Quotes about nation
page 60

Richard Strauss photo

“It is clear to me that the German nation will achieve new creative energy only by liberating itself from Christianity”

Richard Strauss (1864–1949) German composer and orchestra director

Diary entry, shortly after the death of Gustav Mahler (1911). Quoted in Oxford University Press, Grove music online: Strauss, Richard, §7: Instrumental works (written by Bryan Gilliam and Charles Youmans).
Other sources

Calvin Coolidge photo
Nigel Farage photo

“Once again, I challenge the Prime Minister to have an open debate with me on why he believes we must stay part of this failing, corrupt EU. The future of our nation is at stake. Mr Cameron, you have my phone number.”

Nigel Farage (1964) British politician and former commodity broker

Quote by Nigel Farage on an article written by himself in the Telegraph, 6 July 2012. The time will never be right for David Cameron to hold a referendum on the EU. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/9378567/The-time-will-never-be-right-for-David-Cameron-to-hold-a-referendum-on-the-EU.html
2012

Friedrich List photo

“Finally, a nation should not regard the progress of industries from a purely economic point of view. Manufactures become a very important part of the nation‘s political and cultural heritage.”

Friedrich List (1789–1846) German economist with dual American citizenship

Source: The Natural System of Political Economy (1837), p. 39

Michael Hudson (economist) photo
Mitt Romney photo
Monte Melkonian photo
David Lloyd George photo
David Brooks photo
George Soros photo
Henry Liddon photo
Zakir Hussain (politician) photo
George W. Bush photo
Scott Ritter photo

“One of the big problems is — and here goes the grenade — Israel. The second you mention the word "Israel," the nation Israel, the concept Israel, many in the American press become very defensive. We’re not allowed to be highly critical of the state of Israel. And the other thing we’re not allowed to do is discuss the notion that Israel and the notion of Israeli interests may in fact be dictating what America is doing, that what we’re doing in the Middle East may not be to the benefit of America’s national security, but to Israel’s national security. But, see, we don’t want to talk about that, because one of the great success stories out there is the pro-Israeli lobby that has successfully enabled themselves to blend the two together, so that when we speak of Israeli interests, they say, "No, we’re speaking of American interests."It’s interesting that AIPAC and other elements of the Israeli Lobby don’t have to register as agents of a foreign government. It would be nice if they did, because then we’d know when they’re advocating on behalf of Israel or they’re advocating on behalf of the United States of America.I would challenge The New York Times to sit down and do a critical story on Israel, on the role of Israel’s influence, the role that Israel plays in influencing American foreign policy. There’s nothing wrong with Israel trying to influence American foreign policy. Let me make that clear. The British seek to influence our foreign policy. The French seek to influence our foreign policy. The Saudis seek to influence our foreign policy. The difference is, when they do this and they bring American citizens into play, these Americans, once they take the money of a foreign government and they advocate on behalf of that foreign government, they register themselves as an agent of that government, so we know where they’re coming from. That’s all I ask the Israelis to do. Let us know where you’re coming from, because stop confusing the American public that Israel’s interests are necessarily America’s interests.I have to tell you right now, Israel has a viable, valid concern about Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. If I were an Israeli, I would be extremely concerned about Hezbollah, and I would want to do everything possible to nullify that organization. As an American, I will tell you, Hezbollah does not threaten the national security of the United States of America one iota. So we should not be talking about using American military forces to deal with the Hezbollah issue. That is an Israeli problem. And yet, you’ll see The New York Times, The Washington Post and other media outlets confusing the issue. They want us to believe that Hezbollah is an American problem. It isn’t, ladies and gentleman. Hezbollah was created three years after Israel invaded Lebanon, not three years after the United States invaded Lebanon. And Hezbollah’s sole purpose was to liberate southern Lebanon from Israeli occupation. I’m not here to condone or sing high praises in virtue for Hezbollah. But I’m here to tell you right now, Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization that threatens the security of the United States of America.”

Scott Ritter (1961) American weapons inspector and writer

October 16, 2006
2006

Herbert Hoover photo

“Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt.”

Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) 31st President of the United States of America

Address to the Nebraska Republican Conference, Lincoln, Nebraska (16 January 1936)

Francis Escudero photo
Mao Zedong photo
Benito Mussolini photo

“The outbreak of a socialist revolution in one country will cause the others to imitate it or so to strengthen the proletariat as to prevent its national bourgeoisie from attempting any armed intervention.”

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Duce and President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. Leader of the National Fascist Party and subsequen…

As quoted in The Myth of the Nation and the Vision of Revolution: The Origins of Ideological Polarization in the 20th Century, Jacob Talmon, University of California Press (1981) p. 487
Undated

Attila photo

“Here you stand, after conquering mighty nations and subduing the world. I therefore think it foolish for me to goad you with words, as though you were men who had not been proved in action. Let a new leader or an untried army resort to that. It is not right for me to say anything common, nor ought you to listen. For what is war but your usual custom? Or what is sweeter for a brave man than to seek revenge with his own hand? It is a right of nature to glut the soul with vengeance. Let us then attack the foe eagerly; for they are ever the bolder who make the attack. Despise this union of discordant races! To defend oneself by alliance is proof of cowardice. See, even before our attack they are smitten with terror. They seek the heights, they seize the hills and, repenting too late, clamor for protection against battle in the open fields. You know how slight a matter the Roman attack is. While they are still gathering in order and forming in one line with locked shields, they are checked, I will not say by the first wound, but even by the dust of battle. Then on to the fray with stout hearts, as is your wont. Despise their battle line. Attack the Alani, smite the Visigoths! Seek swift victory in that spot where the battle rages. For when the sinews are cut the limbs soon relax, nor can a body stand when you have taken away the bones. Let your courage rise and your own fury burst forth! Now show your cunning, Huns, now your deeds of arms! Let the wounded exact in return the death of his foe; let the unwounded revel in slaughter of the enemy. No spear shall harm those who are sure to live; and those who are sure to die Fate overtakes even in peace. And finally, why should Fortune have made the Huns victorious over so many nations, unless it were to prepare them for the joy of this conflict. Who was it revealed to our sires the path through the Maeotian swamp, for so many ages a closed secret? Who, moreover, made armed men yield to you, when you were as yet unarmed? Even a mass of federated nations could not endure the sight of the Huns. I am not deceived in the issue;--here is the field so many victories have promised us. I shall hurl the first spear at the foe. If any can stand at rest while Attila fights, he is a dead man.”

Attila (406–453) King of the Hunnic Empire

As quoted by Jordanes, The Origin and Deeds of the Goths http://people.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/jordgeti.html#attila, translated by Charles C. Mierow

William Edward Hartpole Lecky photo
Josip Broz Tito photo

“We will liquidate the kulak, but not because he is a kulak but because he is a fifth columnist … The present struggle is national liberation in form, but class war in essence.”

Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980) Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman

Jasper Ridley, Tito: A Biography (Constable and Company Ltd., 1994), p. 188.
Other

George W. Bush photo

“See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

Midwest Airlines Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, October 3, 2003 http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/10/20031003-4.html
2000s, 2003

Benjamín Netanyahu photo
Mitt Romney photo

“I am convinced that unless America changes course, we will become the France of the 21st Century - still a great nation, but no longer the leader of the world.”

Mitt Romney (1947) American businessman and politician

[2008-02-08, Romney suspends White House bid, BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7233537.stm]
2008

Subhas Chandra Bose photo

“It is only on the basis of undiluted Nationalism and of perfect justice and impartiality that the Indian Army of Liberation can be built up.”

Subhas Chandra Bose (1897–1945) Indian nationalist leader and politician

Source: In his address to the Indian National Army on becoming its Supreme Commander on 26 August 1943, as quoted in India Calling (1946) by himself and R. I. Paul, p. 52

Jonah Goldberg photo
Syama Prasad Mookerjee photo
Chandrika Kumaratunga photo

“We have erected a terribly divided Nation at War with each other – the Tamils and Sinhala against each other, the Tamils and Muslims similarly and the State against the Tamils and now against everyone who opposes them even democratically, irrespective of their community.”

