#Nations Quotes

“The best nations are those most widely related; and navigation, as effecting a world-wide mixture, is the most potent advancer ofnations.”

“The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong.”

“Two nations divided by a common language.”

“The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most.”

“The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most. The power which the sea requires in the sailor makes a man of him very fast, and the change of shores and population clears his head of much nonsense of his wigwam.”

“Such is the moral construction of the world that no national crime passes unpunished in the long run... Were present oppressors to reflect on the same truth, they would spare to their own countries the penalties on their present wrongs which will be inflicted on them in future times. The seeds of hatred and revenge which they sow with a large hand will not fail to produce their fruits in time. Like their brother robbers on the highway, they suppose the escape of the moment a final escape and deem infamy and future risk countervailed by present gain.”

“We are asking the nations of Europe between whom rivers of blood have flowed to forget the feuds of a thousand years.”

“Interest does not tie nations together; it sometimes separates them. But sympathy and understanding does unite them.”

“We wish the happiness and prosperity of every nation.”

“Money, not morality, constitutes the principle of commercial nations.”

“Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth ever afterward resumes its liberty.”

“Small islands, not capable of protecting themselves, are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their care; but there is something absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island.”

“It is for the good of nations, and not for the emolument or aggrandizement of particular individuals, that government ought to be established, and that mankind are at the expense of supporting it. The defects of every government and constitution both as to principle and form, must, on a parity of reasoning, be as open to discussion as the defects of a law, and it is a duty which every man owes to society to point them out.”

“We believe no more in Bonaparte's fighting merely for the liberties of the seas than in Great Britain's fighting for the liberties of mankind. The object is the same, to draw to themselves the power, the wealth and the resources of other nations.”

“England, an old and exhausted island, must one day be contented, like other parents, to be strong only in her children.”

“That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of Nations is as shocking as it is true.”

“I have but one system of ethics for men and for nations - to be grateful, to be faithful to all engagements under all circumstances, to be open and generous, promoting in the long run even the interests of both”

“From the errors of other nations, let us learn wisdom.”

“They are nations of eternal war. All their energies are expended in the destruction of the labor, property, and lives of their people.”

“The great cause which divides our countries is not to be decided by individual animosities. The harmony of private societies cannot weaken national efforts.”

“France, freed from that monster, Bonaparte, must again become the most agreeable country on earth. It would be the second choice of all whose ties of family and fortune give a preference to some other one, and the first choice of all not under those ties.”

“Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.”

“We estimate the wisdom of nations by seeing what they did with their surplus capital.”

“By and by when each nation has 20,000 battleships and 5,000,000 soldiers we shall all be safe and the wisdom of statesmanship will stand confirmed.”

“He had that curious love of green, which in individuals is always the sign of a subtle artistic temperament, and in nations is said to denote a laxity, if not a decadence of morals.”

“Whoever is victor, there should be, after the war, a commonwealth of all nations.”

“This accession of territory affirms forever the power of the United States, and I have given England a maritime rival who sooner or later will humble her pride.”

“It strengthens the bonds between nations to have the same civil laws and the same monetary system.”

“Prussia was hatched from a cannon-ball.”

“If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.”

“If I thought that I could speak with discrimination and impartiality of the nations of Christendom, I should praise them, but it tasks me too much. They seem to be the most civil and humane, but I may be mistaken.”

“Nations do not think, they only feel. They get their feelings at second hand through their temperaments, not their brains. A nation can be brought -- by force of circumstances, not argument -- to reconcile itself to any kind of government or religion that can be devised; in time it will fit itself to the required conditions; later it will prefer them and will fiercely fight for them.”

“I asked Tom if countries always apologized when they had done wrong, and he says - "Yes; the little ones does".”

“Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.”

“History has no record of a nation having adopted nonviolent resistance.”

“There is no reason to believe that there is one law for families and another for nations.”

“Nations are born out of travail and suffering”

“Peace between countries must rest on the solid foundation of love between individuals.”

“There is no nation in the whole world desiring war.”

“We must recognize that every nation determines its policies in terms of its own interests.”

“'Tis folly in one Nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its Independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favours and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate upon real favours from Nation to Nation. 'Tis an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.”

“There is a rank due to the United States among nations which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness.”

“The peoples of many countries are being taxed to the point of poverty and starvation in order to enable Governments to engage in a mad race in armament which, if permitted to continue, may well result in war. This grave menace to the peace of the world is due in no small measure to the uncontrolled activities of the manufacturers and merchants of engines of destruction, and it it must be met by the concerted actions of the peoples of all Nations.”

“On both sides of the line, we are so accustomed to an undefended boundary three thousand miles long that we are inclined perhaps to minimize its vast importance, not only to our own continuing relations but also to the example which it sets to the other nations of the world.”

“The trade agreement which I had the privilege of signing with your Prime Minister last autumn is tangible evidence of the desire of the people of both countries to practice what they preach when they speak of the good neighbor. In the solution of the grave problems that face the world today, frank dealing, cooperation and a spirit of give and take between nations is more important than ever before.”

“Happy are all free peoples, too strong to be dispossessed. But blessed are those among nations who dare to be strong for the rest!”

“A highwayman is as much a robber when he plunders in a gang as when single; and a nation that makes an unjust war is only a great gang.”

“Justice is as strictly due between neighbor nations as between neighbor citizens.”

“No nation keeps its word. A nation is a big, blind worm, following what? Fate perhaps. A nation has no honor, it has no word to keep.”

“Nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world.”