“The cheapest form of pride, however, is national pride; for if a man is proud of his nation, it argues that he has no qualities of his own of which he can be proud; otherwise he would not have recourse to those which he shares with so many millions of his fellowmen. Those who have significant personal merits will see most clearly the flaws of their nation, as they are constantly before their eyes. But every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud adopts, as a last resort, pride in the nation to which he happens to belong; he is ready and glad to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.”
— Arthur Schopenhauer, The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer: The Wisdom of Life
Forwarded fromDisobey
6May 7, 2025 585 9
