“If ever they are put to the test, they shy away, affirming that nationalism is 'practical', cosmopolitanism but a remote ideal. Though they see it intellectually, their hearts are not capable of responding to it. If ever the nation is in danger, their cosmopolitanism evaporates, and they stand for the nation in the good old style. Yet intellectually they know that in their modem world this way leads to disaster.”

— Olaf Stapledon , book Last Men in London

Source: Last Men in London (1932), Chapter V: Origins of the European war

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Olaf Stapledon 113

British novelist and philosopher 1886–1950

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