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, […]
Mark Twain Quotes
In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.
Patriot: The person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.
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.
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.
