and satirist.
_Journal_ [28 January 1821]

I learned. . . that one can never go back, that one should
not ever try to go back — that the essence of life is
going forward. Life is really a one-way street.
--Agatha Christie (1890—1976)
British crime fiction writer.

The public only takes up yesterday as a stick to beat today.
--Jean Cocteau (1889—1963)
French poet.

-

The past always looks better than it was;
it's only pleasant because it isn't here.
--Finley Peter Dunne (1867—1936)
American journalist and humorist.


Th' further ye get away fr'm anny peeryod
the' betther ye can write about it. Ye are
not subjict to interruptions by people that
were there.
--Finley Peter Dunne (1867—1936)
American journalist and humorist.
_Mr. Dooley on Making a Will_ [1919]

-

-

With memory set smarting like a reopened wound, a
man's past is not simply a dead history, an outworn
preparation of the present: it is not a repented
error shaken loose from the life: it is a still
quivering part of himself, bringing shudders and
bitter flavors and the tinglings of a merited shame.
--George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819—1880)
English novelist.
_Middlemarch_ [1871], Book 6, Ch. 61


We cannot reform our forefathers.
--George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819—1880)
English novelist.
_Adam Bede_ [1859]

-

Living the past is a dull and lonely business; looking back
strains the neck muscles, causes you to bump into people
not going your way.
--Edna Ferber (1887—1968)
American novelist and short-story writer.

The moving finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.
--Edward Fitzgerald (1809—1883)
English scholar and poet.
_The Rubαiyαt of Omar Khayyαm_ [1859]

The illusion that times that were are better than
those that are, has probably pervaded all ages.
--Horace Greeley (1811—1872)
American newspaper editor.

The past is a foreign country: they do things
differently there.
--L.P. Hartley (1895—1972)
English novelist.
_The Go-Between_ [1953], opening words

By despising all that has preceded us,
we teach others to despise ourselves.
--William Hazlitt (1778—1830)
English essayist.
"On Reading Old Books" [1821]

-

There is no time like the old time, when
you and I were young.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809—1894)
American physician, poet, and essayist.
_No Time Like the Old Time_, st. 1


What lies behind us and what lies before us are
tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809—1894)
American physician, poet, and essayist.

-

What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?
That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.
--A.E. [Alfred Edward] Houseman (1859—1936)
English classical scholar and poet.
"A Shropshire Lad" [1896]

Yesterday, all my troubles
seemed so far away.
Now it seems
they're here to stay.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.
--John Lennon (1940—1980) & Paul McCartney (1942— )
English pop singers and songwriters. "Yesterday" [1965 song]

Those who compare the age in which their lot has fallen
with a golden age which exists only in imagination, may
talk of degeneracy and decay; but no man who is correctly
informed as to the past will be disposed to take a morose
or desponding view of the present.
--Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800—1859)
English politician and historian.
_History of England_ [1849—1861] , vol. I, ch. 1

Men ever praise the olden time, and find fault
with the present, though often without reason . . .
Having grown old, they also laud all they remember
to have seen in their youth. Their opinion is
generally erroneous . . . . We never know
the whole truth about the past.
--Niccolς Machiavelli (1469—1527)
Florentine statesman and political philosopher.
_Discourses On The First Ten Books Of Livius_

Think of it soldiers; from the summit of these pyramids,
forty centuries look down upon you.
--Napoleon I (1769—1821)
Emperor of France [1804—1815].
Speech [21 July 1798] before the Battle of the Pyramids.

Who controls the past controls the future:
who controls the present controls the past.
--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950)
English novelist.
_Nineteen Eighty-Four_ [1949]

Let others praise ancient times;
I am glad I was born in these.
--Ovid [Publius Ovidius Naso] (43 B.C.—18 A.D.)
Roman poet.

-

I just spent an hour perusing a book my
mother left me upon her death thirty years ago.
_The Autograph Birthday Book For Young Folks_
[1881] Ed. Amanda B. Harris

It was given to Florence Elizabeth *** in "May
1883" "From Aunt Kate"
Florence (my maternal grandmother) evidently had
a good number of friends because at least half of the
year is filled in with one or more names. The entry
for January 30th gives one pause: "Mammie Milkins
1867-84."

The poem for that same date reads:
When I'm a woman
I expect that teachers will have great pay,
And they won't work more than three hours a day,
And vacations will be so long!

