Quotes about nation (7665 quotes, page 74)

“For me, the measures of success will be both environmental and social. What I’d like to see us do is as a nation have a set of measures that we use consistently so that the public can hold us to account. But as I’ve also said all the way through this campaign, the measure of success to me is not how a financial commentator or an economic commentator from abroad views New Zealand, but how a New Zealander feels about their state of affairs, their hope and chances for the future.”

Jacinda Ardern (1980) Prime Minister of New Zealand

Interview with Lisa Owen at Newshub Nation, 21 October 2017

Chance , Success , Future , Hope

“We Anglophones tend to use the words nation and state more or less interchangeably, but when one nation is divided into two states, it’s important to stick to the Koreans’ own practice of distinguishing clearly between nationalism (minjokjuŭi) and patriotism / state spirit (aeguksim, kukka chŏngsin, kukkajuŭi, etc). Historians do this even in English when discussing the Weimar Republic, where nationalism undermined support for the state — and for liberal democracy — just as it does in South Korea today.”

Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

2010s, On Experts and Exegetes (September 2017)

Democracy , Support

“[E]stablish a public national complaint-handling system using the Internet to help consumers, taxpayers, and workers... It will also be a good way for policy makers to detect patterns. Patterns lead to deterrence...”

Ralph Nader (1934) American consumer rights activist and corporate critic

To the Ramparts (2018)

Way , Help

“The program of our nation is given by its history and by its racial individuality, by its modern political life and by its rights and by all that which gave rise to these rights and solemnly guaranteed them.”

Jaroslav Kvapil book Manifesto of Czech writers

The Bohemian Review, Volume 1, p.5
Address of Bohemian Authors to the Parliamentary Representatives of the Bohemian People (Manifesto of Czech writers)

Life , History

“We are now raring to die for our country's sake
Let's see how much of strength the assassin can display!
O traveller on the path of love, do not drop mid-way,
It is the distance of the goal that glorifies the chase.
It is the distance of the goal that glorifies the chase.
Standing by the gallows the hangman makes a call,
Come, if there be any, by the martyr's zeal enthralled.
We'll tell you all, O sky, wait till he time arrives,
How can we at this stage, our secret plans unveil?
O martyrs in the nation's cause, kudos to your sacrifice,
Even in the enemy they talk of you with praise.
Fired by patriotic fervour, many a maddened youth.
Has gathered at the crossing, itching for the cross.
Why are they mute and silent? no whisper, no talk,
Everyone that I see has got his lips locked.”

Ram Prasad Bismil (1897–1927) revolutionary, poet & writer

Masterpieces of Patriotic Urdu Poetry, p. 109
Poetry, Desire for Self-sacrifice (Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna)

Time , Waiting , Country , Secret

“In the wake of the pandemic we can be sure that fascists and reactionaries will seek to mobilize tropes of ⁠— racial, national, economic ⁠— purity, purification, parasitism, and pollution to impose their long-festering dreams on reality. The vengeful romance of the border, now more politicized than ever, will haunt all of us in the years to come. The “new” authoritarians, whether they emphasize the totalitarian state or the totalitarian market ⁠— or both ⁠— will insist that we all recognize we now live ⁠— have always lived ⁠— in a ruthless, competitive world and must take measures to wall ourselves in and cast out the undesirable.”

Max Haiven (1981)

No return to normal: for a post-pandemic liberation (March 23, 2020)

World , Reality , Dreams

“My administration has taken the most aggressive action in modern history to prevent the spread of this illness in the United States. We are ready. We are ready. Totally ready. On January 31st, I ordered the suspension of foreign nationals who have recently been in China from entering the United States. An action which the Democrats loudly criticized and protested and now everybody’s complimenting me saying, “Thank you very much. You were 100% correct.””

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Could’ve been a whole different story. But I say, so let’s get this right. A virus starts in China, bleeds its way into various countries all around the world, doesn’t spread widely at all in the United States because of the early actions that myself and my administration took against a lot of other wishes, and the Democrats’ single talking point, and you see it, is that it’s Donald Trump’s fault, right? It’s Donald Trump’s fault. No, just things that happened.
2020s, 2020, February, Donald Trump Charleston, South Carolina Rally (February 28, 2020)

History

“No, it’s crazy. Crazy! It’s a crazy deal. No, the fake news media, they’ve been trying to figure this out for years. They still don’t get it though. They don’t get it. Look at all of those cameras. Look at all of those cameras. That’s a lot of cameras. That’s a lot of cameras, Lindsey and Tim, that’s a lot of… They heard you guys were here. They heard Tim was here and that Lindsey was here and that… And they said, “We’re not going to attend that rally,” but when we heard those two guys plus our great congressmen, they’re here, great congressmen. But this is an incredible time for our nation. We’re thrilled to be in the midst of what we call the Great American Comeback and that’s what it is. Jobs are booming, incomes are soaring, factories are returning, poverty is plummeting, confidence is surging, and we have completely rebuilt the awesome power of the United States military. Our country is stronger than ever before.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2020s, 2020, February, Donald Trump Charleston, South Carolina Rally (February 28, 2020)

Confidence , Time , Country , Self-confidence

“We must no longer have a pacific conception of peace. In the Middle Ages it was otherwise. The existence of the individual had no exaggerated importance. Pacifist literature depicts death on the field of battle as an unnatural death because it does not understand the ancient Germanic horror of death on a bed, and arteriosclerosis appears to it more virile than a bullet. Pacifists dwell on the horrors of the war dead as if a peace corpse were more aesthetic. The representatives of the national revolution are men and soldiers who are physically and morally warriors.”

Franz von Papen (1879–1969) German chancellor

Speech to the Stalhelm in Münster (13 May 1933), quoted in Frederick Schuman, Hitler and the Nazi Dictatorship (London: Hale, 1936), pp. 345-346
1930s

Peace , Dead , Understanding , War

“All countries are economically and ecologically involved with each other, politically enmeshed. The old gods of isolationism and nationalism are tumbling, artifacts like the stone deities of Easter Island.”

Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Thirteen, The Whole- Earth Conspiracy

God , Country

“We have had a profound paradigm shift about the Whole Earth. We know it now as a jewel in space, a fragile water planet. And we have seen that it has no natural borders. It is not the globe of our school days with its many-colored nations.”

Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer

Source: The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Thirteen, The Whole- Earth Conspiracy, p.407

School , Water , Color , Nature

“We are not perfect, but we are doing the best we can to pull through this crisis together, as one nation. God willing, we will come out stronger when this crisis ends and the dust settles.”

Muhyiddin Yassin (1947) Home Affairs Minister of Malaysia

As quoted in The Star - Muhyiddin: 'We are not perfect, but we are doing the best we can' https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2020/03/27/muhyiddin-039we-are-not-perfect-but-we-are-doing-the-best-we-can039, 27 March 2020
Quote

Perfection , God

“It's tough, the 400, I won't lie. The first 200 is pure speed and then the last 200, it shows who's got that speed endurance training in their legs. And obviously the last 50, you've just gotta pray because lactic is hitting hard. You need to be able to hold that endurance. … A lot of people had doubted me when I first became vegan, but my energy levels increased incredibly and my iron, my B12, everything that people said would become deficient, were amazing. I thought, I'm gonna make sure I'm beating them all on the track. I mean, we're all friends, but it was pretty cool to finish my Australian domestic season undefeated. And to win the nationals was obviously that little cherry on top.”

Morgan Mitchell (1994) Australian athlete

Interview in the documentary-film The Game Changers by Louie Psihoyos (2018).

People , Season , Speed , Lie

“You gotta take care of the floors. You know, the floors of the forest. It's very important. You look at other countries where they do it differently, and it's a whole different story. I was with the president of Finland, and he said, "We have a much different— we're a forest nation."”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

He called it a forest nation. And they spend a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things, and they don't have any problem.

Paradise, California, , quoted in * 2018-11-20

#RakeNews: People in Finland Mock Trump With Leaf-Raking Photos After He Said the Country 'Rakes the Forest'

Ashley Hoffman

Time Magazine

https://time.com/5458605/trump-finland-raking-reactions/, and with video in * 2018-11-18

Trump Says California Can Learn From Finland on Fires. Is He Right?

Patrick Kingsley

New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/18/world/europe/finland-california-wildfires-trump-raking.html

Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said he didn't recall anything being said about raking. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/finnish-president-says-he-briefed-trump-on-forest-monitoring/2018/11/18/dd46a57e-eb32-11e8-8b47-bd0975fd6199_story.html
2010s, 2018, November

Country

“Communism is all about breaking down nationalism, about uniting workers around the world, and North Korea has always been about the opposite, it’s been about racial purity and pride, so remember North Korea was isolated even inside the old east-block, even inside the Soviet block.”

Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

2010s, Interview with Park Jin Keol (March 2012)

World , Communication

“Ultra-nationalism is an appealing ideology; the Third Reich fought to the end, even sending their children into battle... We should not underestimate its appeal.”

Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

2010s, Interview with Yonhap (August 2011)

Children

“I am not afraid to appeal to the nation at large, to posterity, and still less to that Being Who sees Himself our motives, Who will judge us from His own knowledge of them.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Writings (1904), Vol. XI, p. 44, to Abigail Adams on July 22, 1804.
1800s

Knowledge , Motivation

“Why does it matter whether a country is defined as developing or not? Because it means that policymakers here can distract voters into thinking that crises are constantly diplomatic, military or trade based when actually the problems that America needs to fix most urgently are right here – they’re the crises of health and education. Had those problems been better addressed, the nation would not be struggling as desperately as it is right now.”

Mona Chalabi (1987) British data journalist

Coronavirus is revealing how broken America’s economy really is, 6 April 2020

Country , Health , Problem , Thinking

“He was sick of this canting humbug about internationalism. Nationalism, not internationalism, was the policy for Britain.”

Billy Hughes (1862–1952) Australian politician, seventh prime minister of Australia

Speech in Cardiff (20 July 1918), quoted in The Times (22 July 1918), p. 3

“The Conservative Party is the party of law and order. Full stop. The defence of our nation, defence of our streets and law and order are at the heart of our values.”

Priti Patel (1972) British politician

I want criminals to be terrified, says Priti Patel: New Home Secretary vows to return to zero-tolerance policing as she demands full explanation over bungled 'Nick' sex abuse inquiry https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7316055/I-want-criminals-terrified-says-Priti-Patel-Home-Secretary-restore-confidence-Britain.html (2 August 2019)
2019

Heart , Law

“Under all circumstances we shall remain the champions of democracy and humanity. We reject as senseless and cruel and ruinous to both our cause and our nation the suggestion that we strive to arrive at humanity by the method of brutality.”

Karl Kautsky (1854–1938) Czech-Austrian philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theoretician

Chap. V, The Period of Dictatorship
"Hitlerism and Social Democracy" (1934) https://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1934/hitler/index.htm

Democracy

“A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and corrects them.”

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

Address at the Dedication of the National Museum of African-American History & Culture, delivered 24 September 2016, National Mall, Washington, D.C. reported in the American Rhetoric Online Speech Bank. As Archived https://web.archive.org/web/20200221020146/https://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/gwbushafricanamericanmuseum.htm from the original https://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/gwbushafricanamericanmuseum.htm on 21 February 2020.
2010s, 2016

History

“After this, who will say that an Englishman ought not to despise “all the nations of Europe?””

William Cobbett (1763–1835) English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist

For my part I do, and that most “heartily.”

Porcupine's Gazette (December 1797), Porcupine's Works; containing various writings and selections, exhibiting a faithful picture of the United States of America, Volume VII (1801), p. 428
1790s

“Marx's error, Hitler believed, had been to foster class war instead of national unity - to set workers against industrialists instead of conscripting both groups into a corporatist order.”

Daniel Hannan (1971) British politician

2010s, Nazism (2014)

War , Error

“Goebbels never doubted that he was a socialist. He understood Nazism to be a better and more plausible form of socialism than that propagated by Lenin. Instead of spreading itself across different nations, it would operate within the unit of the Volk.”

