Nation Quotes

We have collected and put the best nation quotes about the meaning of life from around the world. Enjoy reading these insights and feel free to share this page on your social media to inspire others.

Nations is a term often used synonymously with ethnic group, but although ethnicity is an important aspect of cultural or social identity for the members of many nations, people with the same ethnic origin may live in different nation-states and be treated as members of separate nations for that reason.

Quotes About Nation

Individuals who have sincerely resolved to be pillars of their nation never allow themselves to neglect even the smallest matter of concern to the nation, even though there may be times when they forget about their own problems. – M. Fethullah Gulen

The nation with the best standing consists of people who are unified on all public matters and respect the majority view. It hardly needs to be said that the nation’s people must have received a common education of shared values in religion, language, and historical awareness. – M. Fethullah Gulen

If we cannot accept the criticism of those we love and who love us, we may lose our friends and remain unaware of our defects. – M. Fethullah Gulen

Do not remember the promises that others have failed to keep; instead, remember your own promises that you did not fulfill. Do not blame others because they are not doing good to you; instead, remember the chances you missed of doing good to someone else. – M. Fethullah Gulen

One of the most important things that weakens us as a nation is that we are simple-minded toward those who deceive us while pretending to be our friends. Do not believe every promise, and do not be misled by everyone who gives advice with a smile. – M. Fethullah Gulen

If people consider cheating and trickery to be prudence and intelligence, their nation is suffering from something like the terminal phase of cancer. All that is seen as signs of recovery in such a nation are deceptions, like the swelling of a tubercular gland being taken for healthy growth. – M. Fethullah Gulen

If the people of a nation can establish relationships as strong as those among family members, their nation will develop quickly. On the other hand, a nation whose people do not love and confide in each another cannot be considered a nation in the true sense of the word, and its future holds no promise. – M. Fethullah Gulen

In great and magnificent nations, dervish lodges and even gravestones are ornamented. One can read a nation’s concept of beauty and art on its places of worship and its tombstones.

We applaud every good deed and attempt made in the name of the nation, and stand behind the fortunate people who serve it. We do not retaliate against the accusations of deviation and apostasy; nor do we say “amen” to curses and anathema. – M. Fethullah Gulen

Quotes About Nation

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. – Voltaire

When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it. – Frédéric Bastiat

Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual.-Words of Muad’dib by Princess Irulan. – Frank Herbert

The most dangerous people in the world are not the tiny minority instigating evil acts, but those who do the acts for them. For example, when the British invaded India, many Indians accepted to work for the British to kill off Indians who resisted their occupation. So in other words, many Indians were hired to kill other Indians on behalf of the enemy for a paycheck. Today, we have mercenaries in Africa, corporate armies from the western world, and unemployed men throughout the Middle East killing their own people – and people of other nations – for a paycheck. To act without a conscience, but for a paycheck, makes anyone a dangerous animal. The devil would be powerless if he couldn’t entice people to do his work. So as long as money continues to seduce the hungry, the hopeless, the broken, the greedy, and the needy, there will always be war between brothers. – Suzy Kassem

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

In a rich moonlit garden, flowers open beneath the eyes of entire nations terrified to acknowledge the simplicity of the beauty of peace. – Aberjhani

Money speaks sense in a language all nations understand. – Sunday Adelaja

The shame and the downfall of a modern materialistic society is her inability to treasure, care for, admire, adore, cherish, value, revere, respect, uphold, uplift, protect, shield, defend, safeguard, treasure and love her children. I praise all the cultures of this world that naturally harbor and actively manifest these instincts. If a nation or if a population of people fails to recognize the excellent value and distinction of the lives of her children and is defective enough to have lost the capability of expressing and acting upon these instincts then there is nothing that can save that nation or those people. The prosperity of a people is not measured in banks, financial markets, economy and the death of its humanity is evident not through the loss of life but in the loss of love for its children. – C. JoyBell C.

My loyalties will not be bound by national borders, or confined in time by one nation’s history, or limited in the spiritual dimension by one language and culture. I pledge my allegiance to the damned human race, and my everlasting love to the green hills of Earth, and my intimations of glory to the singing stars, to the very end of space and time. – Edward Abbey

It has to be admitted that starving nations never seem to be quite so starving that they cannot afford to have far more expensive armaments than anybody else. – T.H. White

The world, viewed philosophically, remains a series of slave camps, where citizens – tax livestock – labor under the chains of illusion in the service of their masters. – Stefan Molyneux

We have always trusted the control of our doomsday devices to the key” elected of our nations.
The current interests” reorganizing the world now transcend the interests of nations.
So these weapons will only be launched to serve interests other than that of the nations that launch them;
Hence the key” elected… – Haroutioun Bochnakian

Or how does it happen that trade, which after all is nothing more than the exchange of products of various individuals and countries, rules the whole world through the relation of supply and demand—a relation which, as an English economist says, hovers over the earth like the fate of the ancients, and with invisible hand allots fortune and misfortune to men, sets up empires and overthrows empires, causes nations to rise and to disappear—while with the abolition of the basis of private property, with the communistic regulation of production (and implicit in this, the destruction of the alien relation between men and what they themselves produce), the power of the relation of supply and demand is dissolved into nothing, and men get exchange, production, the mode of their mutual relation, under their own control again? – Karl Mark

Many of the confusions, conflicts, and disarrays that are rampant in today’s organizations, communities, and nations could have been avoided if leaders have solid self-awareness… – Assegid Habtewold

Let’s us hold hands together in harmony for a peaceful co -existence for alll humankind in every nation. – Lailah Gifty Akita

If lawmakers in nations today refused to be bribed and be corrupted by some larger-than-life leaders, the people will be less insulted and molested by ungodliness and injustice. – Sunday Adelaja

Time after time have nations, ay, and rich and strong nations, learned in the arts, been, and passed away to be forgotten, so that no memory of them remains. This is but one of several; for Time eats up the works of man. – H. Rider Haggard

You don’t necessarily need atomic bombs to destroy a nation. Politicians who value their pockets than the life of citizens always do that every day. – Israelmore Ayivor

The life of nations no less than that of men is lived largely in the imagination. – Enoch Powell

Nations and individuals accept national and individual responsibility to take action to solve the problem, or else deny responsibility by self-pity, blaming others, and assuming the role of victim. – Jared Diamond, Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis

I have a dream. I want to create a real story; May all nations be awakened… In perfect emotional state. – Alan Maiccon

Countries are no longer nations, but businesses. – J. Andrew Schrecker

Wars against nations for the necessity of lifes crumbs, oh how pitiful, falling for this pit full of lies, now a destiny of failures is inevitable. It’s incredible, this deceit is immeasurable, God please enable me to be eligible from this trickery by perfecting my credibility.It’s a building of my minds pyramids as if I belong to the secret society of masonry. – Jose R. Coronado