Inside the back cover, pencilled script:
"You ask me dearest how many times
I think of you a day.
I faintly answer only once and
mean just what I say.
You look perplexed and some
what hurt. But wait and hear
the rhyme.
Pray how can one do more than
once?
What one does all the time."

--kap, in a post to alt.quotations

-

Things ain't what they used to be.
--Ted Persons
[title of 1941 song]

I sit in my rocking chair,
Peacefully rocking there,
Counting my blessings by the score;
The rack was in fashion —
The plague was my passion —
Each day held a new joy in store.
I see cannibals munchin'
A missionary luncheon,
The years may have flown
But the memory stays —
Like the hopes that were dashed
When the stock market crashed
Ya-ha-ha-ha
Those were the good old days!
--Richard Adler (1921— ) & Jerry Ross (1926—1955)
American songwriting team whose successes
include "The Pajama Game" and "Damn Yankees."
"The Good Old Days" from "Damn Yankees"

Those who cannot remember the past are
condemned to repeat it.
--George Santayana (1863—1952)
Spanish-born philosopher and critic.
_The Life of Reason_ [1905]

-

Antonio: What's past is prologue.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_The Tempest_ [1611—1612]


Lady Macbeth:
Things without all remedy
Should be without regard: what's done is done.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Macbeth_ [1606]

-

People who are always praising the past
And especially the times of faith as best
Ought to go and live in the Middle Ages
And be burnt at the stake as witches and sages.
--Stevie [Florence Margaret] Smith (1902—1971)
English poet and novelist.
"The Past" [1957]

That sign of old age, extolling the past
at the expense of the present.
--Sydney Smith (1771—1845)
English clergyman and essayist,
in 1802 cofounded "The Edinburgh Review."
_Lady Holland's Memoir_ [1855], vol. I, ch. 11

I think today's youth have a tendency to live
in the present and work for the future — and
to be totally ignorant of the past.
--Steven Spielberg (1946— )
American film director and producer.
In "Independent" [22 August 1999].

If you want the present to be different
from the past, study the past.
--Benedict de Spinoza (1632—1677)
Dutch-Jewish philosopher, the foremost exponent
of 17th century Rationalism.

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.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
Letter to William Dean Howells [19 September 1877].

You'll try to reveal what should remain hidden, you'll try to incite people
to learn from the past and rebel, but they will refuse to believe you. They
will not listen to you. . . . You'll possess the truth, you already do; but it's
the truth of a madman.
--Eliezer [Elie] Wiesel (1928— )
Romanian Jew and Holocaust
survivor. Winner of the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1986.
_A Beggar in Jerusalem_ [1970], Ch. 5

I fling my past behind me like a robe,
Worn threadbare at the seams, and out of date.
I have outgrown it.

--Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850—1919)
American author and poet.
_Collected Poems of Ella Wheeler Wilcox_ [1917], "The Past"

No man is rich enough to buy back his past.
--Oscar Wilde (1854—1900)
Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet.

Each had his past shut in him like the leaves of a book
known to him by heart, and his friends could only read
the title.
--Virginia Woolf (1882—1941)
English novelist.
_Jacob's Room_, Ch. 5 [1922]

-----

erstwhile (adj.) ['κrst-hwIl]
Former, in the past; formerly.

nostalgia (noun)
Sentimental recollection: a mixed feeling of happiness,
sadness, and longing when recalling a person, place,
or event from the past, or the past in general

quondam [KWAHN-duhm; KWAHN-dam], adjective:
Having been formerly; former; sometime.
Ex.: A quondam flower child, she spent seven years at the Royal College
of Art, before becoming a lecturer at Edinburgh School of Art.
--"Interview: Cool, calm collector," _Independent_ [13 December 1997]




PATIENCE

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see: "COOLNESS"
see: "PERSEVERANCE", "PERSISTENCE"
see: "STRENGTH"
see: "TAKING OFFENSE"
see: "WAITING"


Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts
when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal.
Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and
failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and
a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success.
--Brian Adams (b 1934)
In Hal Urban
_Choices That Change Lives_, p. 24 [2006].

Men often bear little grievances with less
courage than they do large misfortunes.
--Ζsop (c.620 B.C.—c.560 B.C.)
(Thought to be a legendary figure.)