Daniel Hannan (1971) British politician

2010s, Nazism (2014)

“England and France, the two most civilized nations on earth, who are in contrast to each other because of their different characters, are, perhaps chiefly for that reason, in constant feud with one another. Also, England and France, because of their inborn characters, of which the acquired and artificial character is only the result, are probably the only nations who can be assumed to have a particular and, as long as both national characters are not blended by the force of war, unalterable characteristics. That French has become the universal language of conversation, especially in the feminine world, and that English is the most widely used language of commerce among tradesmen, probably reflects the difference in their continental and insular geographic situation.”

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) German philosopher

Kant, Immanuel (1996), page 226
Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View (1798)

World , War , Universe

“They [the Communist Party] ask to surrender Greece. We refuse. Our aim is to subject the parties to the Nation and not the opposite.”

Georgios Papandreou (1888–1968) Greek politician - former prime minister of Greece

From his "speech to the nation", after the Lebanon Conference in May 1944.

“A country that promises it is committed to democracy has never faced the fact that in the enterprise we don’t have democracy. We have a tiny group of people making all the decisions. And that’s not a good idea. And maybe now we can face that the decisions they’ve made, individually and collectively, have plunged us into a situation where we cannot afford the luxury of not facing basic questions about how our economy is organized. We should have done it for the last 50 years. Maybe this new generation of young people coming into the Congress will begin that conversation and, hopefully, bring us along into a national debate on these subjects, which is long overdue.”

Richard D. Wolff (1942) American economist

We Need a More Humane Economic System—Not One That Only Benefits the Rich (December 26, 2018)

Democracy , Question , Country , People

“So to change inequality in our nation, we must change the organization of the workplace. Until you do that, you’re not serious. You won’t solve any problems by redistributing: Even if you have progressive income tax, the rich will always figure out a way to hide their fortune in overseas tax shelters. So the solution is to equitably distribute profits in the first place.”

Richard D. Wolff (1942) American economist

Global Capitalism Monthly Update (12 March 2014)

Way , Problem , Change

“[W]hen our country shall have got a good and cheap government, we can, with clear consciences, recommend the paring of their nails, and the making of them bow to that power which, freed from infernal boroughmongering, will again claim and enforce her dominion of the seas. No American that ever conversed with me upon this subject will deny, that I always said, that I should never die in peace without making them again bow to England; and that bow to her again they should, whenever we shook off the power of the hellish boroughmongers. ... ENGLAND is my country: I must share in all her glory and in all her disgrace; and when it is a question of her honour and well-being, I must cast aside all private recollections and feelings. ... I always said...I never would rest until I saw the Americans acknowledge, explicitly our right to dominion on the seas. I wish them all the happiness that men can enjoy in this world; but a nation may be very happy without being permitted to swagger about and be saucy to England.”

William Cobbett (1763–1835) English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist

Political Register (2 June 1832), p. 545
1830s

Peace , Question , Country , Happiness

“My dislike of the Jews is that which our forefathers had of them: I dislike them as insolent ruffians, who mock the religion and morality of Christians; I dislike them as people that never work, and form a body of wretches who live by trick; I dislike them as usurers, and the great agents of those systems of usury by which so many nations have so severely suffered; and this nation, above all others; in France they were the rapacious farmers of the taxes; in Poland, in Germany, in Hungary; every where, where they have been allowed to practise their arts of plunder, they have produced ruin to the people, and very frequently to the state.”

William Cobbett (1763–1835) English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist

Political Register (5 June 1830), p. 730
1830s

Suffering , Religion , People , Art

“Commerce, Opulence, Luxury, Effeminacy, Cowardice, Slavery: these are the stages of national degradation. We are in the fourth; and, I beg the reader to consider, to look into history, to trace states in their fall, and then say how rapid is the latter part of the progress! Of the symptoms of effeminacy none is so certain as a change from athletic and hardy sports, or exercises, to those requiring less bodily strength, and exposing the persons engaged in them to less bodily suffering; and when this change takes place, be assured that national cowardice is at no great distance, the general admiration of deeds of hardihood having already been considerably lessened.”

William Cobbett (1763–1835) English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist

‘Boxing’, Political Register (10 August 1805), p. 197
1800s

Sport , History , Personality , Suffering

“It is time the nation should be roused from its philanthropic dream; that it should see this matter in the true light; and that some means should be taken to put a stop to the increase of Blacks in this country, at any rate, where they have made no little progress in changing the colour of the inhabitants. It is truly shocking to see the number of English women, who are married to Negroes: our streets and public walks are continually disgraced by the disgusting spectacle; and whom are we to blame but ourselves for foolishly yielding to the importunities of those who have the address to make us pay for the genteel education of these sable intruders?”

William Cobbett (1763–1835) English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist

Political Register (5 June 1802), p. 702
1800s

Time , Country , Light , Dreams

“I ask... What would they do if every nation had unlimited electrical power-power for the taking-power costing nothing to obtain and available to all men equally?”

Desmond Leslie (1921–2001) British pilot, film maker, writer, and musician

The Amazing Mr. Lutterworth (1958)

Men

“I say...upon this point, what JUDGE BLACKSTONE says; and that is, that the right to resist oppression always exists, but that those who compose the nation at any given time must be left to judge for themselves when oppression has arrived at a pitch to justify the exercise of such right.”

William Cobbett (1763–1835) English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist

‘To the Freemen of Coventry’, Political Register (4 April 1818), p. 404
1810s

Time , Exercises

“Lest there be any confusion, the same country keeps surfacing as a central player in the lead-up to America’s regime-change wars, which now have included an illegal attack on Syria, the second such intervention in the past year. That nation is Israel.”

Philip Giraldi (1946) CIA officer

Whose Wars? Israel continues to wag the dog for Middle Eastern wars (17 April 2018)

War , Past , Country , Change

“Walking down 8th Avenue, I fell in behind two muscled gym queens. When a car alarm went off, one of them turned to the other, saying, "That's the Puerto Rican national anthem."”

David Sedaris (1956) American author

"Really?" the other guy said. "That's actually their anthem?"

04.09.1992 - p.291
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)

Cars

“That if the best of Kings—the most virtuous of Queens—and the most perfect Constitution, could make any nation happy, the people of this country had every reason to think themselves so.”

