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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.

— Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke On the Spirit of Patriotism (1736)

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Patriotism

More quotes by Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

Truth lies within a little and certain compass, but error is immense.

Reflections upon Exile (1716)

Our world seems to be, in many respects, the bedlam of every other system of intelligent creatures.

The landed men are the true owners of our political vessel, the moneyed men are no more than passengers in it.

Some Reflections on the Present State of the Nation (1753)

I have read somewhere or other, — in Dionysius of Halicarnassus, I think, — that history is philosophy teaching by examples.

They (Thucydides and Xenophon) maintained the dignity of history.

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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.

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

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

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.