| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
| |
| |
| NUMBER: | 26430 |
| QUOTATION: | Nationalism is militant hatred. It is not love of our countrymen: that, which denotes good citizenship, philanthropy, practical religion, should go by the name of patriotism. Nationalism is passionate xenophobia. It is fanatical, as all forms of idol-worship are bound to be. And fanaticism—l’infame denounced by Voltaire—obliterates or reverses the distinction between good and evil. Patriotism, the desire to work for the common weal, can be, must be, reasonable: “My country, may she be right!” Nationalism spurns reason: “Right or wrong, my country.” |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Albert L. Guerard (b. 1914), U.S. author, educator. “The Paradoxes of Nationalism,” Fossils and Presences, Stanford University Press (1957). |
| |
| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
|
|