John Wesley (1703–1791) Christian theologian

Speech in the West Riding of Yorkshire, reported in the Leeds Intelligencer (4 May 1790), quoted in Robert F. Wearmouth, Methodism and the Common People of the Eighteenth Century (Epworth Press, 1945), p. 257
1790s

Country , Happiness , People , Perfection

“The reform of our enormous state indeed demanded decentralization and redistribution of powers between the centre and the regions. But the local elites tried to paint this need in the exaggerated colours of 'national survival.'”

Mikhail Gorbachev (1931) General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

It worked!
1990s, Memoirs (1995)

Painting

“We've got to eradicate anti-Semitism, anti-Jewish racism in all its forms [and] for us to address that now, I think he needs to take a personal lead on examining those cases and if necessary, recommend it to our NEC (National Executive Committee) what needs to be done.”

Tom Watson (Labour politician) (1967) British politician

Jeremy Corbyn must take 'personal lead' on anti-Semitism - Watson https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47348617 BBC News (24 February 2019)
2019

Personality , Thinking

“Maitreya will call for the creation of trust. There is no trust between the nations. No one trusts anyone. So no one can do anything. Banks don’t lend as they did before. He will talk about the need for trust, and without it how nothing can happen for the good. And competition of course destroys trust. It is the opposite. Co-operation is necessary for humanity. We are all hooked on greed and competition – and you see the result, we are living it. Every time you turn on your television you hear about firms going out of business, the banks don’t lend and so on. That is the result of competition and greed, and it is folly. Sharing is the only solution.”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

Quoted in Questions & Answers, Share International https://www.share-international.org/magazine/old_issues/2018/2018-10.htm#q-n-a (October 2018)
Share International Magazine

Business , Time

“This desire to impose coexistence and cohabitation in the name of "living together", while these guests of the nation do not intend to respect this concept, is to let termites destroy a house by saying that it is necessary that these poor beasts feed.”

Waleed Al-Husseini (1989) Palestinian essayist and writer

Source: The collaborationists of radical Islam unveiled, p. 41

Housing

“The achievements of the age, the aspirations of the millions, the readiness to share, the aid agencies, organizations like the United Nations and the various international groupings which, behind the scenes, unite people with people and give a sense of internationalism and co-operation, will be maintained and will grow; they can only flourish in the new situation. But those which stand in the way, those narrow, nationalistic structures based on competition, market forces and greed, will find it impossible to stand against the “onslaught of the new”, the ideas of the new time.”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

The Awakening of Humanity (2008)

Time , People , Way , Age

“Anybody interested in solving, rather than profiting from, the problems of food production and distribution will see that in the long run the safest food supply is a local food supply, not a supply that is dependent on a global economy. Nations and regions within nations must be left free — and should be encouraged — to develop the local food economies that best suit local needs and local conditions.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

"A Bad Big Idea"
Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community (1993)

Problem , Dependency , Food

“The military has more than 130 bands with more than 6000 musicians, costing about a half-billion dollars a year. Meanwhile the National Endowment for the Arts gets $155M, a paltry amount compared to other advanced democracies. Arts & artists should be robustly funded & supported!”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Twitter https://twitter.com/marwilliamson (24 Oct 2019)
Williamson's quotes in social media

Democracy , Support , Art

“The 1918 flu almost certainly didn’t originate in Spain. One popular theory for how it acquired the “Spanish” name posits that Spain was the only country where you could read about the disease. That’s because Spain remained neutral during World War I, and therefore its newspapers weren’t censoring any information deemed harmful to national morale. The disease was also rampaging through other countries, including France, Germany, Britain, and the United States, but those governments suppressed or downplayed reports on the extent of the damage. Accurate and timely information is vital to combating a pandemic, but still, some countries’ first impulses are to cover up the spread of the disease.”

Joshua Keating American journalist

Strongman Medicine: Suspicious Numbers and Brutal Quarantines (April 02, 2020)

Time , Reading , Country , War

“Once a photograph of the Earth, taken from outside, is available, we shall, in an emotional sense, acquire an additional dimension... Once let the sheer isolation of the Earth become plain to every man, whatever his nationality or creed, and a new idea as powerful as any in history will be let loose.”

Fred Hoyle (1915–2001) British astronomer

1948

Sense , Idea , History

“Ideological hegemony is the process by which the exploited come to view the world through a conceptual framework provided to them by their exploiters. It acts first of all to conceal class conflict and exploitation behind a smokescreen of "national unity" or "general welfare."”

Kevin Carson (1963) American academic

Those who point to the role of the state as guarantor of class privilege are denounced, in theatrical tones of moral outrage, for "class warfare."
"The Iron Fist Behind the Invisible Hand: Capitalism As a State-Guaranteed System of Privilege" (2011)

World

“My central concern in the present book is... to liberate barbarian history from the German nationalism that has suffused it ever since the sixteenth century and, in whatever disguises, continues to do so today.”

Walter Goffart (1934) American historian

Source: Quotaes, Barbarian Tides (2010), p. ix

Books , History

“I hope that one day we will be seen for the people we are, not for our race, gender, age or nationality.”

Roberta Flack (1937) American singer

On being told that her style was “too white” in “Roberta Flack: 'My music is my expression of what I feel in a moment'” https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jan/21/roberta-flack-interview-music-grammys in The Guardian (2020 Jan 21)

People , Hope , Age

“If you want democracy, you have to participate. That means action. That does not mean leaving it to somebody else to participate — you have to do it. At a local level the more you do, the more effective you can become. If you participate as a group on a local level, your effect on a local level can be much more positive, actually more effective than it can be on the abstract level of national and international politics.”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

The World Teacher for All Humanity (2007)

Democracy

“One must have faith in the best in men and distrust the worst. One must allow the best to be shown so that it reveals and prevails over the worst. Nations should have a pillory for whoever stirs up useless hate, and another for whoever fails to tell them the truth in time.”

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

Our America (1891)

Faith , Hate , Time , Truth

“Neither total rejection nor complete recognition of the state is useful for the democratic efforts of civil society. The overcoming of the state, particularly the nation-state, is a long-term process.”

