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PAST (THE) --- PATIENCE
PATRIOTISM

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PAST (THE)

see: "GOOD OLD DAYS"
see: "HISTORY"
see: "REMEMBERING"
see: "YOUTH"
see: "MEMORIES" for other related links
see: "TIME" for other 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 (b. 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]

-

Strangely enough, this is the past that somebody
in the future is longing to go back to.
--attributed to Ashleigh Brilliant (b. 1933)
British-born American writer and artist.

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)
English crime fiction writer.
_At Bertram's Hotel_ [1965]

The public only takes up yesterday as a stick to beat today.
--Jean Cocteau (1889—1963)
French poet.
Quoted in "Saturday Review" [1955].

-

Th' further ye get away fr'm anny peeryod
th' 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]


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.
Attributed in "Encore" [1946].

-

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


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_, bk. 6, ch. 61 [1871]

-

Living in the past is a dull and lonely business; looking
back strains the neck muscles, causes you to bump into
people not going your way.
--attributed to 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 American Conflict_, ch. I [1864-66]

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

What lies behind us and what lies before us are
tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
--Henry Stanley Haskins (1875—1957)
_Meditations in Wall Street_ [published anonymously in 1940]

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

I have but one lamp by which my feet are
guided, and that is the lamp of experience.
I know no way of judging of the future but
by the past.
--Patrick Henry (1736—1799)
American statesman, instrumental in the adoption of The Bill of Rights.
Speech in Virginia Convention, Richmond, Virginia [23 March 1775].

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 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 looks as though they're here to stay
Oh I believe in yesterday. ...
--John Lennon (1940—1980) & Paul McCartney (b. 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_, vol. I, ch. 1 [1849-61]

-

Wise men say, and not without reason, that whoever
wishes to foresee the future must consult the past;
for human events ever resemble those of preceding
times. This arises from the fact that they are
produced by men who have been, and ever will be,
animated by the same passions, and thus they must
necessarily have the same results.
--Niccolς Machiavelli (1469—1527)
Florentine statesman and political philosopher.
_Discourses On The First Ten Books Of Livy_, bk. III, ch. XLIII [c. 1517]
in _The Historical, Political, and Diplomatic Writings of Niccolo Machiavelli_
tr. from the Italian, by Christian E. Detmold [4 vols., J. R. Osgood, Boston 1882].


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_ [c. 1517]

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Remember that man's life lies all within this present, as
'twere but a hair's-breadth of time: as for the rest, the
past is gone, the future yet unseen.
--Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121—180)
Roman emperor [161—180] and Stoic philosopher.
_Meditations_, III, 10

What's done is done.
--Humphrey Mill and John Droeshout
_Poems Occasioned by a Melancholy Vision_ [1639]

Every period of life has its peculiar prejudices; whoever
saw old age, that did not applaud the past, and condemn
the present times?
--Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533—1592)
French moralist and essayist.
Attributed in John Taylor _The Pocket Lacon ..._ [2 vols., 1839].

Oft in the stilly night,
Ere Slumber's chain has bound me,
Fond Memory brings the light
Of other days around me:
The smiles, the tears
Of boyhood's years,
The words of love then spoken;
The eyes that shone,
Now dimm'd and gone,
The cheerful hearts now broken.
Thus, in the stilly night,
Ere Slumber's chain has bound me,
Sad Memory brings the light
Of other days around me.
--Thomas Moore (1779—1852)
Irish poet, satirist, composer, and musician.
_National Airs_ [1815] "Oft in the Stilly Night" st. 1

Think of it soldiers; from the summit of these pyramids,
forty centuries look down upon you.
--Napoleon I (1769—1821)
Emperor of France [1804-15].
Speech [21 July 1798] before the Battle of the Pyramids.

Let bygones be bygones.
--Francis Nethersole
_Parables_ [1648]

'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan,
'controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past.'
--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950)
English novelist.
_Nineteen Eighty-Four_, pt. I, ch. 3 [1949]

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

-

kap informs Usenet:

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."

--in a post to alt.quotations

-

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

Judgement is to be made of actions in according
to the times in which they were performed.
--Plutarch (A.D. 46?—119?)
Greek philosopher and biographer.
"Poplicola and Colon Compared" in _Parallel Lives_, Dryden edition [1693].

