You see my kind of loyalty was loyalty to one’s country, not to its institutions or its office-holders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, ch. 13 “Freemen!” (1889)
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