Quotes about nation (7665 quotes, page 77)

“No one ever landed on English soil with more hatred in his heart for a race than I did for the English, and, on this platform, are present English friends who can bear witness to the fact, but the more I lived among them, saw how the machine is working, the English national life, mixed with them, found where the heart-beat of the nation was, the more I loved them. There is none among you here present, my brothers, who loves the English people more than I do. You have to see what is going on there, and you have to mix with them. As the philosophy, our national philosophy of the Vedanta, has summarised all misfortune, all misery from that one cause, ignorance, herein also we must understand that the difficulties that arise between us and the English people are mostly due to that ignorance; we do not know them, they do not know us.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Source: Spoken on his return to India from England, as recorded in From Colombo to Almora (1904), p. 221

Understanding , Love , Life , People

“I believe that diversity should be a mutual gift, enriching interpersonal and social relationships, opening minds and hearts to those who are different. Yet if we place too much emphasis on what distinguishes us, then peculiarities and nationalisms inevitably resurface, with the consequence that differences become obstacles or, even worse, walls. A Christian, the word itself indicates, even before belonging to a nation, belongs to Christ, who gave his life for us.”

Luciano Suriani (1957) Vatican archbishop and diplomat

Source: Archbishop Luciano Suriani: History Calls Us To Overcome Divisions https://cordmagazine.com/interview/archbishop-luciano-suriani-history-calls-us-to-overcome-divisions/ (31 August 2020)

Heart , Christ , Life

“The ideological and political work of each political factor must be direct and immediate. In national life, each environment must perform its inherent function within such limits, forms and means that it can achieve on its own and which correspond to its real influences in Ukrainian society. Every serious environment must operate under all internal and external conditions, regardless of other factors.”

Stepan Bandera (1909–1959) Ukrainian anti-communist

Source: "For a Complete Political Structure" (1958)

Life

“Don’t kid yourself: The pain and scars from that day run deep.
I said it many times and it’s no more true or real than when we think about the events of January 6th: We are in a battle for the soul of America. A battle that, by the grace of God and the goodness and gracious — and greatness of this nation, we will win.
Believe me, I know how difficult democracy is. And I’m crystal clear about the threats America faces. But I also know that our darkest days can lead to light and hope.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

Source: 2022, Remarks to Mark One Year Since The January 6th Deadly Assault On The U.S. Capitol (2022)

Democracy , Soul , Thinking , God

“[I]t is by bold and manly efforts Nations have been preserved not pursueing alone the line of home defence.”

George III of the United Kingdom (1738–1820) King of Great Britain and King of Ireland

Source: Letter to Lord Sandwich (5 September 1779), quoted in The Correspondence of King George the Third from 1760 to December 1783, Volume IV: 1778–1779, ed. Sir John William Forstecue (1927), p. 435

Home , Effort

“The Catholic Church is not the religious function of a given political society. It is a communion of an order quite different from what national belonging or the framework of the law can provide, a communion open to all.”

Éric de Moulins-Beaufort (1962) French archbishop

Source: Catholic archbishop: ‘The Church in France is jostled from many sides’ https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/catholic-archbishop-ric-de-moulins-beaufort-the-church-in-france-is-jostled-from-many-sides-56097 (December 19, 2020)

Law

“Our economy cannot fully recover unless women can participate fully. I believe, I think we all believe, this is a national emergency — women leaving the workforce in these numbers is a national emergency, which demands a national solution.”

Kamala Harris (1964) United States Senator from California

Source: " Kamala Harris: Women Are Facing A National Emergency https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/kamala-harris-women-national-emergency_n_602ec604c5b66da5dba0101a?ri18n=true" (February 18, 2021)

Women , Thinking

“Our main goal should be to establish a precedent for a new post-Cold War era, in which the community of nations, working through the United Nations and other organizations, can insure that would-be aggressors do not profit from invasion, coercion and force.”

Paul Nitze (1907–2004) American government official

Source: War Whether We Need It Or Not? (1991)

War , Communication

“[A]llegiance is the very essence of nationhood, there is no meaning in nationhood without allegiance. Nationhood means that a man stands to one nation, to one loyalty, against all others—that is what it is about.”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

Source: Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1981/jan/28/british-nationallity-bill#S5CV0997P0_19810128_HOC_282 in the House of Commons (28 January 1981) on the British Nationality Bill

Loyalty

“The independence of our nation is inseparable from our interdependence as a people.”

