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

— G. K. Chesterton The Defendant (1901)

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Patriotism

More quotes by G. K. Chesterton

The humorous look of children is perhaps the most endearing of all the bonds that hold the Cosmos together.

The Defendant (1901)

Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance.

Briefly, you can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it.

There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great.

Charles Dickens (1906)

The truth is that it is our attitude towards children that is right, and our attitude towards grown-up people that is wrong.

The Defendant (1901)

All G. K. Chesterton quotes →

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I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.

Nathan Hale

It is not easy to see how the more extreme forms of nationalism can long survive when men have seen the Earth in its true perspective as a single small globe against the stars.

Arthur C. Clarke The Exploration of Space (1951)

Our country – In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right, and always successful, right or wrong.

Stephen Decatur

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.

Barbara Ehrenreich

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: G. K. Chesterton (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.