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Home  »  Respectfully Quoted  »  Henri de Bornier (1825–1901)

Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.

 
NUMBER: 343
AUTHOR: Henri de Bornier (1825–1901)
QUOTATION: Every man has two countries, his own and France.
(Tout homme a deux pays, le sien et puis la France!)
ATTRIBUTION: HENRI DE BORNIER, La Fille de Roland, act III, scene ii, p. 65 (1909).

Jules Michelet, Le Peuple, chapter 6, says “an American philosopher” said “for every man the first country is his native land and the second is France.” A translation, however, names Tom Paine as the philosopher.—Michelet, The People, trans. John P. McKay, chapter 6, p. 191 (1973). Unverified.

Similarly, Thomas Jefferson in his “Autobiography” said: “Ask the travelled inhabitant of any nation, in what country on earth would you rather live?—Certainly, in my own, where all my friends, my relations, and the earliest and sweetest affections and recollections of my life. Which would be your second choice? France.”—The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Paul L. Ford, vol. 1, p. 149 (1892).
SUBJECTS: Country