When the mind is without borders, the world will be without borders. – Abhijit Naskar

Your inner decision is already manifested by all nations. Therefore, if there is a single decision that you’re postponing, this might not be an end to your conduct; if you postpone it any longer, consider ending it for a meaningful new beginning. Make a decision right now and move on. – Alan Maiccon

Nations are merely collections of people and like them can be vain, foolish, and violent. – Carmine Savastano

Nations, like men, are teachable only in their youth; with age they become incorrigible. Once customs are established and prejudices rooted, reform is a dangerous and fruitless enterprise; a people cannot bear to see its evils touched, even if only to be eradicated. – Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract

There is only One Human race; Humankind. – Lailah Gifty Akita

It depends on how you define the word “racialist.” If you mean being conscious of the differences between men and nations, and from that, races, then we are all racialists. However, if you mean a man who despises a human being because he belongs to another race, or a man who believes that one race is inherently superior to another, then the answer is emphatically “No”. – Enoch Powell

Dear if your limits and my limits were same
Our borders would not have been separate. – Vineet Raj Kapoor

In the wake of the Reformation, it was the Bible that reorganized Europe as modern nation-states. Developing vernaculars through Bible translation was only the first step towards linguistic nation-states. The Bible also provided the theological justification for fighting to build independent nation/states such as Holland. – Vishal Mangalwadi

No nation becomes great without first eradicating laziness from the lives of its citizens. A nation could be blessed with all the natural resources and potentials but if that nation does not destroy laziness and revive hard work in its citizens, that nation will be as underdeveloped and economically recessed as if it has no resources and potentials whatsoever. – Clement Ogedegbe

For agony and spoil
Of nations beat to dust,
For poisoned air and tortured soil
And cold, commanded lust,
And every secret woe
The shuddering waters saw—
Willed and fulfilled by high and low—
Let them relearn the Law. – Rudyard Kipling

A nation could be full of great potentials and yet be poor and underdeveloped if those potentials are not recognized and harnessed to build that nation. Hence, we have poor nations, potentially great people. – Clement Ogedegbe

Nations become great only when its citizens discover their potentials and harness the power of those potentials to create industries, innovations, processes of production and fix the economy. Nations become great only thanks to the power of harnessed potentials.– Clement Ogedegbe

The greatness of a nation is dependent on the potentials of its citizens. Great nations don’t make great people, only great people make great nations. – Clement Ogedegbe

Every nation on the face of the earth has citizens who are endowed with great potentials. There is no nation in the world whose citizens are completely void of potentials. God never created any nation to be void of potentially great citizens. Not India, not the Central African Republic, not Afghanistan nor Moldova is completely void of citizens with potentials. From the kibera slum in Nairobi, Africa to the cubatao, sao Paolo, Brazil, and down to the Makoko slums in Lagos, there are people with great potentials. – Clement Ogedegbe

Nations sometimes flourish by denying the crimes that brought them into being. Only when the original invasion, occupation, extermination or usurpation has been safely thrust into the political unconscious can sovereignty feel secure. – Terry Eagleton

Our greatest power as nations and individuals is not the ability
to employ assault weapons, suicide bombers, and drones
to destroy each other. The greater more creative powers
with which we may arm ourselves are grace and compassion
sufficient enough to love and save each other. – Aberjhani

They taught the women that the home is a shame and in doing so, they successfully decomposed nations. Instead of it being the greatest honour to build a family, it became a laughingstock. And in this becoming, they successfully deconstructed nations. They taught the men that loyalty is merely an option and in doing so, they successfully destroyed nations. Instead of it being the greatest pride to love one woman, it became a joke, a funny side comment. And in this becoming, they successfully poisoned nations. Your home is your atom, your cell, your genome. Your love is your honour, your word, your truth. You wonder why we live in deconstructed nations, you ask one another why you live on torn fibres, cracked ground, and yet you continue to listen to what they tell you. You have put shame where there should be a throne, you have placed a joke where there should be a crown. You have successfully destroyed your nations. – C. JoyBell C.

The sacrifice ‘of’ self for the greater good is the greatest calling imaginable, and it is the bedrock of the greatest nations. The sacrifice ‘for’ self is the most pathetic calling imaginable, and it is the quicksand within which nations perish. – Craig D. Lounsbrough

For a nation to be truly great, she must first identify her national values, enumerate her virtues and formulate her value system. But the most tasking of all these is to develop a culture in her people, that will best represent the proclaimed value systems of the nation. – Sunday Adelaja

For us to expect development in our nations, we must first bring development to the minds and understandings of our people. The change we quest for outwardly must first be attained inwardly. – Sunday Adelaja

Even though we live in an unfair world, where some men and nations acquire their wealth in ways that are not always as straightforward as we would like it to be, yet in the midst of it all, it is not impossible to discover principles and secrets for the greatness of nations. – Sunday Adelaja

The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. – Martin Luther King Jr.

Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. – George Washington

Can’t you see there’s a determinism about the fate of nations? They all seem to get what they deserve in the long run. – Malcolm Lowry

It is only barbarous nations who have a sudden growth after a victory – Victor Hugo

The future belongs to Science. More and more she will control the destinies of the nations. Already she has them in her crucible and on her balances. – William Osler

Even as individuals become families and families become communities, and communities become nations, so eventually must the nations draw together in peace. – Marjorie Watts

Nations and governments come and go, but people remain, and therefore people are the ultimate foundation of what is real and worthy. – Bryant McGill

Nations conquered and true love prevails, all encompassed in a poets tale. – R.J. Craddock

Ordinary men earns responsibility towards their family, extraordinary men earns duty towards their nation. – Amit Kalantri

Every nation is part of the history we inherit, blacks and whites, slaves and gods; we have no other option, embracing each other. – M.F. Moonzajer

Leaders unify nations by creating an external enemy, and nations make that dream comes true. – M.F. Moonzajer

There are many countries but few nations. We are committed to building Nigeria into a most desirable nation to live – Fela Durotoye

Thus, literature, together with language, preserves and protects a nation’s soul. – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

The French, for example, are a contemptible nation. – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

To most people a savage nation is wan that doesn’t wear oncomf’rtable clothes. – Finley Peter Dunne

A nation, like a tree, does not thrive well till it is engraffed with a foreign stock. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honors sake
Stand fast and suffer long.

Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly
They build a nations pillars deep
And lift them to the sky. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is impossible that the whisper of a faction should prevail against the voice of a nation. – John Russell

The haughty American nation … makes the Negro clean its boots and then proves the moral and physical inferiority of the Negro by the fact that he is a bootblack. – George Bernard Shaw

Every nation, every human being that came across earth had a song and sang in some way to their God. – Thomas A. Dorsey

The United Nations has been in the Great Lakes Region and Sahel for 50 years, mostly investing in peacekeeping. NOW is the time to invest in young people! – Babatunde Osotimehin

The choices that women make have huge impact on families, on communities and on nations. Being able to provide an enabling environment for them to exercise their rights and make choices in their lives is crucial. It is at the heart of human development! – Babatunde Osotimehin

Creating a nation requires the will of the people. – Edmund Barton

It’s been a long four years for Junior Nation. I am happy for his fans and NASCAR. Now, let’s celebrate this win and help our sport grow. I have thought that ever since we took all our eyes and undivided attention off of Dale Jr. and gave him some breathing room, he was able to be more himself and relax a bit. Some of that pressure left him. Today we just saw the ‘Old Dale Jr.,’ the one we’ve been looking for, for a long time. He is back. – Kenny Wallace

We’re born into a certain family, nation, class. But if we have no connection whatsoever with the worlds beyond the one we take for granted, then we too run the risk of drying up inside. Our imagination might shrink; our hearts might dwindle, and our humanness might wither if we stay for too long inside our cultural cocoons. Our friends, neighbors, colleagues, family – if all the people in our inner circle resemble us, it means we are surrounded with our mirror image. – Elif Safak

Whenever any American’s life is taken by another American unnecessarily – whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence – whenever we tear at the fabric of the life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded. – Robert Kennedy

Some of my colleagues who are criticized today for lack of forthright principles-or who are looked upon with scorn as compromising “politicians”-are simply engaged in the fine art of conciliating, balancing and interpreting the forces and factions of public opinion, an art essential to keeping our nation united and enabling our Government to function. – John F. Kennedy

The Family of Man is more than 3 billion strong. It lives in more than 100 nations. Most of its members are not white. Most of them are not Christians. Most of them know nothing about free enterprise or due process of law or the Australian ballot. – John F. Kennedy

A nation can be no stronger abroad than she is at home. Only an America which practices what it preaches about equal rights and social justice will be respected by those whose choice affects our future. – John F. Kennedy

We must recognize that every nation determines its policies in terms of its own interests. – John F. Kennedy

The function and responsibility of the President is to set before the American people the unfinished business, the things we must do if we are going to succeed as a nation. – John F. Kennedy

Is this Nation stating it cannot afford to spend an additional $600 million to help the developing nations of the world become strong and free and independent an amount less than this countrys annual outlay for lipstick, face cream, and chewing gum? – John F. Kennedy

This increase in the life span and in the number of our senior citizens presents this Nation with increased opportunities: the opportunity to draw upon their skill and sagacityand the opportunity to provide the respect and recognition they have earned. It is not enough for a great nation merely to have added new years to lifeour objective must also be to add new life to those years. – John F. Kennedy

The central drama of our age is how the Western nations and the Asian peoples are to find a tolerable basis of co-existence. – Walter Lippmann

In really hard times the rules of the game are altered. The inchoate mass begins to stir. It becomes potent, and when it strikes, it strikes with incredible emphasis. Those are the rare occasions when a national will emerges from the scattered, specialized, or indifferent blocs of voters who ordinarily elect the politicians. Those are for good or evil the great occasions in a nation’s history. – Walter Lippmann

Nothing is good for a nation but that which arises from its own core and its own general wants, without apish imitation of another. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

There is nothing so extreme that is not allowed by the custom of some nation or other. – Michel de Montaigne

Censor, n. An officer of certain governments, employed to supress the works of genius. Among the Romans the censor was an inspector of public morals, but the public morals of modern nations will not bear inspection. – Ambrose Bierce

Let me make the superstitions of a nation and I care not who makes its laws or its songs either. – Mark Twain

Beautiful credit! The foundation of modern society. Who shall say that this is not the golden age of mutual trust, of unlimited reliance upon human promises? That is a peculiar condition of society which enables a whole nation to instantly recognize point and meaning in the familiar newspaper anecdote, which puts into the mouth of a distinguished speculator in lands and mines this remark: — I wasn’t worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two millions of dollars. – Mark Twain

Nations do not think, they only feel. They get their feelings at second hand through their temperaments, not their brains. A nation can be brought — by force of circumstances, not argument — to reconcile itself to any kind of government or religion that can be devised; in time it will fit itself to the required conditions; later it will prefer them and will fiercely fight for them. – Mark Twain

Happy are all free peoples, too strong to be dispossessed. But blessed are those among nations who dare to be strong for the rest! – Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Social prosperity means man happy, the citizen free, the nation great. – Victor Hugo

This nation’s impulse is toward the future, and tradition seems more of a shackle to it than an inspiration. – Allan Bloom

Of all the nations in the world, the United States was built in nobody’s image. It was the land of the unexpected, of unbounded hope, of ideals, of quest for an unknown perfection. It is all the more unfitting that we should offer ourselves in images. And all the more fitting that the images which we make wittingly or unwittingly to sell America to the world should come back to haunt and curse us. – Daniel J. Boorstin

The history of exploration across nations and across time is not one where nations said, ‘Let’s explore because it’s fun.’ It was, ‘Let’s explore so that we can claim lands for our country, so that we can open up new trade routes; let’s explore so we can become more powerful.’ – Neil deGrasse Tyson

Our top focus – protecting our Nation – must go beyond homeland preparedness; America will only be secure if we deal with threats before they happen, not just after they happen. – Bill Frist

Everybody should take each other as they are, white, black, Indians, Creole. Then there would be no prejudice, nations would get along. – Langston Hughes

Black men of integrity cannot make a deal with a politician and leave out the poor of the nation, all God’s children. – Jesse Jackson

If the American people in a matter of months can love the people of Kuwait, whom they have not seen, they can love the people of our nation’s capital just as well. – Jesse Jackson

The spirit of a nation is what counts-the look in its eyes. – Jean Giraudoux

It is but seldom that any one overt act produces hostilities between two nations; there exists, more commonly, a previous jealousy and ill will, a predisposition to take offense. – Washington Irving

A nation can’t get strong on political pablum. – Richard Lamm

A nation has its first obligation to its own workers and its own poor. – Richard Lamm

It is ironic that a nation that has never experienced a coup d’etat should be so obsessed with the idea of conspiracy. – Gore Vidal

It’s impossible in normal times to rally a nation that has 265 kinds of cheese. – Charles de Gaulle

Democratic nations care but little for what has been, but they are haunted by visions of what will be. – Alexis de Tocqueville

Amongst democratic nations, each new generation is a new people. – Alexis de Tocqueville

One of the most interesting and harmful delusions to which men and nations can be subjected is that of imagining themselves special instruments of the Divine Will. – Bertrand Russell

