Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Patriotism

• If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Success, Music, Forgiveness

  Walden ch. 18 (1854). Frequently quoted as "marches to the tune of a different drummer."

• I would remind my countrymen that they are to be men first, and Americans only at a late and convenient hour.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Patriotism, Firsts

  Henry David Thoreau (2007). “My Thoughts Are Murder to the State: Thoreau's Essays on Political Philosophy”, p.31, David M Gross

• When I think of the gold-diggers and the Mormons, the slaves and the slave-holders and the flibustiers, I naturally dream of a glorious private life. No, I am not patriotic.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Dream, Patriotic, Thinking

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.196, Jazzybee Verlag

• The slight reproach to which the virtue of patriotism is commonly liable, the noble are most likely to incur.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Patriotism, Noble, Virtue

  Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.8, Hayes Barton Press

• Certainly there is not the fight recorded in Concord history, at least, if in the history of America, that will bear a moment's comparison with this, whether for the numbers engaged in it, or for the patriotism and heroism displayed.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Fighting, Numbers, America

  Henry David Thoreau (2004). “Walden: 150th Anniversary Illustrated Edition of the American Classic”, p.225, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Don't spend your time in drilling soldiers, who may turn out hirelings after all, but give to undrilled peasantry a country to fight for.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Country, Fighting, Giving

  Letter to Harrison Blake, 26 Sept. 1855

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