Blaise Pascal

All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.

Howard Zinn, Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1991)

If patriotism were defined, not as blind obedience to government, nor as submissive worship to flags and anthems, but rather as love of one's country, one's fellow citizens (all over the world), as loyalty to the principles of justice and democracy, then patriotism would require us to disobey our government, when it violated those principles.

New York City Mayor John Lindsay at Columbia University (October 1969)

We cannot rest content with the charge from Washington that this peaceful protest is unpatriotic... The fact is that this dissent is the highest form of patriotism.

The Use of Force in International Affairs (1961 Publication)

If what your country is doing seems to you practically and morally wrong, is dissent the highest form of patriotism?

Howard Zinn (2002)

While some people think that dissent is unpatriotic, I would argue that dissent is the highest form of patriotism. In fact, if patriotism means being true to the principles for which your country is supposed to stand, then certainly the right to dissent is one of those principles. And if we're exercising that right to dissent, it's a patriotic act.

Thomas Jefferson

Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.