What the Nation must realize is that the home, when both parents work, is non-existent. Once we have honestly faced that fact, we must act accordingly. – Agnes Meyer Driscoll

If marriage really is a sacred institution, then why is the government controlling it, especially in a nation that affirms separation of church and state? – Tony Campolo

According to the United Nations’ latest count, of the approximately 3,000 languages spoken in the world today, only some 78 have a literature. Of those 78, a scant five or six enjoy a truly international audience. – Barry Sanders

Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests; which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates; but parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose a member indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not a member of Bristol, but he is a member of parliament. – Edmund Burke

No one can be certain where a nation which spans two continents, whose history begins in the faint traces of early civilization, a nation now struggling to find a new and valid philosophy of existence, will be propelled by the transcendental forces of the nuclear age. – Harrison Salisbury

Giving is what makes a nation great. – Jonathan Sacks

When Louis XIV assumed the reins of government France suddenly and wonderfully came to her maturity; it was as if the whole nation had burst into splendid flower. – Lytton Strachey

When the French nation gradually came into existence among the ruins of the Roman civilization in Gaul, a new language was at the same time slowly evolved. – Lytton Strachey

Nothing is more important in the preservation of peace than to secure among the great mass of the people living under constitutional government a just conception of the rights which their nation has against others and of the duties their nation owes to others. – Elihu Root

Every nation makes decisions based on self-interest and defends them on the basis of morality. – William Sloane Coffin

A sound like a sound of thunder rolled,
And the heart of a nation stirred. – William Ross Wallace

No nation respects a beggar. – Elijah Muhammad

Whether you agree with me, disagree with me, like me or loathe me, don’t bind my hands when I am negotiating on behalf of the British people. – John Major

In any country there must be people who have to die. They are the sacrifices any nation has to make to achieve law and order. – Idi Amin

The Palestinians are the only nation in the world that feels with certainty that today is better than what the days ahead will hold. Tomorrow always heralds a worse situation. – Mahmoud Darwish

Blood is a cleansing and sanctifying thing, and the nation that regards it as the final horror has lost its manhood… there are many things more horrible than bloodshed, and slavery is one of them! – Patrick Pearse

We can’t afford to sacrifice another generation of American children to bureaucratic politics. We’ve got to get it done. The future, the health, the life – our nation depends on it and it’s just foolish to think or act otherwise. – LeVar Burton

Cynicism and naivety lie cheek by jowl in the American imagination; if the United States is one of the most venal nations on Earth, it is also one of the most earnestly idealistic. – Terry Eagleton

Irish fiction is full of secrets, guilty pasts, divided identities. It is no wonder that there is such a rich tradition of Gothic writing in a nation so haunted by history. – Terry Eagleton

There is an insuperable problem about introducing immigrants to British values. There are no British values. Nor are there any Serbian or Peruvian values. No nation has a monopoly on fairness and decency, justice and humanity. – Terry Eagleton

In all nations an exceptional man exists that compensates the deficiencies of the remainder. In those moments, when humanity is found collectively in a state of decadence, there always remain those exceptional beings as point of reference. – Augusto Roa Bastos

I know too that we Americans like to think of ourselves as cleaner than clean, a healthy nation who would never take anything when a recent poll suggested that 65 per cent of the population would risk dying in 10 years if they would be guaranteed Olympic gold. – Greg LeMond

Every nation sincerely desires peace; and all nations pursue courses which if persisted in, must make peace impossible. – Norman Angell

America is a nation of 270 million people: 100 million of them are gangsters, another 100 million are hustlers, 50 million are complete lunatics, and every single one of us is secretly in show business. Isn’t that fabulous? – Tom Robbins

Canada, as you know, is a major important nation boasting a sophisticated, cosmopolitan culture that was tragically destroyed last week by beavers. – Dave Barry

In recent years, perhaps encouraged by competition from McDonald’s, the British hamburger has become a credit to the nation. At the time of which I speak, it looked like a scorched beer-coaster or a tenderized disc brake. – Clive James

This nation is so friendly that the leading cause of injury is getting passionately embraced by strangers. – Dave Barry

The peace we seek, founded upon decent trust and cooperation among nations, can be fortified not by weapons of war but by wheat and cotton, by milk and wool, by meat and timber, and by rice. These are words that translate into every language. – Dwight D. Eisenhower

Truths are more likely to be discovered by one man than by a nation. – Rene Descartes

It is essential to collectively struggle to recover our status as Daughters of the Earth. In that is our strength, and the security, not in the predator, but in the security of our Mother, for our future generations. In that we can insure our security as the Mothers of our Nations. – Winona LaDuke

A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of their master who, in the abuse of absolute power, does not proceed to the last extremes of injustice and oppression. – Edward Gibbon

We have a much bigger objective. We’ve got to look at the long run here. This is an example – the situation between the United Nations and Iraq – where the United Nations is deliberately intruding into the sovereignty of a sovereign nation…. Now this is a marvelous precedent (to be used in) all countries of the world. – Stansfield Turner

We are beginning to see practical support. And this is a very significant sign of the movement towards a new era, a new age…. We see both in our country and elsewhere… ghosts of the old thinking…. When we rid ourselves of their presence, we will be better able to move toward a new world order…relying on the relevent mechanisms of the United Nations. – Mikhail Gorbachev

Welles and I differed, however, in our interpretation of the results of the Munich Conference, he being optimistic, I skeptical. In a radio address on October 3, several days after the conference, in which he described the steps taken by the United States Government just prior to Munich, he said that today, perhaps more than at any time during the past two decades, there was presented the opportunity for the establishment by the nations of the world of a new world order based upon justice and upon law. It seemed to me that the colors in the picture were much darker. – H. G. Wells

Were I to make the announcement and to run, the reasons I would run is because I have a great belief in this country [America]. … There’s more natural resources than any nation in the world; the greatest education population in the world; the greatest technology of any country in the world; the greatest capacity for innovation in the world; and the greatest political system in the world. – Edward Kennedy

Progress is not possible without discipline. A nation, institution, family or individual can advance only by heeding the words of those who deserve respect and by obeying the appropriate rules and regulations. Children, obedience is not weakness. Obedience with humility leads to discipline. – Mata Amritanandamayi

The student of biology is often struck with the feeling that historians, when dealing with the rise and fall of nations, do not generally view the phenomena from a sufficiently high biological standpoint. To me, at least, they seem to attach too much importance to individual rulers and soldiers, and to particular wars, policies, religions, and customs; while at the same time they make little attempt to extract the fundamental causes of national success or failure. – Ronald Ross

The nation looked upon him as a deserter, and he shrunk into insignificancy and an earldom. – Lord Chesterfield