John Avlon (1973) American journalist

Source: [Avlon, John, Washington's Farewell, Simon and Schuster, Hardcover, January 2017, New York, 284, English, 978-1-4767-4646-3]

People

“In bringing forward this plan, the United States Government apparently counted on the cooperation of the Governments of the United Kingdom and France to confront the European countries in need of relief with the necessity of renouncing their inalienable right to dispose of their economic resources and to plan their national economy in their own way.”

Andrei Vyshinsky (1883–1954) Soviet politician

I covered it here but the above source is the official home of the speech. https://quotesexplained.com/necessity-of-renouncing-their-inalienable-right-andrei-vyshinsky/
Source: https://sites.temple.edu/immerman/vyshinsky-speech-to-u-n-general-assembly-2/

Way , Country

“As a nation, we have to ask: When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name will we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done?”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2022, May 2022, Remarks on the School Shooting in Uvalde, Texas (24 May 2022)

God

“Democrat or Republican. It does not matter. War is the raison d’état of the state. Extravagant military expenditures are justified in the name of “national security.””

Chris Hedges (1956) American journalist

The nearly $40 billion allocated for Ukraine, most of it going into the hands of weapons manufacturers such as Raytheon Technologies, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing, is only the beginning. Military strategists, who say the war will be long and protracted, are talking about infusions of $4 or $5 billion in military aid a month to Ukraine. We face existential threats. But these do not count. The proposed budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in fiscal year 2023 is $10.675 billion. The proposed budget for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is $11.881 billion. Ukraine alone gets more than double that amount. Pandemics and the climate emergency are afterthoughts. War is all that matters. This is a recipe for collective suicide.
2022, "No Way Out but War" (May 23, 2022)

War

“Cultural work naturally must serve the cause of the People’s Democratic revolution and only then will it benefit the masses. It is most important in cultural work not to ignore the national traditions in form and to maintain its class character in content.”

Kyūichi Tokuda (1894–1953) Japanese politician

New Situation and the Policy of the Communist Party of Japan (1950)

People , Nature

“It is clear that the popular revolution must combine three demands: a life of stability for the people, national independence, and world peace. These demands must be realised through international solidarity.”

Kyūichi Tokuda (1894–1953) Japanese politician

New Situation and the Policy of the Communist Party of Japan (1950)

People , World , Peace , Life

“I want to unite the country. I think people have had enough of division, what they want is to come together as a nation and I intend to lead that.”

Anthony Albanese (1963) 31st Prime Minister of Australia

Anthony Albanese (2022) cited in: " Anthony Albanese: Who is Australia’s prime minister-elect? https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/21/anthony-albanese-who-is-australias-prime-minister-elect" in Aljazeera, 21 May 2022.

Country , People , Thinking

“Those who wish to be inspired by the glory of the British Empire would do well to avoid reading Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations ...”

Amartya Sen (1933) Indian economist

2020s pg. 164

Reading , Wealth

“It’s scary to think about, but we may finally find unity as a species in self-destruction. The first minute of World War III will render nations, races, and religions meaningless concepts because the first thing to die in nuclear fire will be all our beloved imaginary borders.”

Guy P. Harrison (1963) American skeptic author

War , World , Religion , Thinking

“How did a nation founded on so much heartache turn into a culture of normative smiles?”

Susan Cain book Bittersweet

Bittersweet, Chapter 5, title, at p. 117

Smile

“People not only live by symbols, but die by them, as wars of religion and nationalism attest.”

A. C. Grayling (1949) English philosopher

Source: Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God (2002), Chapter 4, “Symbols” (p. 19)

Religion , War , People

“Propaganda is the kitchen of war, Propaganda is war itself. First comes the militarisation of national holidays, then the news is replaced by propaganda shows.”