A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is
to his glory to overlook an offense.
--Bible
"Proverbs" 19:11 NIV

Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines,
but it is to the one who endures that the final
victory comes.
--Buddha [Gautama] (c. 6th—4th century B.C.)
Founder of Buddhism.

There is, however, a limit at which forbearance
ceases to be a virtue.
--Edmund Burke (1729—1797)
Irish-born Whig politician and man of letters.

Endurance is patience concentrated.
--Thomas Carlyle (1795—1881)
Scottish historian and political philosopher.

A strong mind is one which does not lose
its balance even under the most violent
excitement.
--Karl von Clausewitz (1780—1831)
Prussian soldier and military theorist.
_On War_ [1832]

Beware the fury of a patient man.
--John Dryden (1631—1700)
English poet, critic, and dramatist.
_Absalom and Achitophel_ [1681]

It's easy finding reasons why other folks
should be patient.
--George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819—1880)
English novelist.

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience
with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your
own imperfections but instantly set about remedying
them — every day begin the task anew.
--Francis, St, de Sales (1567—1622)
French bishop.

Nothing gives one person so much advantage
over another as to remain always cool and
unruffled under all circumstances.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].

Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against
cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will
have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in
patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be
powerless to vex your mind.
--Leonardo da Vinci (1452—1519)
Florentine painter, sculptor, musician, and scientist.

Every normal man must be tempted at times
to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag,
and begin slitting throats.
--H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956)
American journalist and literary critic.
"Prejudices, 1919-1927"

Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never
make a negative decision in the low time. Never
make your most important decisions when you are
in your worst mood. Wait. Be patient. The storm
will pass. The spring will come.
--Robert H. Schuller (1926— )
American televangelist.

I am extraordinarily patient, providing
I get my own way in the end.
--Margaret Thatcher (1925— )
British conservative stateswoman and Prime Minister [1979—1990].
In "Observer" [4 April 1989]

It is a lovely disposition and a most valuable
one, that can brush away indignities and
discourtesies and seek and find the pleasanter
features of an experience.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.

-----

longanimity (noun) [long-gκ-'ni-mκ-tee ]
Patience, forbearing, long-suffering.
adjective: longanimous
adverb: longanimously



PATRIOTISM

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.

see: "FLAG"
see "THE HUMAN RACE" for related links


My toast would be, may our country always be successful,
but whether successful or otherwise, always right.
--John Quincy Adams (1767—1848)
6th President of the United States.

Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen,
and then say, 'What should be the reward of such
sacrifices?' Bid us and our posterity bow the knee,
supplicate the friendship, and plough, and sow, and
reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let
loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and
hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth
better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude
than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in
peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down
and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains
sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that
ye were our countrymen!
--Samuel Adams (1722—1803)
American revolutionary leader.
Speech delivered at the State House in Philadelphia [1 August 1776].

-

There is no greater sign of a general decay of
virtue in a nation, than a want of zeal in its
inhabitants for the good of their country.
--Joseph Addison (1672—1719)
English essayist, poet, and dramatist.


What a pity is it
That we can die but once to serve our country!
--Joseph Addison (1672—1719)
English essayist, poet, and dramatist.
_Cato_ [1713], act IV, sc. 4

-

Patriotism is a lively sense of collective
responsibility. Nationalism is a silly
cock crowing on its own dunghill.
--Richard Aldington (1892—1962)
English poet, novelist, and biographer.
_The Colonel's Daughter_ [1931]

I for one will never concede that we cannot do
as much in defense of our freedoms as any enemy
may be doing to destroy them.
--Bernard Baruch (1870—1965)
American financier.

Patriotism, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one
ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary
patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due
respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer, I beg to submit
that it is the first.
--Ambrose Bierce (1842—1914)
American newspaperman, wit, and satirist.
_The Cynic's Word Book_ [1906]
(Retitled in 1911 as _The Devil's Dictionary_.)

Sir, the love of our country is a sentiment. If you
have it not, I cannot give it to you by reasoning.
--James Boswell (1740—1795)
Scottish lawyer, diarist, and author.
(From "Boswell on the Grand Tour".)

No man can be a patriot on an empty stomach.
--William Cowper Brann (1855-1898)
American journalist.