I turn my eyes to the schools & universities of Europe And there behold the loom of Locke whose woof rages dire, Washed by the water-wheels of Newton. Black the cloth In heavy wreaths folds over every nation; cruel works Of many wheels I view, wheel without wheel, with cogs tyrannic Moving by compulsion each other: not as those in Eden, which Wheel within wheel in freedom revolve, in harmony & peace. – William Blake

His death eclipsed the gayety of nations, and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure. – Samuel Johnson

Our nation is indeed fortunate that we can still draw on an immense reservoir of courage, character, and fortitude, that we are still blessed with heroes like those of the Space Shuttle Challenger. Man will continue his conquest of space. To reach out for new goals and ever-greater achievements, that is the way we shall commemorate our seven Challenger heroes. – Ronald Reagan

Unless people can see broad vistas of unused resources in front of them, the belief in limited resources tends to follow as a matter of course. And if the idea is accepted that the world’s resources are fixed, then each person is ultimately the enemy of every other person, and each race or nation is the enemy of every other race or nation. The extreme result is tyranny, war and even genocide. Only in a universe of unlimited resources can all men be brothers. – Robert Zubrin

One thing, however, is certain. Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law. – John Paul Stevens

[I]t would be unjust to our people and dangerous to our institutions to apply any portion of revenues of the nation or of the States to the support of sectarian schools. – James A. Garfield

The separation of church and state is extremely important to any of us who holds to the original traditions of our nation. . . . To change these traditions . . . would be harmful to our whole attitude of tolerance in the religious area. If we look at situations which have arisen in the past in Europe and other world areas, I think we will see the reason why it is wise to hold to our early traditions. – Eleanor Roosevelt

There could be no more powerful argument against mixing religion and government than the success of independent African American churches in placing racial segregation and discrimination on a reluctant nation’s social agenda. Would black churches have been able to take the lead in the struggle had they been dependent on funds doled out for ‘faith-based initiatives’ . . . ? – Susan Jacoby

The idea of America’s religious groups fighting over the limited public money to be made available takes us down the road towards the kind of sectarian competition that has torn so many nations apart, and which our separation of church and state has spared us. – David Saperstein

I saw greatness in John and he lived up to it. I also saw a tremendous competitor who loved to win. John is a standard bearer, someone that players, coaches, fans and the Raider Nation can all look up to. One of his great virtues, the fire that burned brightest in him, was his love and passion for football, which was seldom ever equaled.- Al Davis

A teenage taste of beer aside, Mitt Romney does not consume alcohol. Which begs the question, will total abstention put his candidacy, perhaps even this great nation in jeopardy? – Martin Bashir

A mother is a school. Empower her; and you empower a great nation. – Hafez Ibrahim

I can recall no parallel in history where a great nation recently at war has so distinguished its former enemy commander. – Douglas MacArthur

There is no calamity which a great nation can invite which equals that which follows a supine submission to wrong and injustice. – Grover Cleveland

If we are to fulfill the promise of this great Nation that everybody in our society has equal access to the law, obviously having the resources to have access to the law is extremely important. – Alan Mollohan

I never travel across this great nation without experiencing a feeling of gratitude and thanksgiving for all that we have and are. As I see its broad fruitful farms, its humming factories, its gleaming cities, certainly it is easy to realize that we have achieved unequaled material progress in this great country. – Ezra Taft Benson

Great men, great nations, have not been boasters and buffoons, but perceivers of the terror of life, and have manned themselves to face it. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is incumbent on a great nation to remain confident, if it wishes to remain free. We need not be ignorant to real threats to our safety, against which we must remain vigilant. We need only to banish to the ash heap of history the notion that we ought to be ruled by our fears and those who use them to enhance their own power. – Ron Paul

Great nations need organizing principles, and ‘Don’t do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle. – Hillary Clinton

A great nation is like a great man:When he makes a mistake, he realizes it.Having realized it, he admits it.Having admitted it, he corrects it.He considers those who point out his faultsas his most benevolent teachers.He thinks of his enemyas the shadow that he himself casts. – Laozi

Great nations of the world are moving toward democracy. – George H. W. Bush

The Ancient Egyptians were not fools, Carter. They built the pyramids. They created the first great nation state. Their civilization lasted thousands of years.” “Yeah,” I said. “And now they’re gone. – Rick Riordan

The time has come for an all-out war against poverty. The rich nations must use their vast resources of wealth to develop the underdeveloped, school the unschooled, and feed the unfed. Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for “the least of these”. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

People would ask me how I could stand the long campaigning, how I could stand being charged with the responsibilities of a great nation, one of the most powerful and difficult jobs in the world. It wasn’t any more difficult than picking cotton all day or shaking peanuts. – Jimmy Carter

Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another. – Nelson Mandela

As a society, we’ve learned that we’re all better off
when everyone is included in the opportunities of this great nation. – Edward Kennedy

Poland should be strong and prosperous and independent and play its proper role as a great nation in the heart of Europe. – George H. W. Bush

Let’s light this fire one more time, Mike, and witness this great nation at its best. – Christopher Ferguson

If we only have great companies, we will merely have a prosperous society, not a great one. Economic growth and power are the means, not the definition, of a great nation. – James C. Collins

We must always remember that America is a great nation today not because of what government did for people but because of what people did for themselves and for one another. – Richard M. Nixon

Sleep makes people calmer, more alert, less fearful – just plain happier, or so I see around me and in me. I am sure that if this great nation were to concentrate on getting more sleep, we would be a happier, more confident people, and that by itself would be a major achievement. – Ben Stein

America’s fighting men and women sacrifice much to ensure that our great nation stays free. We owe a debt of gratitude to the soldiers that have paid the ultimate price for this cause, as well as for those who are blessed enough to return from the battlefield unscathed. – Allen Boyd

Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big. – Theodore Roosevelt

Compassion is not a dirty word.. it’s time we rehabilitated compassion into the national political vocabulary of this great nation of ours. – Kevin Rudd

It is in times of difficulty that great nations like great men display the whole energy of their character and become an object of admiration to posterity. – Napoleon Bonaparte

Once imbued with the idea of a mission, a great nation easily assumes that it has the means as well as the duty to do God’s work. – J. William Fulbright

The nation blest above all nations is she in whom the civic genius of the people does the saving day by day, by acts without external picturesqueness; by speaking, writing, voting reasonably; by smiting corruption swiftly; by good temper between parties; by the people knowing true men when they see them, and preferring them as leaders to rabid partisans and empty quacks. – William James

A great Nation should have a fixed Government, so that the death of one man should not overturn it. – Napoleon Bonaparte