Chandrika Kumaratunga (1945) President of Sri Lanka

Justice Palakidnar Memorial Oration http://groundviews.org/2011/07/27/justice-palakidnar-memorial-oration-economic-development-inclusive-societies-and-peace/, speech delivered at the Justice Palakidnar Memorial Oration in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 24 July 2011.
Also quoted by BBC News, "Chandrika Kumaratunga berates Sri Lankan government" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14274988, 25 July 2011.

Alfred de Zayas photo
John F. Kennedy photo

“We live under majority rule and if that majority is not well educated in its responsibilities, the whole Nation suffers.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

1960, Speech at East Los Angeles College Stadium, Los Angeles, California

“Starting with the Swadeshi Movement in Bengal, this flattering of Muslims by praising Islam culminated in Mahatma Gandhi’s sarva-dharma-samabhava - the opiate which lulled the Hindus into a deep slumber such as they had never known vis-à-vis Muslim aggression…. Anyone who questioned the pious proposition that the Quran was as good as the Vedas and the Puranas, ran the risk of being nailed down as an “enemy of communal harmony”….. That part of the “Muslim minority” which had voted for Pakistan but had chosen to stay in India, restarted the old game when India was proclaimed a secular state pledged to freedom of propagation for all religions. It revived its tried and tested trick of masquerading as a “poor and persecuted minority”. It cooked up any number of Pirpur Reports. The wail went up that the “lives, liberties and honour of the Muslims were not safe” in India, in spite of India’s “secular pretensions”. At the same time, street riots were staged on every possible pretext. The “communal situation” started becoming critical once again. …. And once again, the political leadership came out with a make-belief. The big-wigs from all political parties were collected in a “National Integration Council”. It was pointed out by the leftist professors that the major cause of “communal trouble” was the “bad habit” of living in the past on the part of “our people”. Most of the politicians knew no history and no religion for that matter. They all agreed with one voice that Indian history, particularly that of the “medieval Muslim period”, should be re-written. That, they pleaded, was the royal road to “national integration.””

The Calcutta Quran Petition (1986)

Ernesto Che Guevara photo
Karen Demirchyan photo

“Terrorism has no motherland and terrorists have no nationality.”

Karen Demirchyan (1932–1999) Soviet politician

October 20, 1999. Quoted in article, "Russian premier says Armenia supports Russia's anti-terrorism policy" - BBC News.

Calvin Coolidge photo
Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery photo

“It is beginning to be hinted that we are a nation of amateurs.”

Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery (1847–1929) British politician

Rectorial Address, Glasgow (November 16, 1900), reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Calvin Coolidge photo
Victor Davis Hanson photo
Ma Ying-jeou photo

“There will be no national flags or other kinds of flags designed to specify cross-strait relations inside or outside the offices because we are not foreign nations to each other.”

Ma Ying-jeou (1950) Taiwanese politician, president of the Republic of China

Ma Ying-jeou (2013) cited in: " Ma defends cross-strait offices proposal http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2013/04/24/2003560582" in The Taipei Times, 24 April 2013.
Statement made in interview with Chinese-language United Evening News in response to the establishment of reciprocal representative office between Taiwan and Mainland China, in which Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation office will be established in Mainland China, while Mainland China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits office will be established in Taiwan, 23 April 2013.
Strait issues

Donald J. Trump photo
Hillary Clinton photo

“Our Founders fought a revolution and wrote a Constitution so America would never be a nation where one person had all the power. Two hundred and forty years later, we still put our faith in each other.”

Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady

Presidential campaign (April 12, 2015 – 2016), (July 28, 2016)

Calvin Coolidge photo
Robert Hunter (author) photo
Andrew Tobias photo

“Having no national system of catastrophic health insurance, we have, through the courts, managed to patch together pieces of a not very satisfactory one.”

Andrew Tobias (1947) American journalist

Source: The Invisible Bankers, Everything The Insurance Industry Never Wanted You To Know (1982), Chapter 10, Too Many Lawyers, p. 174.

Jane Goodall photo

“Especially now when views are becoming more polarized, we must work to understand each other across political, religious and national boundaries.”