Abdullah Öcalan (1949) Founder of the PKK

Source: The Political Thought of Abdullah Ocalan (2017), Democratic Confederalism, p. 46

Effort

“I never use the word nationalism, certainly not as a model for Hindus to adopt. Nationalism is a misstatement of Hindu concerns. It leads to misconceptions.”

Koenraad Elst (1959) orientalist, writer

Koenraad Elst on Twitter https://twitter.com/Koenraad_Elst/status/1213206747021578240
2020s

“It is one of the strange ironies of history, that in a nation founded on the principle that all men are created equal, men are still arguing over whether the color of a man’s skin determines the content of his character.”

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

1960s, Address to Cornell College (1962)

Color , History , Men

“The only national emergency is that our President is an incompetent racist.”

Craig Gerber (creator)

14 February 2019 https://twitter.com/CraigGerber_/status/1096177273059737601

“After decades, with the people’s will the Berlin Wall fell. Hope for the day that all walls that separate the nations fall through people’s unity and determination.”

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (1956) 6th President of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Twitter Nov 10, 2019
2019

People , Hope

“There was no time during the rebellion when I did not think, and often say, that the South was more to be benefited by its defeat than the North. The latter had the people, the institutions, and the territory to make a great and prosperous nation. The former was burdened with an institution abhorrent to all civilized people not brought up under it, and one which degraded labor, kept it in ignorance, and enervated the governing class. With the outside world at war with this institution, they could not have extended their territory. The labor of the country was not skilled, nor allowed to become so. The whites could not toil without becoming degraded, and those who did were denominated 'poor white trash.'”

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States

The system of labor would have soon exhausted the soil and left the people poor. The non-slaveholders would have left the country, and the small slaveholder must have sold out to his more fortunate neighbor. Soon the slaves would have outnumbered the masters, and, not being in sympathy with them, would have risen in their might and exterminated them. The war was expensive to the South as well as to the North, both in blood and treasure, but it was worth all it cost.

Ch. 41
1880s, Personal Memoirs of General U. S. Grant (1885)

Time , Country , War , People

“Though I have been trained as a soldier, and participated in many battles, there never was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not be found to prevent the drawing of the sword. I look forward to an epoch when a court, recognized by all nations, will settle international differences, instead of keeping large standing armies as they do in Europe.”

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States

As quoted in "International Arbitration" by W. H. Dellenback in The Commencement Annual, University of Michigan (30 June 1892) and in A Half Century of International Problems: A Lawyer's Views (1954) by Frederic René Coudert, p. 180

Training , Drawing , Way , Time

“Whether France or Italy or Germany or England has made the greatest contribution in the history of modern civilisation—however that speculative controversy may be settled, this at least is certain, that those are not wrong who hold that Germany's high and strict standard of competency, the purity and vigour of her administration of affairs, her splendid efforts and great success in all branches of science, her glories—for glories they are—in art and literature, and the fixed strength of character and duty in the German people entitle her national ideals to a supreme place among the greatest-ideals that now animate and guide the world. Do not let us forget all that. German ambition is a perfectly intelligible and even lofty ambition.”

John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1911/nov/28/morocco#column_384 in the House of Lords during the Agadir Crisis (28 November 1911)
1910s

History , Success , Forgetting , Intelligence

“There has been a great deal of talk about raising class prejudice. I dislike class prejudice. ... There has been no feeling of class prejudice in my mind; but, my Lords, there is a worse thing than class prejudice, and that is race or national prejudice. We have not had much of it, in fact I may say almost none of it, here. Still is it not true that the cry which is going to be loudly invoked in this election, the Irish cry, depends upon race and national prejudice? Talk of class prejudice. The classes will take care of themselves, I trust. The English working man in my view—and I represented a great and important group of them for many years—is not in the least a Phrygian with a red cap, though some of his fellows may talk in that vein.”

John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1910/nov/24/relations-of-the-two-houses#column_992 in the House of Lords (24 November 1910). The Phrygian cap was a symbol of the French Revolution
1910s

Cry , Feeling , Dependency

“Had they thought of the relations between Imperialism and social reform? Could we continue this process of territorial expansion with our increasing Budgets? What we wanted was resolute and sustained attention to strengthening our industrial position. What was the use of conquering new markets when it was as much as we could do to hold the markets which we had already? (Cheers.) As to the Liberal policy...the day when the Liberal party forsook its old principles of peace, economy, and reform the Liberal party would have to disband and to disappear. (Cheers.) The Socialists would take its place. ... [I]f he were to choose between the Socialist and the Militarist, with all his random aims, his profusion of national resources, his disregard for the rights and feelings of other people, he himself declared he considered the Socialist's standards were higher and their means were no less wise.”

John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor

Cheers.

Speech to the Palmerston Club, Oxford (9 June 1900), quoted in The Times (11 June 1900), p. 3
1900s

Peace , People , Feeling , Relation ships

“The evils of a military system, which, after all, every day must attenuate, are light compared with the evils of an anarchic conservatism reinstated in central Europe. Divided Germany means preponderating Russia. What can be more desirable in the interests of the highest civilisation than the interposition in the heart of the European state-system, of a powerful, industrious, intelligent, and progressive people, between the western nations and the half-barbarous Russian swarms? To the careful observer of the history of modern Europe it is plain that increasing vigour and self-conscious strength in Germany are other words for the spread eastwards of the best of those ideas, the most durable of those civilising elements, in which the difference of historic development has enabled England and France to anticipate her.”

John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor

Fortnightly Review (September 1870), p. 371
1870s

History , Light , Intelligence , People

“Is it not apparent that the policy of sanctions involves, I do not say war, but a risk of war? Is it not apparent that that risk must increase in proportion to the effectiveness of the sanctions and also by reason of the incompleteness of the League? Is it not also apparent from what has happened that in the presence of such a risk nations cannot be relied upon to proceed to the last extremity of war unless their vital interests are threatened?”

Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech to the 1900 Club at Grosvenor House, London (10 June 1936) on the Italo-Abyssinian War, quoted in The Times (11 June 1936), p. 10
Chancellor of the Exchequer

War

“If Vedanta is the "national religion" of India and its universalism at the same time, and if its unique combination of spirituality and reason makes it a philosophical religion, it is to Sankara, after the Upanisadic seers, that the credit should go.”

