Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke on Patriotism
1678–1751 England
← All quotes by Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke
2 quotes
The service of our country is no chimerical, but a real duty. He who admits the proofs of any other moral duty, drawn from the constitution of human nature, or from the moral fitness and unfitness of things, must admit them in favour of this duty, or be reduced to the most absurd inconsistency.
On the Spirit of Patriotism (1736)
Neither Montaigne in writing his essays, nor DesCartes in building new worlds, nor Burnet in framing an antedeluvian earth, no nor Newton in discovering and establishing the true laws of nature on experiment and a sublimer geometry, felt more intellectual joys; than he feels who is a real patriot, who bends all the force of his understanding, and directs all his thoughts and actions, to the good of his country.
On the Spirit of Patriotism (1736)