Saturday, June 18, 2005

On patriotism

PATRIOTISM, n.
Combustible rubbish read to the torch of any
one ambitious to illuminate his name.

In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism
is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With
all due respect to an enlightened but inferior
lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary