In recent years we have been served up a lot of claptrap about the need for a national identity. We have been urged to sing imbecile jingles, flex ou… - Patrick White

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In recent years we have been served up a lot of claptrap about the need for a national identity. We have been urged to sing imbecile jingles, flex our muscles like the sportsmen from telly commercials, and display a heart optimism totally unconvincing because so superficial an unnatural. Those who preach this doctrine are usually the kind of chauvinist who is preparing his country, not to avert war, but to engage in it.

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About Patrick White

Patrick Victor Martindale White (28 May 1912 – 30 September 1990) was an Australian novelist and winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Biography information from Wikiquote

Also Known As

Birth Name: Patrick Victor Martindale White
Alternative Names: Alex Xenophon Demirjian Gray
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Additional quotes by Patrick White

Many of those who hear me believe I am putting on an act, while others who had considered I am one who surely knows the answers, are depressed to find that, by my own admission, I don't. What I do know for certain is that what is regarded as success in a rational materialistic society only impresses superficial minds. It amounts to nothing and will not help us rout the destructive forces threatening us today. What may be our salvation is the discovery of the identity hidden deep in any one of us, and which may be found in even the most desperate individual, if he cares to search the spiritual womb which contains the embryo of what can be one's personal contribution to truth and life.

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