Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Patriotism involves unwavering support for one's country, while also holding the government accountable.
Mark Twain's quote highlights a nuanced understanding of patriotism that goes beyond blind loyalty. It suggests that true patriotism is not merely about supporting one's country at all times, but rather supporting it when it aligns with one's values, and critically assessing the government's actions when they fall short of those values. This perspective encourages active civic engagement and the idea that love for one's nation includes the responsibility to challenge it when necessary.
Themes
PatriotismGovernmentCountrySupportValues
In practice
Example use cases
During a Fourth of July speech, emphasizing the importance of holding leaders accountable.
More from Mark Twain
All quotes βThe 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
I believe, to be sure, that any man who reaches Heaven will find that what he abandoned (even in plucking out his right eye) has not been lost: that the kernel of what he was really seeking even in his most depraved wishes will be there, beyond expectation, waiting for him in 'the High Countries'.
C. S. LewisRead
A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.
AristotleRead
This place aint the same. It never will be. Maybe we've all got a little crazy. I guess if everbody went crazy together nobody would notice, what do you think?
Cormac MccarthyRead
My effort should never be to undermine another's faith but to make him a better follower of his own faith.
Mahatma GandhiRead
It takes two to make a murder. There are born victims, born to have their throats cut, as the cut-throats are born to be hanged.
Aldous HuxleyRead
The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves.
PlatoRead