Govind Chandra Pande (1923–2011) Indian historian

Life and Thought of Sankaracharya (1998)

Religion , Making love , Time , Universe

“Looking back to the national anniversary this year and patriotism and national confidence shown by our young generation, the anniversary is possibly a "coming of age ceremonies" of Chinese society's collective maturity.”

Zhang Weiwei (professor) (1957) Chinese professor of international relations

(zh-CN) 回望今年的国庆盛典和我们年轻一代展现出的爱国激情和民族自信，这次庆典也可能就是中国社会走向集体成熟的一个“成人礼”。

https://m.guancha.cn/ZhangWeiWei/2019_10_04_520190.shtml

Self-confidence , Confidence , Age

“May 15th-19th has been designated “National Infrastructure Week” by the US Chambers of Commerce, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)... Their message: “It’s time to rebuild.””

Ellen Brown (1945) American writer

Ever since ASCE began issuing its “National Infrastructure Report Card” in 1998, the nation has gotten a dismal grade of D or D+. In the meantime, the estimated cost of fixing its infrastructure has gone up from $1.3 trillion to $4.6 trillion.
While American politicians debate endlessly over how to finance the needed fixes and which ones to implement, the Chinese have managed to fund massive infrastructure projects all across their country, including 12,000 miles of high-speed rail built just in the last decade...
A key difference between China and the US is that the Chinese government owns the majority of its banks... The US government could do that too, without raising taxes, slashing services, cutting pensions, or privatizing industries.... The federal government could set up a bank on a similar model. It has massive revenues, which it could leverage into credit for its own purposes. Since financing is typically about 50 percent of the cost of infrastructure, the government could cut infrastructure costs in half by borrowing from its own bank. Public-private partnerships are a good deal for investors but a bad deal for the public. The federal government can generate its own credit without private financial middlemen. That is how China does it, and we can to.

Ellen Brown: If China Can Fund Infrastructure With Its Own Credit, So Can We https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/18/if-china-can-fund-infrastructure-with-its-own-credit-so-can-we/, CounterPunch (18 May 2017)

Time

“Maitreya will present the nations with an alternative way of living, of conducting economic and political affairs... The new government which will emerge after the stock market crash will reflect the will of the people and stand for the people.”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

Source: Maitreya's Mission Vol. II (1993), After the stock markets collapse, Chapter 4, Economic Change

Way , People

“[Only federalism] allows democratic control and can punish abuses of power. Only federalism can guarantee respect for national character and regional variety. ... The springtime of Europe is still before us.”

Jacques Delors (1925) French economist and politician

Speech to the European Parliament (19 January 1995), quoted in The Times (20 January 1995), p. 11
President of the European Commission

“Germany...deliberately appealed to the arbitrament of the sword. Now, when she is beginning to learn that the world is not a sheep to be butchered, but that it has both the means and the will to defend itself, she talks about a “League of Nations.””

Billy Hughes (1862–1952) Australian politician, seventh prime minister of Australia

Had she achieved world power, would our fate have differed from that of Russia or Rumania? Would she then have talked about a League of Nations?

Speech in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester (26 August 1918), quoted in The Times (27 August 1918), p. 8

World , Learning

“Latinos are still considered a bit of 'other', Arabs are still 'others,' Africans as American as they can be are still visually 'other' so I would like to say, 'hey we are part of the same family.' We all contribute to this nation. We overindex in the consumption of entertainment but we underindex in the representation and the quality of representation.”

Esai Morales (1962) American actor

On the “other” status of Latinos in “Esai Morales On Latinos, Hollywood and Trump” https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/esai-morales-latinos-hollywood-trump-n426866 in NBC News (2015 Sep 17)

Family , Parting

“Up to now, the world of politics doesn’t know that. That’s why all nations are dependent on armaments, why we have the arms race.”

Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor and futurist

From 1980s onwards, Buckminster Fuller Talks Politics (1982)

World , Dependency

“As long as weapons of mass destruction exist, primarily nuclear weapons, the danger is colossal. All nations should declare... that nuclear weapons must be destroyed. This is to save ourselves and our planet.”

Mikhail Gorbachev (1931) General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Quoted in https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-50265870/mikhail-gorbachev-tells-the-bbc-world-in-colossal-danger Mikhail Gorbachev tells the BBC: World in ‘colossal danger’, BBC World News,(4 November 2019)
2000s

“Bias or prejudice born out of chauvinism and imaginary interests of national glorification is not only undesirable, it is indeed dangerous. It is harmful not only to the cause of historical truth...”

K. S. Lal (1920–2002) Indian historian

Meaning and Purpose of History in Volume I
Historical essays (2001)

Truth

“We have so far succeeded in the first and most important task we set ourselves as a nation to avoid the tragedy that engulfed other parts of the world.”

Boris Johnson (1964) British politician, historian and journalist

Prime Minister's statement on coronavirus https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prime-ministers-statement-on-coronavirus-covid-19-30-april-2020 (30 April 2020)
2020s, 2020

World , Parting

“The prophet Muhammad also divided humanity into two sections - the Arabs and non-Arabs... the non-Arabs are to be ruled through the yoke of the Arab Cultural Imperialism... one ought to remember that Islam is less a religion and more an Arab National movement.”

Anwar Shaikh (1928–2006) British Pakistani writer

Anwar Shaikh inn Lal, K. S. (2002). Return to roots. New Delhi: Radha.(68)

Religion

“When nations grow old,
the Arts grow cold,
And Commerce settles on every tree:
And the poor and the old
Can live upon gold,
For all are born poor.
Aged sixty-three.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

On Art And Artists (1800) 'On the Foundation of the Royal Academy'
1800s

Tree , Age , Art

“Slavery can only be abolished by raising the character of the people who compose the nation; and that can be done only by showing them a higher one.”