Jane Goodall (1934) British primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist

Reported in Elizabeth LeReverend, "The Irrepressible Dr. Jane Goodall", Verge Magazine (2010)

James Baldwin photo

“When the South has trouble with its Negroes — when the Negroes refuse to remain in their "place" — it blames "outside agitators" and "Northern interference." When the nation has trouble with the Northern Negro, it blames the Kremlin.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

As quoted in "Trapped Inside James Baldwin" by Michael Anderson http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/reviews/980329.29anderst.html, a review of Baldwin's Collected Essays in The New York Times (29 March 1998)

Zygmunt Bauman photo
Shepard Smith photo

“And on that day, at that time, we as a collective being must not give in. On that day, we don’t have to change everything about our lives, we don’t have to add things that make us not a free people … if we want to have a free nation, there’s give and there’s bend. If you see something, say something, but beyond that don’t freak out when it happens. Easier said than done, isn’t it?”

Shepard Smith (1964) television news anchor from the United States

As quoted in "After Ottawa Shootings, Shep Smith Urges Public Not To 'Give In' To Panic" https://web.archive.org/web/20141028004609/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/23/shepard-smith-ottawa-shooting_n_6035208.html (October 23, 2014), by Avery Stone, The Huffington Post, The Huffington Post, Inc.
2010s

Ken Ham photo

“I believe President Obama’s legacy will be one that, in many ways, is greatly responsible for aiding in the catastrophic “spiritual climate change” seen in the USA, which is also reverberating in other Western nations. And really, dealing with “climate change” should be the priority for all Christians, i. e., in helping to change the nation’s spiritual climate, as today we see the culture becoming more anti-Christian.”

Ken Ham (1951) Australian young Earth creationist

"President Obama—Yes, Responsible for Climate Change!" https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2015/07/13/president-obama-responsible-climate-change/, Around the World with Ken Ham (July 13, 2015)
Around the World with Ken Ham (May 2005 - Ongoing)

Margaret Fuller photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Jeffrey Tucker photo
Hillary Clinton photo

“That was a poor choice of words. As I've said throughout this campaign, the people at the heart of this issue are children, parents, families, DREAMers. They have names, and hopes and dreams that deserve to be respected. I've talked about undocumented immigrants hundreds of times and fought for years for comprehensive immigration reform. And I will continue to do so. We are a country built by immigrants and our diversity makes us stronger as a nation – it's something to be proud of, celebrate, and defend.”

Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady

2015-11-24
Hillary Apologizes For Saying ‘Illegal Immigrant': ‘That Was a Poor Choice of Words’
Alex Griswold
mediaite.com
http://www.mediaite.com/online/hillary-apologizes-for-saying-illegal-immigrant-that-was-a-poor-choice-of-words/
Presidential campaign (April 12, 2015 – 2016)

Allan Boesak photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar photo
Paul Krugman photo
Ann E. Dunwoody photo
John F. Kennedy photo
Adolf Hitler photo
Jacques Delors photo
Calvin Coolidge photo

“But, Roman, thou, do thou control
The nations far and wide;
Be this thy genius, to impose
The rule of peace on vanquished foes,
Show pity to the humbled soul,
And crush the sons of pride.”

John Conington (1825–1869) British classical scholar

Source: Translations, The Aeneid of Virgil (1866), Book VI, pp. 225–226

Fritz Todt photo
Ernest Gellner photo

“Usually the South Korean left is blamed for the public's lack of patriotism, but it is the right who made blood nationalism a state religion.”

Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

"South Korea: The Unloved Republic" https://web.archive.org/web/20150609101401/http://www.asiasociety.org/south-korea-unloved-republic (14 September 2010), Asia Society
2010s

Francis Escudero photo
Jimmy Carter photo
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson photo
Zeev Sternhell photo
Robert Jordan photo

“How was he to cause war, as the prophecies say he must? How was he to break the nations and bind them to him? How could he 'slay his people with the sword of peace' or 'bind the nine moons to serve him' if he was locked away? Do the prophecies say that he will be 'unfettered'? Do they not speak of the 'chaos of his passing?”

Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer

How can anything pass at all if he is kept in chains?
Egwene al'Vere, addressing Elaida do Avriny a'Roihan, Amyrlin Seat of the White Tower
The Gathering Storm (27 October 2009)

Gideon Mantell photo
Mahendra Chaudhry photo
George W. Bush photo
African Spir photo
Benjamin Graham photo

“Even the most conservative must realize that the recent transformation of surplus from an individual to a national disaster implies a scathing indictment of our capitalist system as it has now developed.”

Benjamin Graham (1894–1976) American investor

Part I, Chapter I, The Changing Role of Surplus Stocks, p. 17
Storage and Stability (1937)

Victor Davis Hanson photo
Jim Garrison photo
Ernesto Che Guevara photo
Osama bin Laden photo
James Madison photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo

“The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, government relief for the destitute and, above all, new wage levels that meant not mere survival but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome. When in the thirties the wave of union organization crested over the nation, it carried to secure shores not only itself but the whole society.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Speech to the state convention of the Illinois American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) (7 October 1965) http://www.aft.org/yourwork/tools4teachers/bhm/mlktalks.cfm, as quoted in Now Is the Time. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Labor in the South: The Case for a Coalition (January 1986)
1960s

Sandra Fluke photo
Stanley Baldwin photo

“There is no doubt that to our people, whether they live on the sea-coast, in the great towns, or inland, the Royal Navy is in some subtle way the repository of the spirit and the tradition of our nation.”

Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1936/may/05/memorial-to-admiral-of-the-fleet-earl in the House of Commons (5 May 1936).
1936

James Macpherson photo

“I look down from my height on nations
And they become ashes before me.”

James Macpherson (1736–1796) Scottish writer, poet, translator, and politician

"Carric", quoted in Thoreau, "Life Without Principle"
The Poems of Ossian

Winston S. Churchill photo
Noam Chomsky photo
Dorothy Thompson photo

“And now the beginning of the expropriation of church lands in Austria, have all revealed the true face of National Socialism, which more and more among pious Germans is called, under their breaths, ‘the brown Bolshevism.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Source: "Let the Record Speak" 1939, p. 295 (newspaper column: “Pius XII—the former Diplomat,” March, 6, 1939)

Peter Greenaway photo
Paul Krugman photo
Amir Taheri photo

“Khamenei is not the first ruler of Iran with whom poets have run into trouble. For some 12 centuries poetry has been the Iranian people’s principal medium of expression. Iran may be the only country where not a single home is found without at least one book of poems. Initially, Persian poets had a hard time to define their place in society. The newly converted Islamic rulers suspected the poets of trying to revive the Zoroastrian faith to undermine the new religion. Clerics saw poets as people who wished to keep the Persian language alive and thus sabotage the ascent of Arabic as the new lingua franca. Without the early Persian poets, Iranians might have ended up like so many other nations in the Middle East who lost their native languages and became Arabic speakers. Early on, Persian poets developed a strategy to check the ardor of the rulers and the mullahs. They started every qasida with praise to God and Prophet followed by panegyric for the ruler of the day. Once those “obligations” were out of the way they would move on to the real themes of the poems they wished to compose. Everyone knew that there was some trick involved but everyone accepted the result because it was good. Despite that modus vivendi some poets did end up in prison or in exile while many others spent their lives in hardship if not poverty. However, poets were never put to the sword. The Khomeinist regime is the first in Iran’s history to have executed so many poets. Implicitly or explicitly, some rulers made it clear what the poet couldn’t write. But none ever dreamt of telling the poet what he should write. Khamenei is the first to try to dictate to poets, accusing them of “crime” and” betrayal” if they ignored his injunctions.”

Amir Taheri (1942) Iranian journalist

When the Ayatollah Dictates Poetry http://www.aawsat.net/2015/07/article55344336/when-the-ayatollah-dictates-poetry, Ashraq Al-Awsat (Jul 11, 2015).

Nguyen Khanh photo
José Martí photo

“A nation is not a complex of wheels, nor a wild horse race, but a stride upward concerted by real men.”

José Martí (1853–1895) Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader

A Glance at the North American's Soul Today (1886)

George Bernard Shaw photo
Ernesto Che Guevara photo