Quotations about Patriotism and Leadership

Patriotism
You love your country when you try to hold it to its own high standards.  You love your country when you demand that it admits its mistakes and learn from them.  You love your country when you refuse to relax into easy platitudes and indulge in the comfort of historical amnesia.
(Eric Zorn --Chicago Tribune 19, Section 1, Wednesday Feb. 25, 2015)

What does it mean to love one's country?  ...It doesn't mean never criticizing one's country.
(William A. Galston.  WSJ A11, Wed. 25, 2015)

My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to set right.
(Sen. Carl Schurz in the 19th century)

To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.
(Edmund Burke)

To the extent that our country's beauty is flawed, we strengthen that love by working to remove its blemishes....Citizens inevitably move from love of country because it is their own to assertions of national superiority.  Sometimes these claims are warranted.  But beyond their due bounds, they become arrogant and dangerous....Criticizing the nation to help make it better and stronger is preferable to blind devotion.  
(William A. Galston)

Leading a Country
 Seek truth-tellers rather than flatterers for friendship.
(Plutarch)

Leaders should shun yes-men and seek counsel from those willing to offer frank criticism when warranted.
(Machiavelli)


In a democracy, voters who seek only adulation from their leaders can be equally worrisome.

Flattery of leaders might lead to recklessness, but flattery of the populace can breed complacency.
The president's job is not just to tell us how great and exceptional we are, it is to motivate us to become even greater, even more exceptional, and to show us how to get there.
(Catherine Rampell, Washington Post Opinion Columnist)

Related post:

Tuesday March 1, 2011 "Patriotism, nationalism, and Internationalism."