Maria Weston Chapman (1806–1885) American abolitionist

As quoted in [McInerney, Daniel John, The Fortunate Heirs of Freedom: Abolition & Republican Thought, https://books.google.com/books?id=ZrnV5Rj6eckC, 1994, U of Nebraska Press, 0-8032-3172-5, 83-4]

People

“The phoney [sic] electoral college made a laughing stock out of our nation. The loser one!”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2010s, 2012

“Contrary to what is usually thought, nationalism is a type of tribal-collectivism where individual identity is subjugated to a collective group identity, making it a perfect habitat for most species of socialism and fascism.”

L. K. Samuels (1951) American writer

Source: Killing History: The False Left-Right Political Spectrum and the Battle between the ‘Free Left’ and the ‘Statist Left', (2019), p. 96

Perfection , Making love

“The great challenge before us is to find a way to get people and nations working together in the positive and rewarding task of peace as they have repeatedly joined together in the senseless and destructive waging of war.”

Walter Reuther (1907–1970) Labor union leader

Address before the Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi, India, April 5, 1956, as quoted in Walter P Reuther: Selected Papers (1961), by Henry M. Christman, p. 141
1950s, Address before the Indian Council on World Affairs (1956)

Way , War , Peace , People

“Democratic nations must seek and find unity in diversity, while Communists achieve unity through conformity.”

Walter Reuther (1907–1970) Labor union leader

Address before the Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi, India, April 5, 1956, as quoted in Walter P Reuther: Selected Papers (1961), by Henry M. Christman, p. 133 If the peoples of great nations can work, sacrifice, fight, and die together because they share common fears and common hatreds in war, why can we not find a way to tap the great spiritual reservoir that lies deep within each of us and get people and nations working, sacrificing, and building together in peacetime because they share common hopes and common aspirations.

“Not an enforced amnesia but an unsparing memory - that is what will build a nation.”

Arun Shourie (1941) Indian journalist and politician

Source: A secular agenda, 1993

Memory

“On March 22, at 5 pm stand on your doors and windows for 5 minutes and clap, ring a bell to salute people who are serving the nation tirelessly.”

Narendra Modi (1950) Prime Minister of India

2020
Source: Address to the Nation on Coronavirus pandemic on 19 March 2020 https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/pm-modi-speech-on-coronavirus-thank-corona-warriors-1657591-2020-03-19

People

“Happily virtue is natural in the people, [despite] aristocratical prejudices. A nation is truly corrupt, when, after having, by degrees lost its character and liberty, it slides from democracy into aristocracy or monarchy; this is the death of the political body by decrepitude....”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

Source: Principles to Form the Basis of the Administration of the Republic (February 1794)

Democracy , Death , People , Nature

“When the first alien spacecraft lands in Washington, I want the little green people to walk first into the National Gallery of Art. I want our art to explain who and what we are before our leaders do.”

Bran Ferren (1953) American technologist

Source: The New York Times Magazine, The Creators, 1999 https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/millennium/m4/ferren.html

People , Art

“What fixes and preserves a nation’s language, as well as its sciences and its history, is simply the strength of its political power, accompanied by the happy welfare and leisure of its inhabitants.”

Ibn Hazm (994–1064) Arab theologian

M. Asin in Al-Andalus; 1939; vol IV; p. 278.

Science , Happiness , History

“When I see the present Socialist Government denouncing capitalism in all its forms, mocking with derision and contempt the tremendous free enterprise capitalist system on which the mighty production of the United States is founded, I cannot help feeling that as a nation we are not acting honourably or even honestly.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Churchill By Himself: The Definitive Collections of Quotations, ed. Richard Langworth, 2008, p. 124, (1948, 10 July) Woodford, Essex, Europe, 374)
Post-war years (1945–1955)

Feeling , Help

“What I fear is a new direction for the president and his administration and what could very likely be a catastrophe for the working men and women, small business and entrepreneurs, our middle class, the American family, the very people this president has represented from the moment he announced he would run for the presidency.
That Mr. Trump would advance the interest of the globalist elites ahead of our citizens would be a tragic reversal on any day,
But today, on the same day the Commerce Department reported the United States had the largest trade deficit in our history ... it all means the White House has simply lost its way.
The nation’s heart will be, after all, broken by the very same people who brought 50 years of consecutive trade deficit and the export of millions of middle-class jobs and who have fed the swamp for decades”

Lou Dobbs (1945) American Television Host

6 March 2019 episode of Donahue Tonight on Fox Business Network https://twitter.com/LouDobbs/status/1103453101036658688, reported on 7 March 2019 by The Hill https://thehill.com/homenews/media/432993-lou-dobbs-trump-white-house-has-lost-its-way

Family , Housing , History , Business

“You may observe yourself...what a difference there is between the true strength of this nation and the fictitious one of the Whigs. How much time, how many lucky incidents, how many strains of power, how much money must go to create a majority of the latter; on the other hand, take but off the opinion that the Crown is another way inclined, the church interest rises with redoubled force, and by its natural genuine strength.”

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751) English politician and Viscount

Letter to Mr. Drummond (10 November 1710), quoted in Gilbert Parke, Letters and Correspondence, Public and Private, of The Right Honourable Henry St. John, Lord Visc. Bolingbroke; during the Time he was Secretary of State to Queen Anne; with State Papers, Explanatory Notes, and a Translation of the Foreign Letters, &c.: Vol. I (1798), pp. 16–17

Money , Way , Time , Nature

“Preservation, renewal, and reform of the Union was my main political and, if you will, moral task in my position as president of the USSR. I consider it my greatest sorrow and misfortune that I did not succeed in preserving the country as a single whole. All my efforts were focused on trying to preserve that unity. Incidentally, more and more statements are heard today, including some by participants in the Belovezh accord, that the "soft form of Union Gorbachev proposed" might have protected our nations and nationalities from painful experiences. But, as the saying goes, the train has already left the station.”

Mikhail Gorbachev (1931) General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

1990s, On My Country and the World (1999)

Training , Effort , Pain , Country

“A thousand departments of mental and physical activity foster and in turn are fostered by its achievement. People must be governed, and there must be those who govern. Laws must be made, and there must be those who study, and those who execute these laws. People must be taught, and there must be teachers. All these and the Church, the newspaper, the theatre, the fine arts are essential to the completeness of the State, to the happiness and safety of its people; but Commerce is the main stem, or trunk, where they are all branches, supplied with the sap of its far-reaching wealth. It is as necessary to the existence of any nation as blood to the physical man. That country in which trade flourishes is accounted happy, while that in which Commerce droops provokes shaking of heads and prophecies of downfall.”

