Weak and oppressed nations are fundamentally spiritual; strong nations are, as a rule, chiefly materialistic.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
It has been said that a nation reveals its character by the values it upholds.
Power is not just political. It can be cultural; it can be spiritual.
Nations have always good reasons for being what they are, and the best of all is that they cannot be otherwise.
No government can be strong and flourishing while the national character is weak and degraded. A government must flourish and decay with its subjects; and, when a prince makes a law or performs an action which has a tendency to injure the character or prosperity of the nation, he injures himself.
The strong do what they have to do and the weak accept what they have to accept.
Just as a man would not cherish living in a body other than his own, so do nations not like to live under other nations, however noble and great the latter may be.
The strength of the nation ultimately depends upon the strength of family and community.
A good nationalism has to depend on a principle of the common people, on myths of a struggling commonality.
Nations, like individuals in a state of nature, are equal and independent, possessing certain rights and owing certain duties to each other.
A nation' s strength ultimately consists in what it can do on its own, and not in what it can borrow from others.