Patriotism is a mighty precious thing when it costs nothing,
but the mass of mankind consider it a very foolish thing
when it curtails their self-indulgence.
--John Brockenbrough (1775—1852)
American business man and civic leader.
In an 1808 letter to John Randolph regarding
the Embargo Act of 1807.

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England.
There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
--Rupert Brooke (1887—1915)
English poet.
_The Soldier_ [1914]

He who loves not his country, can love nothing.
--Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824)
English Romantic poet and satirist.
_The Two Foscari_ [1821]

I have a great respect for the flag, (but) if the
government . . . passed a law saying that I had
to pledge allegiance to the flag, I don't think I
would do it. I've always felt that I lived in a
country . . . where if I wanted to worship God
as a Baptist I could do so. If I were an atheist,
I could be one. If I wanted to be a Catholic but
was born a Jew, there's no condemnation . . .
from a government authority.
--Jimmy Carter (1924— )
American Democratic statesman, President [1977—1981].

Be England what she will,
With all her faults she is my country still.
--Charles Churchill (1731—1764)
English poet.
"The Farewell"

I remind you, sir, that extreme patriotism in the defense
of liberty is no vice, and moderation in the pursuit of
justice no virtue.
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC)
Roman orator and statesman.
(See William Safire quote below.)

-

[. . . ] You're a grand old flag,
You're a high-flying flag,
And forever in peace may you wave.
You're the emblem of
The land I love,
The home of the free and the brave.
Ev'ry heart beats true
Under Red, White and Blue,
Where there's never a boast or brag.
But should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag. [ . . . ]

--George M. Cohan (1878—1942)
American songwriter, dramatist, and producer.
"You're a Grand Old Flag" [1906 song]
from the musical _George Washington Jr._

-

-

Who are the really disloyal? Those who inflame racial
hatreds, who sow religious and class dissensions. Those
who subvert the Constitution by violating the freedom of
the ballot box. Those who make a mockery of majority
rule by the use of the filibuster. Those who impair
democracy by denying equal educational facilities.
Those who frustrate justice by lynch law or by making
a farce of jury trials. Those who deny freedom of speech
and of the press and of assembly. Those who demand
special favors against the interest of the commonwealth.
Those who regard public office merely as a source of
private gain. Those who would exalt the military over
the civil. Those who for selfish and private purposes
stir up national antagonisms and expose the world to
the ruin of war.
--Henry Steele Commager (1902—1998)
American historian.
_Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent_ [1954]


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 (1902—1998)
American historian.

-

-

Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations,
may she always be in the right; but our country,
right or wrong.
--Stephen Decatur (1779—1820)
American naval officer.
In a toast offered in Norfolk, Virginia [April 1816].

& see:

I hope to find my country in the right:
however, I will stand by her right or
wrong.
--John Jordan Crittenden (1787—1863)
American statesman.
_On the Mexican War_

& see:

'My country, right or wrong' is a thing no patriot
would ever think of saying except in a desperate
case. It is like saying 'My mother, drunk or sober.'
--G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton (1874—1936)
English essayist, novelist, and poet.
_The Defendant_ [1901] "Defence of Patriotism"

-

A people living under the perpetual menace of war
and invasion is very easy to govern. It demands no
social reforms. It does not haggle over expenditures
on armaments and military equipment. It pays without
discussion, it ruins itself, and that is an excellent
thing for the syndicates of financiers and manufacturers
for whom patriotic terrors are an abundant source of
gain.
--Anatole France [Jacques Anatole Thibault] (1844—1924)
French novelist, man of letters, and winner of the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1921.

Even if I died in the service of the nation, I would
be proud of it. Every drop of my blood . . . will
contribute to the growth of this nation and make it
strong and dynamic.
--Indira Gandhi (1917—1984)
Prime Minister of India [1966—1977] and [1980-1984].
(Speech at Delhi [30 October 1984], the
eve of her assassination by Sikh militants.)

-

Gilbert: We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to
his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders
who bring them war and destruction.

Goering: Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor
slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out
of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people
don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that
matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the
country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the
people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a
Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.

Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy the people have some say
in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States
only Congress can declare wars.

Goering: Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can
always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to
do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of
patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any
country.

--Hermann Goering (1893—1946)
German Nazi leader interviewed [18 April 1946] by Gustave
M. Gilbert (1911-1977) during the Nuremberg trials. Quoted
in Gilbert's book _Nuremberg Diary_ [1947].

