Country

South Africa's decisions will be made by South Africa's leaders, and the leaders of South Africa will themselves decide what is in our interests. Reform can only be retarded by outside attempts to interfere.
~ Pieter Willem (P.W.) Botha, The Los Angeles Times (10 September 1985).

The essence of patriotism lies in a willingness to sacrifice for one's country, just as true greatness finds expression, not in blessings enjoyed, but in good bestowed.
~ William Jennings Bryan, Memorial Day Address. Arlington Cemetery, Washington, DC (30 May 1894).

Thanks, for a country where nobody is allowed to mind his own business. Thanks, for a nation of finks.
~ William S. Burroughs

When the weather is mild, they stand leaning with both their arms upon the cornfield fence, and gravely consider whether they had best go and take a small heat at the hoe, but generally find reasons to put it off till another time. Thus, they loiter away their lives, like Solomon's sluggard, with their arms across, and at the winding up of the year scarcely have bread to eat.
~ Colonel William Byrd (in his 1728 journal, perhaps describing the original backcountry "redneck"), in The Westover Manuscripts (1841). History of the Dividing Line

And it's hypocritical, on the one side, to say "Let's unite as a country" and on the other to continue to practice discrimination.
~ Bill Campbell, FoxNews Channel, Hannity & Colmes (5 December 2001). Misquote?

There was nothing but land: not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made.
~ Willa Sibert Cather, My Antonia (1918).

The tie of country is thought to absolve men from the obligations of universal justice and humanity. Statesmen and rulers are expected to build up their own country at the expense of others; and, in the false patriotism of the citizen, they have a security for any outrages, which are sanctioned by success.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), Address to the Congregational Ministers of Massachusetts, Boston MA (1816). First Discourse on War

I nauseate walking; 'tis a country diversion, I loathe the country, and everything that relates to it.
~ William Congreve, The Way of the World (1700). Act IV, scene i

England, with all thy faults I love thee still,
My country!
~ William Cowper, The Task (1785). Book II. The Time-Piece

Patriots have toil'd, and in their country's cause
Bled nobly; and their deeds, as they deserve,
Receive proud recompence. We give in charge
Their names to the sweet lyre.
~ William Cowper, The Task (1785). Book V. The Winter Morning Walk

They love the country, and none else, who seek
For their own sake its silence and its shade.
~ William Cowper, The Task (1785). Book III. The Garden

A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.
~ George William Curtis

It may be true that you can't fool all the people all the time, but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country.
~ William James "Will" Durant

What this country needs is money!
~ W.C. Fields, in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break: W.C. Fields on Business (January 2000).

The citizen who criticizes his country is paying it an implied tribute.
~ J. William Fulbright, Speech to the American Newspaper Publishers Association (28 April 1966).

My country is the world; my countrymen are mankind.
~ William Lloyd Garrison, Prospectus of the Public Liberator (1830).

Our country is the world, our countrymen all mankind. We love the land of our nativity, only as we love all other lands. The interests, rights, and liberties of American citizens are no more dear to us, than are those of the whole human race.
~ William Lloyd Garrison, Declaration of Sentiments, Boston Peace Conference (1838).

The love of our country, if we would speak accurately, is another of those specious illusions, which have been invented by impostors in order to render the multitude the blind instruments of their crooked designs.
~ William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793).

There's all sorts of people around this world one might want gone. But there is also an international world out there in which one operates. You don't just point around and say, "hey, I'd like all those folks gone. Now, I'm going to take them out." I don't think that's the way the world operates, and I don't think it's the way the United States intends to operate, and it's certainly not the way Canada operates.
~ William Graham, United Press International (14 February 2002). Powell explains muddled Iraq policy

I hate the countrie's dirt and manners, yet
I love the silence; I embrace the wit;
A courtship, flowing here in full tide.
But loathe the expense, the vanity and pride.
No place each way is happy.
~ William Habington, To my Noblest Friend, I.C. Esquire

There is nothing good to be had in the country, or, if there be, they will not let you have it. They had rather injure themselves than oblige any one else.
~ William Hazlitt, from The Round Table (1817). Observations on Mr. Wordsworth's poem, 'The Excursion.'

Like other idealisms, patriotism varies from a noble devotion to a moral lunacy.
~ William Ralph (Dean) Inge, from Outspoken Essays, First Series (1919). Our Present Discontents

A Zeal for our Country is glorious, but a Spirit of Faction infamous.
~ William Livingston, The Independent Reflector (22 February 1753). Of Party Divisions

I do think the patriotic thing to do is to critique my country. How else do you make a country better but by pointing out its flaws?
~ Bill Maher, The Washington Post (November 2002).

To me a real patriot is like a real friend. Who's your real friend? It's the person who tells you the truth. That's who my real friends are. So, you know, I think as far as our country goes, we need more people who will do that.
~ Bill Maher, The San Francisco Chronicle (19 February 2003). 'Time' right for Maher comeback

Law and Order is like patriotism -- anyone who comes on strong about patriotism has got something to hide; it never fails. They always turn out to be a crook or an asshole or a traitor or something.
~ William H. (Bill) Mauldin

The Country is both the Philosopher's Garden and his Library, in which he Reads and Contemplates the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693).

The country life is to be preferred, for there we see the works of God; but in cities little else but the works of men. And the one makes a better subject for contemplation than the other.
~ William Penn

If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms -- never! never! never!
~ William Pitt, the Elder, Speech, House of Lords (18 November 1777).

Bohemia is nothing more than the little country in which you do not live. If you try to obtain citizenship in it, at once the court and retinue pack the royal archives and treasure and move away beyond the hills.
~ William Sydney Porter (O. Henry), The Trimmed Lamp (1907). The Country of Elusion

I'm just an old country boy in a big town trying to get along. I have been eating pretty regular and the reason I have is because I have stayed an old country boy.
~ Will Rogers

This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as we do when the baby gets hold of the hammer. It's just a question of how much damage he can do with it before we can take it away from him.
~ Will Rogers, Quoted in Will Rogers: His Life and Times (1949).

What the country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds.
~ Will Rogers, Quoted in Criswell Freeman The Wisdom of the West (1973).

You got to do more than just live in the country to be a Farmer.
~ Will Rogers

Fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong.
~ Billy Rose & Willie Raskin, (Song title, 1927).

This England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror,
But when it first did help to wound itself.
Now these her princes are come home again,
Come the three corners of the world in arms,
And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue,
If England to itself do rest but true.
~ William Shakespeare, King John. Act V, scene vii

Who is here so vile, that will not love his country?
~ William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

If you ever live in a country run by a committee, be on the committee.
~ William Graham Sumner

The things that are wrong with the country today are the sum total of all the things that are wrong with us as individuals.
~ Charles William Tobey

My father asserted that there was no better place to bring up a family than in a rural environment. . . . There's something about getting up at 5 a.m., feeding the stock and chickens, and milking a couple of cows before breakfast that gives you a lifelong respect for the price of butter and eggs.
~ William E. "Bill" Vaughan

As Governor of my country I have been an enemy to its enemies; I have slain the English; I have mortally opposed the English King; I have stormed and taken the towns and castles which he unjustly claimed as his own. If I or my soldiers have plundered or done injury to the houses or ministers of religion, I repent me of my sin; but it is not of Edward of England I shall ask pardon.
~ William Wallace, (23 August 1305).

This is my country.
~ Duke William of Normandy, at The Battle of Hastings (27 September 1066).

I do think I am a country boy at heart. I love the buzz of towns and going out with friends and sitting with them drinking and whatever -- it's fun -- but, at the same time, I like space and freedom.
~ Prince William, Interview to the Press Association (30 May 2003).

India though it has more than five hundred spoken dialects, has only one sacred language and only one sacred literature, accepted and revered by all adherence of Hinduism alike, however diverse in race, dialect, rank and creed. That language is Sanskrit and Sanskrit literature, the only repository of the Veda or knowledge in its widest sense, the only vehicle of Hindu mythology, philosophy, law, the mirror in which all the creeds, opinions, and customs and usages of the Hindus are faithfully reflected and the only quarry whence the requisite materials may be obtained for improving the vernaculars or for expressing important religious and scientific ideas.
~ Sir Monier-Williams, Hinduism (1897).

'Country' and 'city' are very powerful words, and this is not surprising when we remember how much they seem to stand for in the experience of human communities. In English, 'country' is both a nation and a part of a 'land'; 'the country' can be the whole society or its rural area. In the long history of human settlements, this connection between the land from which directly or indirectly we all get our living and the achievements of human society has been deeply known.
~ Raymond Williams, The Country and the City (1973).

The true lover of a country does not leave it in its time of peril. The patriot is not one who thinks a country must be perfect in order to deserve his allegiance. Patriots are often critics of their country, since they feel so deeply that it is worth protections.
~ Garry Wills, Why I Am a Catholic (2003).

She was more than ever proud of the position of the bungalow, so almost in the country.
~ Angus Wilson

Out of Ireland have we come.
Great hatred, little room,
Maimed us at the start.
~ William Butler Yeats, Remorse for Intemperate Speech (1933).

My country is Kiltartan Cross;
My countrymen Kiltartan's poor!
~ William Butler Yeats, from The Wild Swans at Coole (1917). An Irish Airman Foresees his Death

That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees --
Those dying generations -- at their song.
~ William Butler Yeats, from The Tower (1928). Sailing to Byzantium