Harry Gordon Selfridge (1858–1947) America born English businessman

The Romance of Commerce (1918), Concerning Commerce

Study , Law , Country , Wealth

“[T]he artist sells the work of his brush and in this he is a merchant. The writer sells to any who will buy, let his ideas be what they will. The teacher sells his knowledge of books—often in too low a market—to those who would have this knowledge passed on to the young.
The doctor... too is a merchant. His stock-in-trade is his intimate knowledge of the physical man and his skill to prevent or remove disabilities. ...The lawyer sometimes knows the laws of the land and sometimes does not, but he sells his legal language, often accompanied by common sense, to the multitude who have not yet learned that a contentious nature may squander quite as successfully as the spendthrift. The statesman sells his knowledge of men and affairs, and the spoken or written exposition of his principles of Government; and he receives in return the satisfaction of doing what he can for his nation, and occasionally wins as well a niche in its temple of fame.
The man possessing many lands, he especially would be a merchant... and sell, but his is a merchandise which too often nowadays waits in vain for the buyer. The preacher, the lecturer, the actor, the estate agent, the farmer, the employé, all, all are merchants, all have something to dispose of at a profit to themselves, and the dignity of the business is decided by the manner in which they conduct the sale.”

Harry Gordon Selfridge (1858–1947) America born English businessman

The Romance of Commerce (1918), Concerning Commerce

Waiting , Law , Business , Learning

“this is what I've noticed so far about people, people are like
🌺 🌸 F L O W E R S 🌸 🌺 they come in different shapes and sizes and colors and come from different places were like flowers… were ✨ B E A U T I F U L ✨ no matter what you are. So DON'T let anyone make fun of the color of your skin or nationality or weight or height or if your part of the
🏳️‍🌈 LGBTQ+ 🏳️‍🌈 community or the language you speak. 💕 L O V E 💕 💕 Y O U R S E L F 💕
💕 F O R 💕 💕 W H O 💕 💕 Y O U 💕 💕 A R E 💕”

BisexualBitch1121

Girl , Communication , Parting , People

“The more I think about it, the more obvious it becomes to me that the Poles are une nation foutue [a fucked nation] who can only continue to serve a purpose until such time as Russia herself becomes caught up into the agrarian revolution. From that moment Poland will have absolutely no raison d'étre any more. The Poles' sole contribution to history has been to indulge in foolish pranks at once valiant and provocative. Nor can a single moment be cited when Poland, even if only by comparison with Russia, has successfully represented progress or done anything of historical significance.”

Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) German social scientist, author, political theorist, and philosopher

Letter https://marxists.catbull.com/archive/marx/works/1851/letters/51_05_23.htm to Karl Marx (23 May 1851)

Thinking , Time , History

“I understand why some men become soldiers: to protect the nation and all that. But a whole race of people living to be soldiers seems … unhealthy.”

David Gemmell book Legend

ibid
Drenai series, Legend, Pt 1: Against the Horde

People , Understanding , Men

“The beginning of the end of Trump’s presidency arrived on March 11, 2020, when he addressed the nation for the first time on the subject of the pandemic and showed himself to be completely out of his depth. The virus was a fact that Trump couldn’t lie into oblivion or forge into a political weapon—it was too personal and frightening, too real.”

George Packer (1960) American journalist and writer

A Political Obituary for Donald Trump (2020)

Personality , Lie , Time

“I think we should have international, legal community studies of cybersecurity and necessary laws, and countries should be encouraged to adopt these laws through the United Nations just like they adopt laws to prevent the abuse of children and protect human rights.
There needs to be a multidimensional, multilayered and multi-azimuth defense. That is, defense has to look in all directions. When you're talking about cybersecurity, you're talking about being able to protect your points. It's not directed against a country, but to secure your points of access or specific end points or network access. It's not as though you're arming yourself against a specific threat — you're simply undertaking all aspects of protection.”

Wesley Clark (1944) American general and former Democratic Party presidential candidate

"Civilization's High Stakes Cyber-Struggle: Q&A With Gen. Wesley Clark (ret.)" by Richard Adhikari, TechNewsWorld (2 December 2009) https://www.technewsworld.com/story/68787.html

Study , Law , Country , Children

“I tell you again that the recollection of the manner in which I saw the Queen of France in the year 1774 and the contrast between that brilliancy, Splendour, and beauty, with the prostrate Homage of a Nation to her, compared with the abominable Scene of 1789 which I was describing did draw Tears from me and wetted my Paper. These Tears came again into my Eyes almost as often as I lookd at the description. They may again. You do not believe this fact, or that these are my real feelings, but that the whole is affected, or as you express it, 'downright Foppery.'”

Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman

My friend, I tell you it is truth—and that it is true, and will be true, when you and I are no more, and will exist as long as men—with their Natural feelings exist.
Letter to Philip Francis (20 February 1790), quoted in Alfred Cobban and Robert A. Smith (eds.), The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, Volume VI: July 1789–December 1791 (1967), p. 91
1790s

Feeling , Beauty , Drawing , Tear

“Oh it’s very beautiful to have a very rich heritage from my Indian ancestors. My mother is Mixtec [a native tribe of Oaxaca], and my father was Scottish American. Growing up with those cultures has been enriching. Though, at first very difficult because I was rejected by one culture — in the Mexican Nation there is a lot of discrimination towards the Indian groups. So I struggled with that and with being discriminated as a Mexican. But I think music has been able to erase those boundaries. I think it’s easier to stop talking about those borders, and talk more about the music — to make music so that those borders are erased in a poetic way.”

Lila Downs (1968) Mexican American singer-songwriter

On her racial heritage in “Q&A: Lila Downs, A Sin and A Miracle” https://remezcla.com/music/lila-downs-sin-miracle-pecados-milagros-interview/ in Remezcla (c. 2011)
Heritage and indigenous peoples

Beauty , Music , Thinking , Way

Quotes about nation page 74

Quotes about nation
page 74