[Patriotism] ...is a word which always commemorates a robbery. There isn't a foot of land in the world which doesn't represent the ousting and re-ousting of a longline of successive "owners" who each in turn, as "patriots" with proud swelling hearts defended it against the next gang of "robbers" who came to steal it and did -- and became swelling-hearted patriots in their turn.
Notebook, 26 May 1896
![[Patriotism] ...is a word which always commemorates a robbery. There isn't a foot of land in the world which doesn't represent the ousting and re-ousting of a longline of successive owners who each in turn, as patriots](http://cdn.quoteddaily.com/images/mark-twain/patriotism-is-a-word-which-always-commemorates-a-robbery-there-isnt-a-foot-of-land-in-the-world-which-doesnt.jpg)