"There is no greater sign of a general decay of virtue in a nation, than a want of zeal in its inhabitants for the good of their country. This generous and publick-spirited passion has been observed of late years to languish and grow cold in this our Island; where a party of men have made it their business to represent it as chimerical and romantic, to destroy in the minds of the people the sense of national glory, and to turn into ridicule our natural and ancient Allies, who are united to us by the common interests both of religion and policy. It may not therefore be unseasonable to recommend to this present generation the practice of that virtue, for which their ancestors were particularly famous, and which is called The love of one's country. This love to our country, as a moral virtue, is a fixed disposition of mind to promote the safety, welfare, and reputation of the community in which we are born, and of the constitution under which we are protected."
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Original Language: English
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Sources
Joseph Addison, The Freeholder, No. 5 (6 January 1716), quoted in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; Volume the Fourth (1721), p. 371
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Patriotism
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Patriotism
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