Patriotic Quotes

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations -- entangling alliances with none. 
-Thomas Jefferson 

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home. -James Madison

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.   
- James Madison

Fear is the foundation of most governments. 
- John Adams

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.      -George Washington

Does the government fear us? Or do we fear the government? When the people fear the government, tyranny has found victory. The federal government is our servant, not our master! -Thomas Jefferson

It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds       - Samuel Adams

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse. 
- James Madison

One man with courage is a majority. 
- Thomas Jefferson

I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution. 
- Thomas Jefferson

The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty   -  John Adams

Our citizens may be deceived for awhile, and have been deceived; but as long as the presses can be protected, we may trust to them for light. 
- Thomas Jefferson

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.   
- Benjamin Franklin


When once a republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.
- Thomas Jefferson

Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty. -Samuel Adams 

Does the government fear us? Or do we fear the government? When the people fear the government, tyranny has found victory. The federal government is our servant, not our master! -Thomas Jefferson

It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds       - Samuel Adams

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse. 
- James Madison

One man with courage is a majority. 
- Thomas Jefferson

I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution. 
- Thomas Jefferson

The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty   -  John Adams

Our citizens may be deceived for awhile, and have been deceived; but as long as the presses can be protected, we may trust to them for light. 
- Thomas Jefferson

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.   
- Benjamin Franklin


When once a republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.
- Thomas Jefferson

Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty. -Samuel Adams 

World authors or patriotism sentiments

I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives.  I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.  ~Abraham Lincoln


America is a tune.  It must be sung together.  ~Gerald Stanley Lee, Crowds


We can't all be Washingtons, but we can all be patriots.  ~Charles F. Browne


What is the essence of America?  Finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom "to" and freedom "from."  ~Marilyn vos Savant, in Parade


[P]atriotism... is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.  ~Adlai Stevenson


A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.  ~George William Curtis


When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea.  He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect.  ~Adlai Stevenson


Love your country.  Your country is the land where your parents sleep, where is spoken that language in which the chosen of your heart, blushing, whispered the first word of love; it is the home that God has given you that by striving to perfect yourselves therein you may prepare to ascend to him.  ~Giuseppe Mazzini


There are those, I know, who will say that the liberation of humanity, the freedom of man and mind, is nothing but a dream.  They are right.  It is the American dream.  ~Archibald MacLeish


National honor is national property of the highest value.  ~James Monroe, first inaugural address, 4 March 1817


How often we fail to realize our good fortune in living in a country where happiness is more than a lack of tragedy.  ~Paul Sweeney


May the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country!  ~Daniel Webster


This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.  ~Elmer Davis


The stern hand of fate has scourged us to an elevation where we can see the great everlasting things that matter for a nation; the great peaks of honour we had forgotten - duty and patriotism, clad in glittering white; the great pinnacle of sacrifice pointing like a rugged finger to heaven.  ~David Lloyd George


Yet America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The Poet," Essays, Second Series, 1844


If our country is worth dying for in time of war let us resolve that it is truly worth living for in time of peace.  ~Hamilton Fish


And I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I know I'm free.
And I won't forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.
~Lee Greenwood


The cement of this union is the heart-blood of every American.  ~Thomas Jefferson


America is much more than a geographical fact.  It is a political and moral fact - the first community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality.  ~Adlai Stevenson


From every mountain side
Let Freedom ring.
~Samuel F. Smith, "America"


Ours is the only country deliberately founded on a good idea.  ~John Gunther


America is a passionate idea or it is nothing.  America is a human brotherhood or it is chaos.  ~Max Lerner, Actions and Passions, 1949


Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all!
By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.
~John Dickinson


The skies of happiness shine upon these United States of America.  ~Mirakel Reves


If you are ashamed to stand by your colors, you had better seek another flag.  ~Author Unknown


Where liberty dwells, there is my country.  ~Benjamin Franklin


Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!  ~Daniel Webster


If you take advantage of everything America has to offer, there’s nothing you can’t accomplish.  ~Geraldine Ferraro


Oh, it's home again and home again, America for me!
I want a ship that's westward bound to plough the rolling sea
To the blessed land of Room Enough beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.
~Henry Van Dyke


Sometimes people call me an idealist.  Well, that is the way I know I am an American.  America is the only idealistic nation in the world.  ~Woodrow Wilson

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