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 (b. 1921) & Jerry Ross (1926—1955)
American songwriting team whose successes
include "The Pajama Game" and "Damn Yankees."
The above is "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]

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


Antonio: What's past is prologue.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_The Tempest_, II, i [1611-12]

-

Not to know what happened before we were born is always to
remain a child; to know, and blindly to adopt that knowledge,
as an implicit rule of life, is never to be a man.
--Horace Smith (1779—1849)
English poet and novelist.
_The Tin Trumpet_ [1836]

Am I the person who used to wake in the middle of the
night and laugh with the joy of living? Who worried
about the existence of God, and danced with young
ladies till long after daybreak? Who sang "Auld Lang
Syne" and howled with sentiment, and more than once
gazed at the full moon through a blur of great, romantic
tears?
--Logan Pearsall Smith (1865—1946)
American-born man of letters.
_More Trivia_ [1934] "Last Words"

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."
In Lady Holland (Smith's daughter)
_A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith_, vol. I, ch. 11 [1855].

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 (b. 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.
--attributed to Benedict de Spinoza (1632—1677)
Dutch-Jewish philosopher, the foremost
exponent of 17th century Rationalism.

The past is the only dead thing that smells sweet.
--Edward Thomas (1878—1917)
English poet.
"Early One Morning", l. 15 [1917]

The past is an old armchair in the attic, the
present an ominous ticking sound, and the
future is anybody's guess.
--James Thurber (1894—1961)
American humorist and cartoonist.
Letter to Marianna Brown, in Helen Thurber & Edward
Weeks (eds.) _Selected Letters of James Thurber_ [1981].

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].

We are tomorrow's past.
--Mary Webb (1881—1927)
English novelist.
_Precious Bane_ [1924] "Foreword"

Men like women with a past because they hope history will repeat itself.
--Mae West (1893—1980)
American stage and film actress.
Attributed in Maurice Leonard _Mae West: Empress of Sex_ [1992].

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 (b. 1928)
Romanian Jew and Holocaust survivor. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.
_A Beggar in Jerusalem_, ch. 5 [1970]

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"

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]

Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower.
--William Wordsworth (1770—1850)
English poet.
"Ode: Intimations of Immortality", st. 10 [1804]

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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.




Click picture to ZOOM
PATIENCE

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


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.)
"The Ass and the Frogs" in _Ζsop Fables_.

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.
--attributed to 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.
_Observation on a Late Publication on the Present State of the Nation_ [2nd ed. 1769]

Endurance is patience concentrated.
--Thomas Carlyle (1795—1881)
Scottish historian and political philosopher.
Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Edge-Tools of Speech_, p. 129 [1886].

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you
will escape a hundred days of sorrow.
--Chinese proverb

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]

I feel that there is reason lurking in you somewhere,
so we will patiently grope round for it.
--Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859—1930)
Scottish-born writer of detective fiction.
_The Lost World_ [1912]

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.
_Adam Bede_, ch.XLVI [1859]

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.
Quoted in _The Beauties of St. Francis de Sales_, Selected
and Tr. from the Writings of John Peter Camus [1829].

Patience, persistence and perspiration make
an unbeatable combination for success.
--attributed to Napoleon Hill (1883—1970)
American journalist, lawyer, and author of self-help books.

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 [1801-09].
In _Master Thoughts of Thomas Jefferson_
(Selected by Benjamin S. Catchings), p. 82 [1907].

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.
_Leonardo Da Vinci's Note-Books_, tr. Edward McCurdy [1906]

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All things come round to him who will but wait.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
American poet.
_Tales of a Wayside Inn_ [1863] "The Falcon of Ser Federigo"

& see:

All things come to those who wait.
--Violet Fain _From Dawn to Noon_ [1872]

& see:

All things come to those who
wait — if they don't die first.
--anon. in "All The Year Round" (a weekly journal) [2 June 1894]

& see:

Ah, 'all things come to those who wait,'
(I say these words to make me glad),
But something answers, soft and sad,
'They come, but often come too late.'
--Mary Singleton [nιe Lamb] (1843—1905) [later Baronness Currie]
English poet.

-

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: First Series_ [1919]

[Quoting his father's advice:]
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 (b. 1926)
American televangelist.
_The Inspirational Writings of Robert H. Schuller_ [1986]

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

It is a dear and 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.
"Chapters from My Autobiography—VI" in
_North American Review_ [16 November 1906]

A healthy male adult bore consumes each year
one and a half times his own weight in other
people's patience.
--John Updike (1932—2009)
American novelist and short-story writer.
_Assorted Prose_ [1965] "Confessions of a Wild Bore"

Patience is the art of hoping.
--Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715—1747)
French moralist and essayist.
Quoted in Craufurd Tait Ramage _Beautiful Thoughts
from French and Italian Authors_, p. 356 [2nd ed., 1875].

