

“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, but your government only when it deserves it.”
Address to the Male Teachers Association of the City of New York · 1901
reported in The New York Times
Traced to Address to the Male Teachers Association of the City of New York (1901).
More from Mark Twain
“The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.”
Mark Twain
What Is Man? · 1906
verified“There isn't time — so brief is life — for bickerings, apologies, heartburnings, callings to account. There is only time for loving — and but an instant, so to speak, for that.”
Mark Twain
Letter to Clara Spaulding · 1886
verified“Fame is a vapor; popularity an accident; the only earthly certainty is oblivion.”
Mark Twain
Mark Twain's Notebook · 1935
verified“Education consists mainly in what we have unlearned.”
Mark Twain
Mark Twain's Notebook · 1935
verified“You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”
Mark Twain
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court · 1889
verified“Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion a child's loss of a doll and a king's loss of a crown are events of the same size.”
Mark Twain
Which Was the Dream? · 1898
verifiedMore Leadership quotes
“Let the nation try justice and the problem will be solved.”
Frederick Douglass
Lessons of the Hour · 1894
verified“What I ask for the negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice.”
Frederick Douglass
What the Black Man Wants · 1865
verified“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
I Have a Dream · 1963
verified“Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice.”
Nelson Mandela
Speech for the 'Make Poverty History' campaign · 2005
verified“If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.”
Nelson Mandela
Long Walk to Freedom · 1995
verified“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
Nelson Mandela
I Am Prepared to Die (statement from the dock at the Rivonia Trial) · 1964
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