Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.
Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealistic nation in the world.
Yet America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
We need an America with the wisdom of experience. But we must not let America grow old in spirit.
The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation – enlightened as it is – if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of designing men.
What is the essence of America? The essence of America is finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom "to" and freedom "from."
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, “Peace! Peace!” — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!
Ours is the only country deliberately founded on a good idea.
The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously.
It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.
He is a poor patriot whose patriotism does not enable him to understand how all men everywhere feel about their altars and their hearthstones, their flag and their fatherland.
National honor is national property of the highest value.
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
Intellectually I know that America is no better than any other country; emotionally I know she is better than every other country.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.
This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.
Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.
A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.
True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else.
There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right in America.
Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong.
The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending against all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.
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