Quotes on Nationalism

Born in iniquity and conceived in sin, the spirit of nationalism has never ceased to bend human institutions to the service of dissension and distress.

Having one king, one god, one belief, they can act single-mindedly.

In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.

Those who dare to interpret God's will must never claim Him as an asset for one nation or group rather than another. War springs from the love and loyalty which should be offered to God being applied to some God substitute, one of the most dangerous being nationalism.

Politics, as a practise, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.

All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers.

Nationalism has two fatal charms for its devotees: It presupposes local self-sufficiency, which is a pleasant and desirable condition, and it suggests, very subtly, a certain personal superiority by reason of one's belonging to a place which is definable and familiar, as against a place that is strange, remote.

Manpower without Unity is not a strength unless it is harmonized and united properly, then it becomes a spiritual power.

There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.

It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, 'the greatest', but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is.

Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.

Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.

Of the many unforeseen consequences of typography, the emergence of nationalism is, perhaps, the most familiar

Nationalism is not the awakening of nations to self-consciousness; it invents nations where they do not exist.

I am deeply sensitive to the spell of nationalism. I can play about thirty Bohemian folk songs ... on my mouth-organ. My oldest friend, who is Czech and a patriot, cannot bear to hear me play them because he says I do it in such a schmalzy way, 'crying into the mouth organ'. I do not think I could have written the book on nationalism which I did write, were I not capable of crying, with the help of a little alcohol, over folk songs, which happen to be my favourite form of music.

I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world.

Every major question in history is a religious question. It has more effect in molding life than nationalism or a common language.

The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.

The nationalism I seek is one that decolonizes the brown and female body as it decolonizes the brown and female earth

I always have a high regard for the individual and have an insuperable distaste for violence and clubmanship. All these motives made me into a passionate pacifist and anti-militarist. I am against any nationalism, even in the guise of mere patriotism. Privileges based on position and property have always seemed to me unjust and pernicious, as did any exaggerated personality cult.

It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn.