Chesterton on Patriotism

"My country, right or wrong," no patriot would think of saying.... It is like saying "My mother, drunk or sober." No doubt if a decent man's mother took to drink he would share her troubles to the last; but to talk as if he would be in a state of gay indifference as to whether his mother took to drink or not is certainly not the language of men who know the great mystery."

G.K. Chesterton, The Defendant