"Yet some can be patriotic who have..." - Quote by Henry David Thoreau
Yet some can be patriotic who have no self-respect, and sacrifice the greater to the less. They love the soil which makes their graves, but have no sympathy with the spirit which may still animate their clay. Patriotism is a maggot in their heads.
More by Henry David Thoreau
“The most attractive sentences are not perhaps the wisest, but the surest and soundest.”
“We have used up all our inherited freedom, like the young bird the albumen in the egg. It is not an era of repose. If we would save our lives, we must fight for them.”
“What exercise is to the body, employment is to the mind and morals.”
More on Patriotism
“Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.”
“America is still an eagle, and she's ready to soar again.”
“America is the greatest country on Earth. But because of some of the mistakes that have been made, we, I think, are going to have a lot of work to do in the next administration to restore that sense that America is that shining beacon on a hill.”
More on Self Respect
“One insult pocketed soon produces another.”
“Anything that encourages pauperism, anything that relaxes the manly fiber and lowers self-respect, is an unmixed evil.”
“A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others.”