QuoteProject
...majority Patriotism is the customary Patriotism.
Mark Twain
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote highlights the difference between blindly following popular beliefs and true patriotism.

Mark Twain's quote suggests that many people exhibit a form of patriotism that is based on tradition and societal expectations rather than genuine love for their country. This 'customary patriotism' often leads individuals to support national actions or policies without questioning their morality or efficacy, indicating the importance of independent thought and critical analysis in one's allegiance to a nation.

Themes

PatriotismCritical ThinkingMoralityIndependenceLoyalty

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about civic responsibility, one might cite Twain's quote to emphasize the need for critical thinking in matters of national pride.

More from Mark Twain

Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
The easy part of being an artist is figuring out the message that everyone else is ready to hear. The hard part is waiting for the proper lull to make the announcement.
Mark TwainRead
You can't reason with your heart; it has its own laws, and thumps about things which the intellect scorns.
Mark TwainRead
To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.
Mark TwainRead
Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.
Mark TwainRead
In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.
Mark TwainRead

Similar quotes

The cautious faith that never saws off a limb on which it is sitting, never learns that unattached limbs may find strange unaccountable ways of not falling.
Dallas WillardRead
Mere negation, mere Epicurean infidelity, as Lord Bacon most justly observes, has never disturbed the peace of the world. It furnishes no motive for action; it inspires no enthusiasm; it has no missionaries, no crusades, no martyrs.
Thomas B. MacaulayRead
We all have the same problem as human beings. And it's something that we are born with, and we just see it manifest in different ways. And in this situation, it's racial. It's brutality. It's people breaking the law. It's the smoke, but the underlying fire is something that we all have to deal with, and that's our sin.
Benjamin WatsonRead
Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
Karl MarxRead
Size is not a reality, but a construct of the mind; and space a construct to contain constructs.
Robert Anton WilsonRead
After a certain number of years, our faces become our biographies.
Cynthia OzickRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.