-----

longanimity (noun) [long-gκ-'ni-mκ-tee ]
Patience, forbearing, long-suffering.




PATRIOTISM

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.

see: "DUTY"
see: "FLAG"
see: "LOVE"
see: "LOYALTY"
see: "NATIONALISM"
see: "SACRIFICE"
see: "THE HUMAN RACE" for other related links

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Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws
will secure the liberty and happiness of a people
whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore
is the friend of the liberty of his country who tries
most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his
power and influence extend, will not suffer a man
to be chosen onto any office of power and trust
who is not a wise and virtuous man.
--Samuel Adams (1722—1803)
American revolutionary leader.
Essay published in The Advertiser [1748] and later reprinted in
_The Life and Public Service of Samuel Adams_, Volume 1, by
William Vincent Wells; Little, Brown, and Company; Boston [1865].


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].

-

-

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_, IV, iv [1713]
(See Hale quote below.)


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.
_The Free-Holder_ (Political essays), # 5 [6 January 1716]

-

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.
_Baruch: My Own Story_ [1957]

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 Devil's Dictionary_ [1911]
(Johnson's criticism was aimed at *politicians* who
masked self-interest with a feigned love of country.)

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.
_Boswell on the Grand Tour: Germany and Switzerland_ [1764]

No man can be a patriot on an empty stomach.
--William Cowper Brann (1855—1898)
American journalist.
_Brann the Iconoclast - A Collection of the Writings of W.C. Brann_ [1896]

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 (b. 1924)
American Democratic statesman, President [1977—1981].
Speech at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia [14 September 1988].

Be England what she will,
With all her faults, she is my country still.
--Charles Churchill (1731—1764)
English poet.
"The Farewell" l. 27 [1764]

-

[...] 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
critics subversive.
--Henry Steele Commager (1902—1998)
American historian.
_Freedom and Order_ [1966]

-

-

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:

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.
Letter to John Adams [1 August 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.
Speech in Congress [May 1847].

& see:

The Senator from Wisconsin cannot frighten me by
exclaiming, 'My country, right or wrong.' In one sense
I say so too. My country; and my country is the great
American Republic. My country, right or wrong; if
right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.
--Carl Schurz (1829—1906)
German-born American politician, journalist, and reformer.
Remarks in Senate [29 February 1872].

& lastly:

'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] "A Defence of Patriotism"

-

Patriotism is when love of your own people
comes first; nationalism, when the hate for
people other than your own comes first.
--Charles de Gaulle (1890—1970)
French soldier and statesman, President [1959—1969].
Quoted in "Life" [9 May 1969].

Then join Hand in Hand, brave Americans all,
By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.
--John Dickinson (1732—1808)
American politician.
"A Song for American Freedom," called The Liberty Song,
first published in _The Boston Gazette_ [18 July 1768].

No, I make no pretension to patriotism. So long as my voice can
be heard on this or the other side of the Atlantic, I will hold up
America to the lightning scorn of moral indignation. In doing this,
I shall feel myself discharging the duty of a true patriot; for he
is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its
sins.
--Frederick Douglass [Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey] (c.1818—1895)
American abolitionist, reformer, and writer.
Speech at Market Hall, New York, N.Y. [22 October 1847].

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.
Quoted in "The Forum" [1938].

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 [1966-77] and [1980-84].
(Speech at Delhi [30 October 1984], the eve of her assassination by Sikh militants.)

Then the idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone,
All centuries but this, and every country but his own.
--W. S. Gilbert (1836—1911)
English writer of comic and satirical verse.
_The Mikado_, act I [1885]

-

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].

-

Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.
Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
--Barry Goldwater (1909—1998)
American conservative politician.
Speech in San Francisco, Ca. [16 July 1964], accepting nomination for president.
(See Safire, below.)

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.)

Note: An eye-witness, British officer Captain Frederick
Mackenzie, stated in his diary that Hale's last words were:
"It is the duty of every good officer to obey any orders
given him by his commander-in-chief."

-

It is easier to be a "humanitarian" than to render your own
country its proper due; it is easier to be a "patriot" than to
make your community a better place to live in; it is easier
to be a "civic leader" than to treat your own family with
loving understanding; for the smaller the focus of attention,
the harder the task.
--Sydney J. Harris (1917—1986)
American journalist.
Quoted in "Reader's Digest", vol. 117 [1980].

