Patriotism Quotes
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Whether you're chasing the American Dream or fascinated by dystopian societies, we've got you covered. Click on any patriotism quote below to see it in context and find out where it falls on Shmoop's pretentious scale. We'll give you details on who said it, when they said it, and in some cases, why on earth they thought it was okay to say it.



"And they brought us whole binders full of women."Source: 2012 Presidential Debate | Speaker: Mitt Romney

"Anything worth dying for...is certainly worth living for."Source: Catch-22 | Author: Joseph Heller

"As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again."Source: Gone with the Wind | Author: Margaret Mitchell

"Bye, bye Miss American Pie"Source: American Pie | Speaker: Don McLean

"Captain, it is I, Ensign Pulver, and I just threw your stinking palm tree overboard. Now, what's all this crud about no movie tonight?"Source: Mister Roberts | Speaker: Frank Pulver

"Democracy is so overrated."Source: House of Cards | Speaker: Frank Underwood

"Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes!"Source: Battle of Bunker Hill | Speaker: William Prescott



"Earn this. Earn it."Source: Saving Private Ryan | Speaker: Captain James Miller


"Give me liberty, or give me death!"Source: Virginia Convention in Richmond on March 20, 1775 | Speaker: Patrick Henry

"Good morning, Vietnam!"Source: Good Morning, Vietnam | Speaker: Adrian Cronauer


"Greed is good."Source: Wall Street | Speaker: Gordon Gekko

"History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it."Source: Misquoted | Speaker: Winston Churchill

"Hitler didn't snub me—it was our president who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram."Source: A Republican Rally in Baltimore, Maryland | Speaker: Jesse Owens

"I can see Russia from my house!"Source: TV Interview | Speaker: Sarah Palin

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."Speaker: Voltaire

"I don't care who you are, where you're from, what you did, as long as you love me"Source: "As Long As You Love Me" | Speaker: Backstreet Boys

"I have not yet begun to fight."Source: Spoken on September 23, 1779 | Speaker: Captain John Paul Jones

"I love it when a plan comes together."Source: The A-Team | Speaker: John "Hannibal" Smith

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning."Source: Apocalypse Now | Speaker: Bill Kilgore

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy."Source: 1780 Letter | Author: John Adams

"I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."Source: Spoken before his death | Speaker: Nathan Hale

"I'm here to fight for truth and justice and the American Way."Source: Superman | Speaker: Superman

"If they move, kill 'em."Source: The Wild Bunch | Speaker: Pike Bishop

"Into the valley of Death / Rode the six hundred"Source: The Charge of the Light Brigade | Author: Alfred Lord Tennyson

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."Source: 1984 | Author: George Orwell



"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."Source: Trade Mart speech (undelivered) | Speaker: John F. Kennedy

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."Source: Speech to the House of Commons, August 20, 1940 | Speaker: Winston Churchill

"Nip it in the bud!"Source: The Andy Griffith Show | Speaker: Barney Fife

"Oh Philadelphia freedom, shine on me, I love you."Source: "Philadelphia Freedom" | Speaker: Elton John

"Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die."Source: Speech to the 23rd Republican National Convention (June 1944) | Speaker: Herbert Hoover

"Politics is the art of the possible."Source: St. Petersburgische Zeitung | Author: Prince Otto von Bismarck

"Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."Source: 1988 Vice Presidential Debate | Speaker: Lloyd Bentsen


"Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once."Source: The Great Gatsby | Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Struggle is a never-ending process. Freedom is never really won. You earn it and win it in every generation."Source: My Life with Martin Luther King Jr. | Author: Coretta Scott King

"That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."Source: The Gettysburg Address | Author: Abraham Lincoln


"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."Source: FDR's Inauguration Speech | Speaker: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."Source: Letter to Col. William S. Smith, November 13, 1787 | Author: Thomas Jefferson

"The truth is...I am Iron Man."Source: Iron Man | Speaker: Tony Stark

"There can be only one."Source: Highlander | Speaker: The Kurgan

"Things don't happen, they are made to happen."Source: University of North Dakota Address | Speaker: John F. Kennedy

"This is the people's war!"Source: Mrs. Miniver | Speaker: The Vicar


"Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious."Source: 1984 | Author: George Orwell

"War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over."Source: Speech to the Mayor and Councilmen of Atlanta (1864) | Speaker: William Tecumseh Sherman

"We must guard against […] unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex."Source: Eisenhower's Farewell Address | Speaker: Dwight Eisenhower

"We shall never surrender."Source: We Shall Fight on the Beaches speech (June 1940) | Speaker: Winston Churchill


"We'll never be royals."Source: "Royals" | Speaker: Lorde

"We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything."Source: Lord of the Flies | Author: William Golding

"What I do have is a particular set of skills."Source: Taken | Speaker: Bryan Mills



"You can feel it all over. You can feel it all over, people."Source: Sir Duke | Speaker: Stevie Wonder

"You think I'm licked. You all think I'm licked. Well, I'm not licked."Source: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington | Speaker: Jefferson Smith