Dmitry Muratov (1961) Russian journalist and television presenter

"Nobel peace prize Dmitry Muratov: Propaganda is war itself" https://voxeurop.eu/en/nobel-peace-prize-dmitry-muratov-propaganda-is-war-itself/, Vox Europ, 3 May 2022

War , Holiday

“We should also have national red-flag laws so that a parent, a teacher, a counselor can flag for a court that a child, a student, a patient is exhibiting violent tendencies, threatening classmates, or experiencing suicidal thoughts that makes them a danger to themselves or to others.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2022, June 2022, Remarks on Gun Violence in America

Teachers , Law , Parent , Suicide

“We cannot bury pain and trauma forever. As I said in Tulsa, great nations do not hide from their histories. We are a great nation, and by reckoning with and remedying the injustices of the past, America will become greater still.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2022, June 2022, Statement by President Joe Biden on the 101st Anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre

Pain , History , Past

“Before a nation can be rebuilt, its citizens need to understand how it was destroyed in the first place: how its institutions were undermined, how its language was twisted, how its people were manipulated”

Anne Applebaum (1964) journalist

Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956 https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/z4AdQy3VCmgC?hl=en (October 30, 2012).

Understanding , People

“Being a nation is, in the last resort, subjective; those who feel they are a nation and behave accordingly are one.”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

The Guardian (4 June 1979), quoted in Simon Heffer, Like the Roman: The Life of Enoch Powell (1998), p. 822
1970s

Feeling

“As the family goes, so goes the nation, and so goes the whole world in which we live.”

Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) 264th Pope of the Catholic Church, saint

Homily of John Paul II at Perth, Australia on 30 November 1986 during Apostolic Pilgrimage to Bangladesh, Singapore, Fiji Islands, New Zealand, Australia and Seychelles. Archived https://web.archive.org/web/20220416102543/https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/1986/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19861130_perth-australia.html from the original https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/1986/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19861130_perth-australia.html on April 16, 2022.
Other Quotes by Pope John Paul II

Family , World

“We must all learn to live together as brothers — or we will all perish together as fools. This is the great issue facing us today. No individual can live alone; no nation can live alone. We are tied together.”

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

1960s, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution (1965)

Learning , Fools

“Banks have done more injury to the religion, morality, tranquility, prosperity, and even wealth of the nation than they can have done or ever will do good.”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

John Adams letter to John Taylor, Of Caroline, Quincy, (12 March, 1819)
1810s, Letter to John Taylor (1819)

Religion , Wealth

“The nationality of an army is that of its political leadership, not of its common soldiers or its officer corps.”

Francis Parker Yockey (1917–1960) American writer

The Enemy of Europe (1953)

“Would it not have startled the old economists to hear that the secret of the most efficient system of wealth production was conformity on a national scale to the ethical idea of equal treatment for all embodied by Jesus Christ in the golden rule?”

Edward Bellamy book Equality

Equality (1897)

Secret , Idea , Wealth , Christ

“Our country, our nation is built by two institutions, the state and the language. A language whose epicenter today is no longer on these banks of the Seine, but probably much more towards the Congo River basin.”

Emmanuel Macron (1977) 25th President of the French Republic

Macron lashes out at Zemmour: “Our identity is not built on narrow-mindedness" https://palnws.be/2021/09/macron-haalt-uit-naar-zemmour-onze-identiteit-is-niet-gebouwd-op-bekrompenheid/
2017, 2021

Country

“If we strive only for national reconstruction but neglect to struggle for sovereignty and territorial integrity, national independence will certainly not be recognized and our country will be reduced to an autonomous state.”

Trường Chinh (1907–1988) former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (1907-1988)

Source: The August Revolution (1946) (excerpts), p.68

Country

“The August Revolution was a revolution of national liberation. It aimed at liberating the Vietnamese people from the colonial yoke and making Vietnam an independent nation.”

Trường Chinh (1907–1988) former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (1907-1988)

Source: The August Revolution (1946) (excerpts), p.42

People

“The working class must provide firm leadership to the people's national democratic revolution and cannot share it with any other class, least of all let it fall into the hands of the national bourgeoisie.”

Trường Chinh (1907–1988) former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (1907-1988)

Foward Along the Path Charted by Karl Marx (1968) (excerpts)

People

“The West will have to choose: either to come to terms with Russians, or to receive a retaliatory blow. This retaliatory blow will not be by means of war. We will resort to the same weapon: nationalism.”

Vladimir Zhirinovsky (1946–2022) Russian politician and political activist

"A Few Minutes with Vladimir Zhirinovsky" in Christian Science Monitor https://www.csmonitor.com/1993/1224/24092.html (24 December 1993)

War

“Man is one name belonging to every nation upon earth. In them all is one soul though many tongues. Every country has its own language, yet the subjects of which the untutored soul speaks are the same everywhere.”

