Who said? "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
Wrong Johnson, Max. In was Samuel Johnson (Boswell's Life, April 7, 1775).
However, Johnson recognized that a principle may be perfectly valid, and is not responsible for the idiots or schoundrels who may espouse it. The full quote from Boswell:
Patriotism having become one of our topicks, Johnson suddenly uttered, in a strong determined tone, an apophthegm, at which many will start: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." But let it be considered that he did not mean a real and generous love of our country, but that pretended patriotism which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak of self-interest.
In a more humorous vein is Ambrose Bierce's gloss on Johnson. "In Dr. Johnson’s famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first."
For another gloss: "No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of
patriots." -- Barbara Ehrenreich
