"My country, right or wrong," is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except a desperate case. It read more

"My country, right or wrong," is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except a desperate case. It is like saying, "My mother, drunk or sober.".

You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have read more

You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer

There is no greater sign of a general decay of virtue in a nation, than a want of zeal in read more

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.

How can a man be said to have a country when he has not right of a square inch of read more

How can a man be said to have a country when he has not right of a square inch of it.

Even as a tree has a single trunk, but many branches and leaves, there is one religion but any number read more

Even as a tree has a single trunk, but many branches and leaves, there is one religion but any number of faiths

There ought to be a system of manners in every nation which a well-formed mind would be disposed to relish. read more

There ought to be a system of manners in every nation which a well-formed mind would be disposed to relish. To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.

New Zealand is a country of thirty thousand million sheep, three million of whom think they are human.

New Zealand is a country of thirty thousand million sheep, three million of whom think they are human.

I have no country to fight for: my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world.

I have no country to fight for: my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world.

My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. The country is the read more

My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. 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 institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death.