I never imagined when I wrote my first book on Strauss that the unscrupulous elite that he elevates would ever come so close to political power, nor that the ominous tyranny of the wise would ever come so close to being realised in the political life of a great nation like the United States. But fear is the greatest ally of tyranny. – Shadia Drury

Every virile people has established colonial power. All great nations in the fullness of their strength have desired to set their mark upon barbarian lands and those who fail to participate in this great rivalry will play a pitiable role in time to come. – Heinrich von Treitschke

If Harvey [Milk] had not been taken from us 30 years ago, I think he would want me to say to all the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told they are less than by the churches, by the government, by their families, that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures of value, and that no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you and that very soon, I promise you, you will have equal rights, federally, across this great nation of ours. – Dustin Lance Black

Canada is destined to be one of the great nations of the world and Canadian women must be ready for citizenship. – Nellie L. McClung

The superior person tries to promote music as a means to the perfection of human culture. When such music prevails, and people’s minds are led towards the right ideals and aspirations, we may see the appearance of a great nation. – Confucius

The privilege of opening the first trial in history for crimes against the peace of the world imposes a grave responsibility. The wrongs, which we seek to condemn and punish, have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated. That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury, stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that power has ever paid to reason. – Robert H. Jackson

It is not what we have that will make us a great nation; it is the way in which we use it. – Theodore Roosevelt

Great countries are those that produce great people. – Benjamin Disraeli

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

No nation can be really great unless it is great in peace, in industry, integrity, honesty. Skilled intelligence in civic affairs and industrial enterprises alike; the special ability of the artist, the man of letters, the man of science, and the man of business; the rigid determination to wrong no man, and to stand for righteousness-all these are necessary in a great nation.Theodore Roosevelt

In a great nation, the majority are incapable of judging wisely of things. – Napoleon Bonaparte

Power without a nation’s confidence is nothing. – Catherine the Great

Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts – the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art. – John Ruskin

You know, this country today, it seems to me – it’s about fear. And it shouldn’t be about fear. It should be about hope and optimism and creativity and accepting a challenge and being a moral leader and being a great nation. – Tom Vilsack

The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes. – Stanley Kubrick

Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish. Do not overdo it. – Laozi

If we fail to solve this moral and spiritual crisis we may be doomed like the great nations of the past. – Billy Graham

Surely, God on high has not refused to give us enough wisdom to find ways to bring us an improvement in relations between the two great nations on earth. – Mikhail Gorbachev

The United Nations is our one great hope for a peaceful and free world. – Ralph Bunche

What sort of love is this love that we have for countries? What sort of country is it that will ever live up to our dreams? What sort of dreams were these that have been broken? Isn’t the greatness of great nations directly proportionate to their ability to be ruthless, genocidal? Doesn’t the height of a country’s ‘success’ usually also mark the depths of its moral failure? – Arundhati Roy

I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. I’m not a member of any organized political party, I’m a Democrat! If we ever pass out as a great nation we ought to put on our tombstone ‘America died from a delusion that she had moral leadership.’ – Will Rogers

To keep any great nation up to a high standard of civilization there must be enough superior characters to hold the balance of power, but the very moment the balance of power gets into the hands of second-rate men and women, a decline of that nation is inevitable. – Christian D. Larson

Nations, great nations have limitations. All nations have limitations. Even great powers have limitations. – Chuck Hagel

Regardless of the nature of their crime or any rehabilitation that may have occurred, these ex-felons cannot participate in the decision-making process of this great Nation. – Charles Rangel

If America ever passes out as a great nation, we ought to put on our tombstone: America died from a delusion she had Moral Leadership. – Will Rogers

There is no calamity which a great nation can invite which equals that which follows a supine submission to wrong and injustice and the consequent loss of national self-respect and honor, beneath which are shielded and defended a people’s safety and greatness. – Eldridge Cleaver

We need to help students and parents cherish and preserve the ethnic and cultural diversity that nourishes and strengthens this community – and this nation. – Cesar Chavez

Self-centeredness will bring on the destruction of our world. National pride separates people. All people need the same thing. When you really get down to it, you’ll find that all people need good food, clean water, clean air, and a decent environment, meaning education as to how to relate to one another and to avoid conflict, how to accept the differences where different people draw different conclusions. – Jacque Fresco

There can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which is within the souls of men. b

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. – Chief Seattle

A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers. – John F. Kennedy

From the errors of other nations, let us learn wisdom. – Thomas Paine

We need more than individual value systems; we need a shared vision. A nation is held together by shared values, shared beliefs, shared attitudes. That is what enables a people to maintain a cohesive society despite the tensions of daily life. That is what enables them to rise above the conflicts that plague any society. – John W. Gardner

If the government were obliged to come to the people for money instead of vice-versa, the people would keep government under control and operate their economy satisfactorily with prosperity and peace resulting. The peoples of the nations do not make war. For them peace is the natural and permanent order. Wars are planned and perpetrated by politicians and their diplomats; and the money power of government is the means by which the people are maneuvered into wars. – E. C. Riegel

After a lifetime of working, raising families, and contributing to the success of this nation in countless other ways, senior citizens deserve to retire with dignity. – Charlie Gonzalez

God made the country, and man made the town. – William Cowper

Peace cannot exist without justice, justice cannot exist without fairness, fairness cannot exist without development, development cannot exist without democracy, democracy cannot exist without respect for the identity and worth of cultures and peoples. – Rigoberta Menchu

As God can send a nation or people no greater blessing than to give them faithful, sincere and upright ministers, so the greatest curse that God can possibly send upon a people in this world is to give them over to blind, unregenerate, carnal, lukewarm and unskilled guides. – George Whitefield

Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Whenever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe. – Elie Wiesel

Labor Day is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race or nation. – Samuel Gompers

I’ve seen the nations rise and fall. I’ve heard their stories, heard them all, but love’s the only engine of survival. – Leonard Cohen

Across the globe there are girls who will one day lead nations, if only we afford them the chance to choose their own destinies. – Barack Obama

Our global future depends on the willingness of every nation to invest in its people, especially women and children. – Hillary Clinton

Once a nation parts with the control of its credit, it matters not who makes the laws. – William Lyon Mackenzie King

The strength of the nation lies in the well-being of the common man. – Diosdado Macapagal

A nation that destroys its own people is a nation without hope. – Pope John Paul II

The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or Geniuses, calling them by the names and adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged & numerous senses could perceive. – William Blake

The human race had always disgusted me. essentially, what made them disgusting was the family-relationship illness, which included marriage, exchange of power and aid, which neighborhood, your district, your city, your county, your state, your nation-everybody grabbing each other’s assholes in the Honeycomb of survival out of a fear-animalistic stupidity. – Charles Bukowski

We never pay anyone Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that plays it is lost! – Rudyard Kipling