Tertullian (155–220) Christian theologian

De Testimonio Animae (The Testimony of the Soul), 6.3
The Soul's Testimony https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0309.htm
Original: (la) Omnium gentium unus homo, uarium nomen est, una anima, uaria uox, unus spiritus, uarius sonus, propria cuique genti loquella, sed loquellae materia communis.

Soul , Country

“Ukraine wants to be independent, and we will celebrate our national day with our partners and friends.”

Sergiy Kyslytsya (1969) Ukrainian diplomat

"Ukrainas FN-ambassadør til VG: Vil ikke være over med en fredsavtale" https://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/i/V93WK6/ukrainas-fn-ambassadoer-til-vg-vil-ikke-vaere-over-med-en-fredsavtale (In Norwegian), VG, 31 March 2022

“In the end, I can have today's achievements, and it is inseparable from the coach and team leader of the national team.”

Chen Ruolin (1992) Chinese diver

"“奥运五金王”陈若琳：只要江苏需要，我肯定回去" https://www.ourjiangsu.com/a/20170427/1493256331610.shtml (27 April 2017)

“A national election campaign is not a conflict of self-interest, with the prize going to the highest bidder. It is an occasion for a re-statement of faith, a renewal of zeal, and a clear vision of the future.”

Robert Menzies (1894–1978) Australian politician, 12th Prime Minister of Australia

Election speech, Canterbury, Victoria, 29 October, 1958 https://electionspeeches.moadoph.gov.au/speeches/1958-robert-menzies
Second Term as Prime Minister (1949-1966)

Faith , Future

“Looking over the past two decades, we see close ties between gender-related attitudes and political ideology. A law seems to exist that sexism and heterosexism almost always travel alongside reactionary types of nationalism.”

Elizabeth Martinez (1925) American community organizer, activist, author, and educator

De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century (2017)

Travel , Law , Past

“Linking the national identity with race is not unique to the United States. National identity always requires an "other" to define it. But this country has linked its identity with race to an extraordinary degree, matched only by two other settler states: South Africa and Israel.”

Elizabeth Martinez (1925) American community organizer, activist, author, and educator

De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century (2017)

Country

“No nation can become greater in which there are enormous masses condemned to the conditions of life of prehistoric humanity.”

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

“The League of Nations” speech in Milan (20 October 1918), p. 52
1920s, Mussolini as Revealed in his Political Speeches (November 1914—August 1923) (1923)

Life

“The Socialists, and I am still one, although an exasperated one, never brought forward the question of irredentism, but left it to the Republicans. We are in favour of a national war. But there are also reasons, purely socialist in character, which spur us on towards intervention.”

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

“Mussolini the ‘Man of the War’” speech delivered at the Mazza, Parma (13 December 1914) p. 15
1920s, Mussolini as Revealed in his Political Speeches (November 1914—August 1923) (1923)

War , Question

“As a state, a nation and a citizen, no one will forget our nation’s painful suffering.”

Nguyễn Tấn Dũng (1949) Prime Minister of Vietnam

"PM Nguyễn Tấn Dũng’s online talk to Vietnamese people at home and abroad" https://en.baochinhphu.vn/print/pm-nguyen-tan-dungs-online-talk-to-vietnamese-people-at-home-and-abroad-1114491.htm (9 February 2007)

Pain , Forgetting , Suffering

“The history of national defense and building with untold sweat and bloods has forged a Vietnam's vitality, a distinct cultural identity, a resilient internal strength for development, and a capability to adapt herself to the times and harmoniously co-exist with other nations in the world.”

Nguyễn Tấn Dũng (1949) Prime Minister of Vietnam

"Deputy Pm Nguyen Tan Dung Speaks At John Hopkins University" https://vietnamembassy-usa.org/relations/deputy-pm-nguyen-tan-dung-speaks-john-hopkins-university (10 December 2021)

History , World , Time

“As a young man, I decided I wanted to spend my life serving this Nation that gave my family refuge from authoritarian oppression. For the last 20 years, it has been an honor to represent and protect this great country.”

Alexander Vindman (1975) retired United States Army officer, diplomat, and national security officer

Source: Impeachment Inquiry: Ms. Jennifer Williams and Lietenant Colonel Alexander Vindman (Tuesday, November 19, 2019), p. 20.

