Teddy Roosevelt, Ben Franklin, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt on crony capitalism, Egypt, and the rest of the non-democratic world

Patriotism means to stand by the country.

It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official
save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country.

It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country.

It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent
that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country.

Teddy Roosevelt

Those who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Ben Franklin

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President,
or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong,
is not only unpatriotic and servile,
but is morally treasonable to the American public.

Teddy Roosevelt

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it.

Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government,
they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it,
or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.

Abraham Lincoln

These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America.

What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power.

Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power.

In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution.

In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for.

Franklin Roosevelt