Abuse of power isn’t limited to ‘bad guys’ in other nations. It happens in our own country. Those in power get jaded, deluded, and seduced by power itself. I have a reverence for individuality. I’ve always considered myself too individualistic to be either right-wing or left-wing. I like the libertarian view, which is to leave everyone alone. People should be able to be what they want to be and do what they want – as long as they’re not harming other people. I am a libertarian. – Clint Eastwood

The American nation, in its march onward and upward, can not publicly choke the intellectual and political activity of half its citizens by narrow statutes. – Victoria Woodhull

All of us have monarchs and sages for kinsmen; nay, angels and archangels for cousins; since in antediluvian days, the sons of God did verily wed with our mothers, the irresistible daughters of Eve. Thus all generations are blended: and heaven and earth of one kin: the hierarchies of seraphs in the uttermost skies; the thrones and principalities in the zodiac; the shades that roam throughout space; the nations and families, flocks and folds of the earth; one and all, brothers in essence-oh, be we then brothers indeed! All things form but one whole. – Herman Melville

A clean and sensitive conscience, a steady and scrupulous integrity in small things as well as large, is the most valuable of all possessions, to a nation as to an individual. – Henry Van Dyke

The H-bomb rather favors small nations that doesn’t as yet possess it; they feel slightly more free to jostle other nations, having discovered that a country can stick its tongue out quite far these days without provoking war, so horrible are war’s consequences. – E. B. White

The so-called science of poll-taking is not a science at all but mere necromancy. People are unpredictable by nature, and although you can take a nation’s pulse, you can’t be sure that the nation hasn’t just run up a flight of stairs. – E. B. White

Logicians may reason about abstractions. But the great mass of men must have images. The strong tendency of the multitude in all ages and nations to idolatry can be explained on no other principle. – Thomas B. Macaulay

We have to make truth and non-violence not matters for mere individual practice but for practice by groups and communities and nations. That at any rate is my dream. I shall live and die in trying to realize it. My faith helps me to discover new truths every day . – Mahatma Gandhi

A nation will not count the sacrifice it makes, if it supposes it is engaged in a struggle for its fame, its influence and its existence. – Benjamin Disraeli

I was told, continued Egremont, that an impassable gulf divided the Rich from the Poor; I was told that the Privileged and the People formed Two Nations, governed by different laws, influenced by different manners, with no thoughts or sympathies in common; with an innate inability of mutual comprehension. – Benjamin Disraeli

The divine right of kings may have been a plea for feeble tyrants, but the divine right of government is the keystone of human progress, and without it governments sink into police, and a nation is degraded into a mob. – Benjamin Disraeli

A nation usually renews its youth on a political sick-bed, and there finds again the spirit which it had gradually lost in seeking and maintaining power. – Friedrich Nietzsche

Nations! What are nations? Tartars! and Huns! and Chinamen! Like insects they swarm. The historian strives in vain to make them memorable. It is for want of a man that there are so many men. It is individuals that populate the world. – Henry David Thoreau

I must walk toward Oregon, and not toward Europe. And that way the nation is moving, and I may say that mankind progress from east to west. We go eastward to realize history and study the works of art and literature, retracing the steps of the race; we go westward as into the future, with a spirit of enterprise and adventure. – Henry David Thoreau

It is interesting to observe with what singular unanimity the farthest sundered nations and generations consent to give completeness and roundness to an ancient fable, of which they indistinctly appreciate the beauty or the truth. By a faint and dream-like effort, though it be only by the vote of a scientific body, the dullest posterity slowly add some trait to the mythus. As when astronomers call the lately discovered planet Neptune; or the asteroid Astr. – Henry David Thoreau

The best party is but a kind of conspiracy against the rest of the nation. – E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax

The United Nations was set up not to get us to heaven, but only to save us from hell. – Winston Churchill

The one and only substitute for experience which we have not ourselves had is art, literature. We have been given a miraculous faculty: Despite the differences of language, customs and social structure we are able to communicate life experience from one whole nation to another, to communicate a difficult national experience many decades long which the second of the two has never experienced. – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Nations Quotes