-

That this House will in no circumstances
fight for its King and Country.
--D.M. Graham (1911—1999)
Oxford pacifist.
(Motto worded by Graham for a debate at the Oxford Union
[9 February 1933]; passed by 275 votes to 153 - ODTQ.)

I only regret that I have but one life
to lose for my country.
--Nathan Hale (1755—1776)
American revolutionary.
(Prior to his execution by the British for spying.)
In Henry Phelps Johnston _Nathan Hale, 1776_
[1914] (See Addison quote above.)

He serves his party best who serves the country best.
--Rutherford B. Hayes (1822—1893)
19th President of the U.S. [1877—1881].
In his inaugural address [5 March 1877].

I want you to get mad about the current state of
affairs. I want you to get so mad that you use
your new degree and your common sense to kick
America off dead center. A little righteous anger
really brings out the best in the American personality.
Our nation was born when 56 patriots got mad
enough to sign the Declaration of independence.
We put a man on the moon because Sputnik made
us mad at being number two in space. Getting mad
in a constructive way is good for the soul — and the
country.
--Lee Iacocca (1924— )
American automobile executive.

My affections were first for my own country,
and then, generally, for all mankind.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
In a letter to Thomas Law [15 January 1811].

-

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
In James Boswell
_Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791] "7 April 1775".
(This criticism was aimed at *politicians* who masked
self-interest with a feigned love of country.)


Some claim a place in the list of patriots, by
an acrimonious and unremitting opposition to
the court. This mark is by no means infallible.
Patriotism is not necessarily included in
rebellion. A man may hate his king, yet not
love his country.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
_The Patriot_


It is unpleasing to represent our affairs to our own disadvantage;
yet it is necessary to shew the evils which we desire to be removed.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
_Introduction to the Political State of Great Britain_ [1756]

-

-

I will go as far as anyone in world service, but the first step to
world service is the maintenance of the United States. You may
call me selfish if you will, conservative or reactionary, or use any
other harsh adjective you see fit to apply, but an American I was
born, an American I have remained all my life.

I can never be anything else but an American, and I must think of
the United States first, and when I think of the United States first
in an arrangement like this I am thinking of what is best for the
world, for if the United States fails the best hopes of mankind fail
with it.

I have never had but one allegiance — I cannot divide it now. I
have loved but one flag and I cannot share that devotion and give
affection to the mongrel banner invented for a league.....National I
must remain, and in that way I, like all other Americans can render
the amplest service to the world. The United States is the world's
best hope, but if you fetter her in the interests and intrigues of
Europe, you will destroy her power for good and endanger her
very existence.....Strong, generous and confident, she has nobly
served mankind.

--Henry Cabot Lodge Sr. (1850—1924)
Republican U.S. senator [1893—1924].
Speech before the Senate on the League of Nations [12 August 1919].

-

A man does not serve his country by canting, snuffling
and marching in parades, he serves her by striving to
make her clean, brave, just, intelligent and worthy
of respect.
--H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956)
American journalist and literary critic.
Baltimore _Evening Sun_ [13 June 1916]

Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration
of real estate above principles.
--George Jean Nathan (1882—1958)
American drama critic and editor.
_Testament of a Critic_ [1930]

The voice of protest, of warning, of appeal is never more needed than
when the clamor of fife and drum, echoed by the press and too often
by the pulpit, is bidding all men fall in and keep in step and obey in
silence the tyrannous word of command. Then, more than ever, it is
the duty of the good citizen not to be silent.
--Charles Eliot Norton (1827—1908)
American scholar.
_True Patriotism_ [1898]

Patriotism is usually stronger than class hatred,
and always stronger than internationalism.
--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950)
English novelist.

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier
and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the
service of their country; but he that stands it *now,*
deserves the love and thanks of men and women.
--Thomas Paine [spelled Pane prior to 1774] (1737—1809)
English-American writer and political pamphleteer.
"The Crisis" [December 1776]

-

Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does
not mean to stand by the president or any public
official, save exactly to the degree he himself
stands by the country.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].


