兲朝屁民
Where and when did Samuel Johnson say this? Why is it right or wrong? Samuel Johnson said: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."A young Chinese man told me ever, this saying of Samuel Johnson is wrong. He said to me: "As well as we known, Americans are the most patriotic people in the world, according to such logic of Samuel Johnson's saying, would not it mean that most Americans are scoundrels?" I did not know how to answer him. Please advise me.Thank you, Eliot. You're Justified, you should be right. But I would also like to know the background about the sentence, where and when?Thank you very much, Eliot. http://www.samueljohnson.com/refuge.html Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Boswell tells us that Samuel Johnson made this famous pronouncement that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel on the evening of April 7, 1775. He doesn't provide any context for how the remark arose, so we don't really know for sure what was on Johnson's mind at the time. However, Boswell assures us that Johnson was not indicting patriotism in general, only false patriotism. For more of Samuel Johnson's thoughts on patriotism in general, go to the patriotism page. http://www.samueljohnson.com/patrioti.html For a discussion on a possible false patriot who Johnson might have been thinking of, see this discussion. http://www.samueljohnson.com/qotw02q2.html#0630 For more on Johnson's politics, click here. http://www.samueljohnson.com/politics
Jan 24, 2011 6:58 AM
Answers · 8
2
Ha ha ha. He is 150% right! How do Chinese politicians incite the people to hatred? Ahem. I disagree about the Americans being the most patriotic people in the world. Maybe the scoundrels there are patriotic, but I don't know too much about them. I've been a number of places, and seen patriotism to various degrees. It IS the last refuge of the scoundrel. When there is absolutely no reason left for the scoundrel to murder, plunder, rape, etc, he'll do it for his country.
January 24, 2011
Any claim by any wise man could be "wrong" sometimes, and "right" sometimes, you know? It's never hard to find a story to argue any awesome sayings of theirs. You just need to find one that fits your current mood or helps you in the argument that you're in. That's what great sayings in history are for. You never guarantee they are always right in all cases. Maybe patriotism is indeed a refuge of bastard A, but maybe it is not the last one for sob B. Do you need me to grab you an American loser, asking him "are you a f-up but think yourself a patriot?"
January 24, 2011
Thank you very much, Eliot.
January 24, 2011
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