  • The introduction of the Christian religion into the world has produced an incalculable change in history. There had previously been only a history of nations — there is now a history of mankind; and the idea of an education of human nature as a whole, — an education the work of Jesus Christ Himself — is become like a compass for the historian, the key of history, and the hope of nations.
    • Jean-Henri Merle d’Aubigné, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 141.
  • Nations, like men, have their infancy.
    • Henry Bolingbroke, Letters on Study and Use of History (1752).
  • Happy are all free peoples, too strong to be dispossessed. But blessed are those among nations who dare to be strong for the rest!
    • Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “A Court Lady”, stanza 20, The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1974), p. 418.
  • If we’re an arrogant nation, they’ll resent us. If we’re a humble nation, but strong, they’ll welcome us.
    • George W. Bush, presidential debate (11 October 2000).
  • The coming of a new life always excites our interest. Although we know in the case of the individual that it has been an infinite repetition reaching back beyond our vision, that only makes it the more wonderful. But how our interest and wonder increase when we behold the miracle of the birth of a new nation.
    • Calvin Coolidge, speech on the Occasion of the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence (5 July 1926).
  • Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together.
    • Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
  • The honor of a nation is an important thing. It is said in the Scriptures, “What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” It may be said, also, What doth it profit a nation if it gain the whole world, but lose its honor?
    • Frederick Douglass, “What the Black Man Wants” (1865)
  • When the architect intends a grand structure, he makes the foundation broad and strong. We should imitate this prudence in laying the foundations of the future republic. There is a law of harmony in all departments of nature. The oak is in the acorn. The career and destiny of individual men are enfolded in the elements of which they are composed. The same is true of a nation. It will be something or it will be nothing. It will be great, or it will be small, according to its own essential qualities. As these are rich and varied, or pure and simple, slender and feeble, broad and strong, so will be the life and destiny of the nation itself. The stream cannot rise higher than its source. The ship cannot sail faster than the wind. The flight of the arrow depends upon the strength and elasticity of the bow, and as with these, so with a nation.
    • Frederick Douglass, Our Composite Nationality (7 December 1869), Boston, Massachusetts
  • As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, And you will be the father of a multitude of nations. “No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. “I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you.…
    • Genesis 17:5.
  • And I will shake all the nations, and the precious things of all the nations will come in; and I will fill this house with glory,’ says Jehovah of armies.
    • Haggai 2:7, NWT
  • Honesty, decency, faithfulness, and comradeship, … must be shown when dealing with those of like blood but to no one else. What happens to a Russian, to a Czech, does not interest me in the slightest. . . . Whether nations live in prosperity or starve to death like cattle interests me only insofar as we need them as slaves for our culture. . . . Whether 10,000 Russian females collapse from exhaustion while digging an antitank ditch interests me only insofar as the antitank ditch for Germany is finished.
    • Heinrich Himmler, cited in Awake! magazine 1987, 3/22, article: The World Since 1914, Part 2; 1929-1934 Worldwide Depression and On to War Again
  • A nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestory and by a common hatred of its neighbors.
    • William Ralph Inge, The Perpetual Pessimist.
  • She gave birth to a son, a male, who is to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod. And her child was snatched away to God and to his throne.
    • John the Evangelist, Revelation 12:5, New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures
  • [T]hough affluence is a good thing, and the spirit of compassionate reform is a good thing, in the end a nation survives only to the extent that the spirit of self-discipline and self-sacrifice is strong and vital.
    • Irving Kristol, memorandum to Robert T. Hartmann (1976)
  • “The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes.”
    • Stanley Kubrick, The Guardian (1963)
  • There are various ways to protect the nation, but nothing more is patriotic than giving one’s life for the nation. This is the best patriotism.
    • Myung-bak Lee, as quoted in “‘Northern Limit Line’ about more than past inter-Korean clash” (29 June 2015), by Ha-young Choi, NK News
  • The law of nations knows of no distinction of color, and if an enemy of the United States should enslave and sell any captured persons of their army, it would be a case for the severest retaliation, if not redressed upon complaint.
    • The Lieber Code of 1863, United States Department of War, 58
  • Come all you true friends of the nation, attend to humanity’s call!
    • “Lincoln and Liberty” (1864)
  • The nation is worth fighting for.
    • Abraham Lincoln, speech to One Hundred Sixty-sixth Ohio Regiment (22 August 1864)
  • Consider what Nation it is whereof ye are, and whereof ye are the governors: a Nation not slow and dull, but of quick, ingenious, and piercing spirit, acute to invent, suttle and sinewy to discours, not beneath the reach of any point the highest that humane capacity can soar to.
    • John Milton, Aeropagitica (1644)
  • If it is worth a bloody struggle to establish this nation, it is worth one to preserve it.
    • Oliver P. Morton, speech (22 November 1860), as quoted in Indiana in the Civil War Era, 1850–1880: History of Indiana III (1995), by Emma Lou Thornbrough. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, p. 102
  • No man has a right to fix the boundary of the march of a nation; no man has a right to say to his country – thus far shalt thou go and no further.
    • Charles Stewart Parnell, speech (1885)
  • What do we call a nation? – People who are of the same origin and who speak the same words and who live and make friends of each other, who have the same customs and songs and entertainment are what we call a nation, and the place where that people lives is called the people’s country.
    • Georgi Pulevski, Dictionary of Three languages: Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish (1875)
  • Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
    • “The Star-Spangled Banner”, by Francis Scott Key.
  • No nation can plan its future without coming to terms with its past.
    • Amir Taheri, “Opinion: Iran must confront its past to move forwards”, Ashraq Al-Awsat (February 6, 2015).
  • We shall have to learn again to be one nation, or one day we shall be no nation.
    • Margaret Thatcher, Conservative Party television broadcast “Winter of Discontent” (January 17, 1979).
  • You can construct a nation on an idea; but you cannot reconstruct a nation on the basis of one.
    • Margaret Thatcher, speech at Hoover Institution lunch (8 March 1991)
  • From a single crime know the nation.
    • Virgil [Publius Vergilius Maro] (70-19 B.C.), Roman poet. Aeneid, Book. 2, line 65.
  • No nation is fit to sit in judgement upon any other nation.
    • Woodrow Wilson, speech (1915).
  • Look! The nations are like a drop from a bucket,
    And as the film of dust on the scales they are regarded.
    Look! He lifts up the islands like fine dust.

    • Book of Isaiah 40:15.
  • Nations will certainly go to your light, and kings to the brightness of your shining forth.
    • Book of Isaiah 60:3
  • The little one will become a thousand, and the small one a mighty nation. I myself, Jehovah, will speed it up in its own time.
    • Book of Isaiah 60:22.
  • In those days ten men out of all the languages of the nations will take hold, yes, they will take firm hold of the robe of a Jew, saying: “We want to go with you, for we have heard that God is with you people.
    • Book of Zechariah 8:23.
  • Not gold but only men can make
    A people great and strong;
    Men who for truth and honor’s sake
    Stand fast and suffer long.Brave men who work while others sleep,
    Who dare while others fly—
    They build a nation’s pillars deep
    And lift them to the sky.

    • Ralph Waldo Emerson, “A Nation’s Strength”, stanzas 5 and 6. Masterpieces of Religious Verse, ed. James Dalton Morrison, p. 459 (1948). Granger’s Index to Poetry, 6th ed., p. 898 (1973) says the author is unknown and that this is wrongly attributed to Emerson; the poem is not found in Emerson’s Complete Works (1903).
  • Cleanse the body of this nation
    Through the glory of the Lord.

    • Henry Scott Holland, “Judge Eternal, Throned in Splendor”. Service Book and Hymnal of the Lutheran Church in America, music ed., no. 343 (1958).
  • Complete equality of rights for all nations; the right of nations to self-determination; the unity of the workers of all nations—such is the national program that Marxism, the experience of the whole world, and the experience of Russia, teach the workers.
    • Vladimir Lenin, “The Right of Nations to Self-Determination”, reported in Vladimir Lenin; Doug Lorimer (2002). Marxism & Nationalism. Resistance Books, p. 125. ISBN 1876646136.
  • Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts, the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the last.
    • John Ruskin, St. Mark’s Rest: The History of Venice, Preface p. 1 (1885).
  • A nation that can not preserve itself ought to die, and it will die—die in the grasp of the evils it is too feeble to overthrow.
    • Morris Sheppard, remarks in the Senate (December 18, 1914), Congressional Record, vol. 52, p. 338.
  • What defines a people is not race, not tradition, not geography, but the free choice of a group of human beings to live together as fellow citizens.
    • Thomas G. West, Vindicating the Founders (2001), Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., p. 28.
  • Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.
    • Author unknown. Attributed to Benjamin Disraeli. Reported as unverified in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989).
  • I know three things must always be
    To keep a nation strong and free.
    One is a hearthstone bright and dear,
    With busy, happy loved ones near.
    One is a ready heart and hand
    To love, and serve, and keep the land.
    is a worn and beaten way
    where the people go to pray.
    long as these are kept alive,
    Nation and people will survive.
    God keep them always, everywhere—
    The home, the heart, the place of prayer.

    • Author unknown, “Three Things”, Sourcebook of Poetry (1968), comp. Al Bryant, p. 514. A variation of this poem appeared in the Congressional Record, January 14, 1959, vol. 105, Appendix, p. A144.

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