Family , Country , Life

“Time requires of all of us to act in unity with resolve and to assume the responsibility for the future of the United Nations.”

Leonid Kuchma (1938) Second president of Ukraine

Speech at the 55th session of the United Nations General Assembly (excerpts) (2000)

Time , Future

“The future of the world order, of the United Nations and of every country, is our common future. Thus, while deciding today on the fate of the United Nations, we should be aware that we are also determining our own destiny.”

Leonid Kuchma (1938) Second president of Ukraine

Speech at the 52nd session of the United Nations General Assembly (excerpts) (1997)

Fate , Country , Future , World

“It is time for everyone finally to realize that sustainable development is not only necessary for maintaining the existing security systems at the global, regional and national levels, but is also an objective condition for the existence and development of our entire civilization.”

Leonid Kuchma (1938) Second president of Ukraine

Speech at the 49th session of the United Nations General Assembly (excerpts) (1994)

Time

“Gender equality is critical for the development and peace of every nation.”

Kofi Annan (1938–2018) 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations

Quoted in: Kabir, Hajara Muhammad (2010). Northern women development. [Nigeria]. ISBN 978-978-906-469-4. OCLC 890820657.

Peace

“Nations, like individuals, cannot become desperate gamblers with impunity. Punishment is sure to overtake them sooner or later.”

Charles Mackay book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841)

“My fellow Americans, the people of this nation have spoken. They have delivered us a clear victory. A convincing victory. A victory for "We the People." We have won with the most votes ever cast for a presidential ticket in the history of this nation — 74 million. I am humbled by the trust and confidence you have placed in me. I pledge to be a President who seeks not to divide, but to unify. Who doesn't see Red and Blue states, but a United States. And who will work with all my heart to win the confidence of the whole people.For that is what America is about: The people. And that is what our Administration will be about.I sought this office to restore the soul of America. To rebuild the backbone of the nation — the middle class. To make America respected around the world again and to unite us here at home. It is the honor of my lifetime that so many millions of Americans have voted for this vision. And now the work of making this vision real is the task of our time.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2020, November 2020, Victory speech as US President-elect

Home , Soul , History , Confidence

“We need to pass an immigration bill, look at Germany, look at the rest of the world, we're the only non-xenophobic nation in the world that's a major economy.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

10 June 2014 from same speech, YouTube audio excerpt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKnCCzAv3s4&t=34 via the DC Examiner
2010s, 2014

World

“Only Art and Religion can bring this new vision as reality to a nation.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

A Testament (1957)

Religion , Art , Reality

“This drift toward quantity instead of quality is largely distortion. Conformity is always too convenient? Quality means individuality, is therefore difficult. But unless we go deeper now, quantity at expense to quality will be our national tragedy—the rise of mediocrity into high places.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

A Testament (1957)

“We do not believe in government through the voting booth. The Spanish national will was never freely expressed through the ballot box. Spain has no foolish dreams.”

Francisco Franco (1892–1975) Spanish general and dictator

Statement during the civil war, cited in 1938 by Time magazine http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915079,00.html, also cited in John A. Crittenden, Parties and elections in the United States, Prentice-Hall, 1982, (p.6).
1930s, 1938

Box , Dreams

“The entire military is loyal to the nation, loyal to the constitution and executes orders in accordance with the law. This must not be questioned.”

Fang Mao-hung (1963)

Source: Fang Mao-hung (2021) cited in " ‘Begonia’ map on military insignia must go: legislator http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201810300006.aspx" on Taipei Times, 14 December 2021.

Law , Question

“You know we are all responsible for building peace in the world. Respond to blind violence and inhuman hatred with the extraordinary power of love. Forgive those who offend you. Do not let yourselves be dragged into manifestations of nationalism, racism and intolerance.”

Pedro López Quintana (1953) Catholic archbishop and diplomat of the Holy See

Dialogue and the extraordinary power of love, antidote to violence and hatred: Papal Nuncio visiting conflict torn states in north east India reminds Christians to be builders of peace (7 November 2005) Fides News Agency http://fides.org/en/news/6082-ASIA_INDIA_Dialogue_and_the_extraordinary_power_of_love_antidote_to_violence_and_hatred_Papal_Nuncio_visiting_conflict_torn_states_in_north_east_India_reminds_Christians_to_be_builders_of_peace

World , Forgiveness , Peace , Love