Countries

Countries are regions legally identified as distinct entities in political geography. A country may be an independent sovereign state or one that is occupied by another state, as a non-sovereign or formerly sovereign political division, or a geographic region associated with a previously independent people with distinct political characteristics. Regardless of the physical geography, in the modern internationally accepted legal definition as defined by the League of Nations in 1937 and reaffirmed by the United Nations in 1945, a resident of a country is subject to the independent exercise of legal jurisdiction, while "Any person visiting a country, other than that in which he usually resides, for a period of at least 24 hours" is defined as a 'foreign tourist'. It is not uncommon for general information or statistical publications to adopt the wider definition for purposes such as illustration and comparison.

Sourced

• I can't but say it is an awkward sight
  To see one's native land receding through
  The growing waters; it unmans one quite,
  Especially when life is rather new.
  • Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto II (1819), stanza 12.

• Yon Sun that sets upon the sea
  We follow in his flight;
  Farewell awhile to him and thee,
  My native land—Good Night!
  • Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-1818), Canto I, stanza 13.

• Oh, Christ! it is a goodly sight to see
  What Heaven hath done for this delicious land!
  • Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-1818), Canto I, stanza 15.

• And nobler is a limited command,
  Given by the love of all your native land,
  Than a successive title, long and dark,
  Drawn from the mouldy rolls of Noah's Ark.
  • John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel (1681), Part I, line 299.

• So the loud torrent, and the whirlwind's roar,
  But bind him to his native mountains more.
  • Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller (1764), line 207.

• Breathes there the man with soul so dead,
  Who never to himself hath said,
  This is my own, my native land!
  Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd,
  As home his footsteps he hath turn'd,
  From wandering on a foreign strand!
  • Walter Scott, Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), Canto VI, Stanza 1.

• Land of my sires! what mortal hand
  Can e'er untie the filial band
  That knits me to thy rugged strand!
  • Walter Scott, Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), Canto VI, Stanza 2.

• My foot is on my native heath, and my name is MacGregor.
  • Walter Scott, Rob Roy (1817), Chapter XXXIV.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 141-42.

• There ought to be a system of manners in every nation which a well-formed mind would be disposed to relish. To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.
  • Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), Volume III, p. 100.

• My dear, my native soil!
  For whom my warmest wish to Heav'n is sent,
  Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil
  Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content!
  • Robert Burns, The Cotter's Saturday Night (1786), stanza 20.

• There came to the beach a poor Exile of Erin,
  The dew on his thin robe was heavy and chill;
  For his country he sigh'd, when at twilight repairing,
  To wander alone by the wind-beaten hill.
• Thomas Campbell, The Exile of Erin.

• From the lone shielding on the misty island
  Mountains divide us, and the waste of seas—
  But still the blood is strong, the heart is Highland,
  And we in dreams behold the Hebrides.
  • Canadian Boat Song. First appeared in Blackwood's Magazine, September 1829. Attributed to John G. Lockhart, John Galt and Earl of Eglington (died 1819). Founded on Eglington's lines according to Prof. Mackinnon. Also in article in Tait's Magazine (1849). Wording changed by Skelton.

• Patria est, ubicunque est bene.
  Our country is wherever we are well off.
  • Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes V. 37, quoting Pacuvius. Same quoted by Aristophanes, Plautus, Euripides, Fragmenta Incerta.

• He made all countries where he came his own.
  • John Dryden, Astræa Redux, line 76.

• They love their land, because it is their own,
  And scorn to give aught other reason why;
  Would shake hands with a king upon his throne,
  And think it kindness to his majesty.
  • Fitz-Greene Halleck, Connecticut.

• To be really cosmopolitan a man must be at home even in his own country.
  • Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Short Studies of American Authors, Henry James, Jr.

• Patriæ quis exul se quoque fugit.
  What exile from his country is able to escape from himself?
  • Horace, Carmina II. 16. 19.

• Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,
  Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
  Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,
  Are all with thee,-are all with thee!
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,The Building of the Ship.

• Who dare to love their country, and be poor.
  • Alexander Pope, On his Grotto at Twickenham.

• Un enfant en ouvrant ses yeux doit voir la patrie, et jusqu'à la mort ne voir qu'elle.
  The infant, on first opening his eyes, ought to see his country, and to the hour of his death never lose sight of it.
  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

• La patrie est aux lieux où l'âme est enchainée. (Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound).
  • Voltaire, Le Fanatisme. I. 2.