Portrait of Richard Price

Richard Price on the true Nature of Love of One’s Country (1789)

Found in: A Discourse on the Love of Our Country

In a sermon given in 1789, Richard Price distinguished between “true” and “false” patriotism, namely between love of one;s country and the “spirit of rivalship”:

Politics & Liberty

It is proper I should desire you particularly to distinguish between the love of our country and that spirit of rivalship and ambition which has been common among nations. What has the love of their country hitherto been among mankind? What has it been but a love of domination; a desire of conquest, and a thirst for grandeur and glory, by extending territory, and enslaving surrounding countries?