WIST Quotations https://wist.info Wish I'd Said That! Fri, 06 Nov 2026 23:54:09 +0000 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4 https://wist.info/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/little-w-little-box-60x60.jpg flag-waving – WIST Quotations https://wist.info 32 32 43606282 Johnson, Samuel -- Comment (1775-04-07) https://wist.info/johnson-samuel/2148/ https://wist.info/johnson-samuel/2148/#comments Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=2148 Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

johnson patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel wist.info quote


Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Comment (1775-04-07)

In James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791). The full quote:

Patriotism having become one of our topicks, Johnson suddenly uttered, in a strong determined tone, an apophthegm, at which many will start: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." But let it be considered, that he did not mean a real and generous love of our country, but that pretended patriotism which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak of self-interest.

Ambrose Bierce wrote in his Devil's Dictonary, under "Patriotism," "In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first."

The saying is famous and noteworthy enough that many others have riffed on it beyond Bierce: see Wilde (and again), Roosevelt, Broun, Asimov, Ericsson, Lewis, and Ehrenreich. ]]> https://wist.info/johnson-samuel/2148/feed/ 2 2148