He serves his party best who serves the country best.
--Rutherford B. Hayes (1822—1893)
19th President of the U.S. [1877-81].
In his inaugural address [5 March 1877].

Is life so dear or peace so sweet, as to be purchased
at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty
God! I know not what course others may take, but as
for me, give me liberty or give me death!
--Patrick Henry (1736—1799)
American statesman, instrumental in the adoption of The Bill of Rights.
Speech before the Virginia House of Burgesses, St John's Episcopal
Church, Richmond [23 March 1775]. First published in the William
Wirt's _Sketches of the Life and Times of Patrick Henry_ [1817].

The case is made difficult not because the principles of its decision
are obscure but because the flag involved is our own. ...To believe
that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary
and spontaneous instead of a compulsory routine is to make an
unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds.
--Robert H. Jackson (1892—1954)
U.S. Supreme Court Justice [1941-54]
Chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials.
Opinion, "West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette [1943].

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].

-

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]


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_ [1774]


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.)

-

-

Ask not what your country can do for you,
ask what you can do for your country.
--John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917—1963)
American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1961-63].
Inaugural Address [20 January 1961].

& see:

It is now the moment when by common consent we pause
to become conscious of our national life and to rejoice in
it, to recall what our country has done for each of us, and
to ask ourselves what we can do for our country in return.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841—1935)
Justice of the United States Supreme Court, legal historian, and philosopher.
1884 Memorial Day Address, Keene, New Hampshire.

-

Intellectually I know that America is no
better than any other country; emotionally
I know she is better than every other
country.
--Sinclair Lewis (1885—1951)
American novelist and playwright.
In an interview in Berlin, Germany [29 December 1930].

-

Let us have done with British-Americans and Irish-Americans
and German-Americans, and so on, and all be Americans. ...
If a man is going to be an American at all let him be so without
any qualifying adjectives; and if he is going to be something
else, let him drop the word American from his personal
description.
--Henry Cabot Lodge Sr. (1850—1924)
Republican U.S. senator [1893-1924].
The Day We Celebrate (Forefathers' Day), address, New
England Society of Brooklyn [21 December 1888].
(See Roosevelt & Wilson, below.)


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.
"Evening Sun" (Baltimore) [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 any kind of internationalism.
--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950)
English novelist.
_The Lion and the Unicorn_ [1941]

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
his country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and
thanks of man and woman.
--Thomas Paine [spelled Pane prior to 1774] (1737—1809)
English-American writer and political pamphleteer.
Opening words, "The American Crisis" (a pamphlet) [19 December 1776].
(Written after Washington's retreat from New Jersey.)

-

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 [1901-09].
"The Monroe Doctrine" (essay) in _The Bachelor of Arts_ (mag.) [March 1896].


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 [1901-09].
Speech at Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York [20 May 1901].


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 [1901-09].
In a speech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania [27 July 1917].


Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not
mean to stand by the President or any other public
official save exactly to the degree in which he himself
stands by the country.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901-09].
"Lincoln and Free Speech" (essay) in _Metropolitan Magazine_ [April 1918].


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 [1901-09].
In a speech at the State Republican Party Convention,
Saratoga, New York [19 July 1918].
(See Lodge, above & Wilson, below.)

-

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—2009)
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.
Letter to Mary Winslow [16 August 1914].

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]. Quoted in
_Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl
Schurz_, vol. 6, pp. 119-20 [1913].
(See Decatur & other related quotes, above.)

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?
--Sir Walter Scott (1771—1832)
Scottish novelist and poet.
"The Lay of the Last Minstrel" canto 6, st. I [1805]

-

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


Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Julius Caesar_, III, ii [1599]


The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_The Merchant of Venice_, I, iii [1596-98]

-

Patriotism is your conviction that this country
is superior to all others because you were born
in it.
--George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950)
Irish dramatist and critic.
Attributed in Robert Andrews _The Concise
Columbia Dictionary of Quotations_, p. 216 [1989].

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].

-

My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not
to its 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_, ch. 13 [1889]


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.
_Notebook_ [26 May 1896]


I would throw out the old maxim, 'My country right or wrong,'
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.
Speech entitled "Training That Pays" [16 March 1901].


Each must for himself alone decide what is right
and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic
and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a
man. To decide it against your convictions is to
be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both
to yourself and to your country, let men label
you as they may.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_Letters from the Earth_, ed. Bernard DeVoto [1962]

-

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 [1775-83]
and first president of the United States [1789-97].
"Farewell Address" [17 September 1796]


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].
(See Lodge & Roosevelt, above.)

-

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


end page



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