Quote#Homeland
I can never join with my voice in the toast which I see in the papers…
Quote byJohn Quincy Adams · 1767–1848
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Letter to his father, John Adams (1 August 1816), referring to the popular phrase "My Country, Right or Wrong!" based upon Stephen Decatur's famous statement "Our Country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right, but our country, right or wrong." The Latin phrase is on.
English (original)
I can never join with my voice in the toast which I see in the papers attributed to one of our gallant naval heroes. I cannot ask of heaven success, even for my country, in a cause where she should be in the wrong. Fiat justitia, pereat coelum. My toast would be, may our country always be successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right.
— John Quincy Adams
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