To love one's country above all others is in no
way incompatible with respecting and wishing
well to all others.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
[20 May 1901]


Some reformers may urge that in the ages distant future,
patriotism, like the habit of monogamous marriage, will
become a needless and obsolete virtue; but just at present
the man who loves other countries as much as he does his
own is quite as noxious a member of society as the man
who loves other women as much as he loves his wife. Love
of country is an elemental virtue, like love of home.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].


The pacifist is surely a traitor to his country and to
humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
In a speech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania [27 July 1917].


There can be no 50-50 Americanism in this country.
There is room here for only 100 percent Americanism,
only for those who are Americans and nothing else.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
In a speech at the State Republican Party Convention,
Saratoga, New York [19 July 1918].

-

Yes, we'll rally round the flag, boys, we'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.
--George Frederick Root (1820—1895)
American musician and music publisher.
"The Battle Cry of Freedom" [1863]

Cicero, criticized for his hasty execution of five of
Catiline's supporters, said, "I must remind you, Lords,
Senators, that extreme patriotism in the defense of
freedom is no crime, and let me respectfully remind you
that pusillanimity in the pursuit of justice is no virtue
in a Roman." It may have worked oratorically for Cicero
but backfired when used by Goldwater. ["I would remind
you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice,
and let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit
of justice is no virtue."]
--William Safire (1929— )
Journalist, speechwriter, novelist, lexicographer,
and winner of the 1978 Pulitzer for commentary.
_No Uncertain Terms_ [2003]

To me, it seems a dreadful indignity to have a soul
controlled by geography.
--George Santayana (1863—1952)
Spanish-born philosopher and critic.

I confidently trust that the American people will
prove themselves … too wise not to detect the
false pride or the dangerous ambitions or the
selfish schemes which so often hide themselves
under that deceptive cry of mock patriotism:
‘Our country, right or wrong!’ They will not fail
to recognize that our dignity, our free institutions
and the peace and welfare of this and coming
generations of Americans will be secure only
as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism:
‘Our country — when right to be kept right; when
wrong to be put right.’
--Carl Schurz (1829—1906)
German-born American politician, journalist, and reformer.
'The Policy of Imperialism' delivered at the
Anti-Imperialistic Conference, Chicago, Illinois [17 October 1899]
_Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurz_, vol. 6, pp. 119-20 [1913]

Breathes there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.
--Sir Walter Scott (1771—1832)
Scottish novelist and poet.
"The Lay of the Last Minstrel" [1805]

-

Who is here so vile, that will not love his country?
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Julius Caesar_ [1599]


The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_The Merchant of Venice_ [1596—1598]

-

I venture to suggest that patriotism is not a short
and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil
and steady dedication of a lifetime.
--Adlai E. Stevenson (1900—1965)
American Democratic politician.
In a speech to the American Legion Convention [27 August 1952].

-

Each man must for himself alone decide what is right
and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which
isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide
against your conviction is to be an unqualified and
inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and your country,
let men label you as they may.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye_


If patriotism had been taught in the schools years ago
the country would not be in the position it is in today.
Mr. Skinner is better satisfied with the present conditions
than I am. I would teach patriotism in the schools, and
teach it this way: I would throw out the old maxim, "My
country, right or wrong," etc., and instead I would say,
"My country when she is right."
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.


Talking of patriotism, what humbug it is; it is a word
which always commemorates a robbery. There isn't a foot
of land in the world which doesn't represent the ousting
and re-ousting of a long line of successive owners.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
"A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" [1889]


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.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
"A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" [1889]

-

The name of American, which belongs to you,
in your national capacity, must always exalt
the just pride of Patriotism.
--George Washington (1732—1799)
American general and commander-in-chief of the
colonial armies in the American Revolution [1775—1783]
and first president of the United States [1789—1797].
"Farewell Address" [17 September 1796]

Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.
--Oscar Wilde (1854—1900)
Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet.

Some Americans need hyphens in their names,
because only part of them has come over; but
when the whole man has come over, heart and
thought and all, the hyphen drops of its own
weight out of his name.
--Woodrow Wilson (1856—1924)
American Democratic statesman and President [1913—1921].
In a speech in Washington, D.C. [16 May 1914].

-

Leftists lecture us not to confuse dissent with disloyalty,
and then turn around and confound loyalty with myrmidonism.
Just as youth is wasted on the young, so America is wasted
on these Americans.
--The Sanity Inspector, alt.quotations


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